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From the Hancock Herald:
NYC Demands Natural Gas Drilling Be Forbidden In Reservoir Buffer Zone
New York City officials, worried about the quality of the drinking water they get from Delaware and other upstate counties, are insising that the DEC place a ban on natural gas drilling near upstate reservoirs, according to an article written by Abrahm Lustgarten in ProPub-lica, an on line paper.
They’re asking that the state Department of Environmental Protection establish a one-mile protective perimeter around each of the city’s six major Catskill reservoirs and connecting infrastructure - half a million acres - and make it off-limits to drilling. They also want to take regulatory control over the matter away from Albany, and handle it themselves.
DEP commissioner Emily Lloyd is reported to have said she is not satisfied with the state’s assurances that the environment would be protected from drilling in the Marcellus Shale, a layer of rock roughly 7,000 feet to 9,000 feet below much of the area, including south central New York state and the 2000 square-mile watershed. New York is one of just four major cities in the United States with a special permit that allows it to avoids filtering its drinking water. That water comes from a network of reservoirs and rivers in five upstate counties, including Delaware County, most of which is in the City’s watershed. The Town of Hancock is the only Town in the County that does not lie within the watershed.
If the permit is revoked, the city would have to build a treatment facility that could cost nearly $10 billion, said Walter Mugden, a senior official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
DEP Officials have been working to avoid constructing a plant for decades. A pitched legal battle fought by Delaware County brought aan uneasy truce of sorts in the late 1990s, when the City and Coalition of Watershed Towns signed a memorandum of agreement governing the area. Many residents have come to regret that agreement over the years, and County officials have repeatedly complained to the City about its regulations.
Lloyd has asked that a state, city and federal working group be formed to reassess regulations in the watershed and to recognize it “as a unique resource requiring special protection.” She wants the city to be given a say in the state’s permit review process, and for the public to be allowed to comment on each and every well’s permit, something that is not guaranteed now.The Department of Environmental Conservation, which oversees exploration, has estimated that Marcellus development could add as much as a billion dollars a year to the state’s economy.
The City’s worries revolve around hydrofracking, a process that shoots millions of gallons of water and drilling chemicals at explosive pressure deep underground to break up the rock, and allows the trapped natural gas to escape. The process involves chemicals, which are sometimes toxic, and protected as a trade secret, making it difficult to assess how wastewater can be safely treated and discharged. Drilling in other states has reportedly resulted in spills that have affected drinking water.
City officials are reportedly angry that they were not brought into the gas drilling conversation until mid-July, even though state officials had been working on the issue for months. Landmen representing gas companies have been signing up local property owners in nearby Pennsylvania for almost a year, and became very active in New York State a few months ago. The City sent a letter to state officials raising concerns about a new well-spacing bill that was before the governor, and Lloyd requested special consideration for the watershed a few days later.
According to the ProPublica article, James Gennaro, a New York City councilman and chairman of the city’s committee for Environmental Protection, wants a complete moratorium on drilling anywhere in the Catskill watershed, which makes up the heart of the Marcellus deposit. He said he will ask the EPA to conduct its own study of the threat drilling poses to the city’s drinking water.
“I just don’t think it’s a proper activity for an area which is the city of New York’s most precious capital asset,” he said, apparently referring to the several sovereign upstate counties, including Delaware.
Gas companies are leasing land for up to $3,000 an acre in parts of the state and nearby Pennsylvania, areas with stagnant economies.
Eric Goldstein of the Natural Resources Defense Council said New York City may have the law on its side, “because public health code gives it the power to set and enforce any pollution controls in the watershed.” He predicted that “unilateral action would be a last resort,” and that the City would choose a path that “leaves the door ajar for upstate economic growth while still saving the city’s water.”
County officials have fought the City for years over what they see as its regulatory stranglehold over the local economy, as the City tries to keep development in the watershed at a minimum, mainly by strict septic rules that virtually eliminate building in some areas, and by using secret purchases of easements from local landowners to put some land permanently off limits to developers.
The City originally acquired the land for the Pepacton and Cannosnville reservoirs by using eminent domain, displacing thousands of residents and eliminating entire settlements. The procedure was so traumatic that eminent domain has never been used by Delaware County officials.
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All contents herein Copyright 2008
NYC Demands Natural Gas Drilling Be Forbidden In Reservoir Buffer Zone
New York City officials, worried about the quality of the drinking water they get from Delaware and other upstate counties, are insising that the DEC place a ban on natural gas drilling near upstate reservoirs, according to an article written by Abrahm Lustgarten in ProPub-lica, an on line paper.
They’re asking that the state Department of Environmental Protection establish a one-mile protective perimeter around each of the city’s six major Catskill reservoirs and connecting infrastructure - half a million acres - and make it off-limits to drilling. They also want to take regulatory control over the matter away from Albany, and handle it themselves.
DEP commissioner Emily Lloyd is reported to have said she is not satisfied with the state’s assurances that the environment would be protected from drilling in the Marcellus Shale, a layer of rock roughly 7,000 feet to 9,000 feet below much of the area, including south central New York state and the 2000 square-mile watershed. New York is one of just four major cities in the United States with a special permit that allows it to avoids filtering its drinking water. That water comes from a network of reservoirs and rivers in five upstate counties, including Delaware County, most of which is in the City’s watershed. The Town of Hancock is the only Town in the County that does not lie within the watershed.
If the permit is revoked, the city would have to build a treatment facility that could cost nearly $10 billion, said Walter Mugden, a senior official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
DEP Officials have been working to avoid constructing a plant for decades. A pitched legal battle fought by Delaware County brought aan uneasy truce of sorts in the late 1990s, when the City and Coalition of Watershed Towns signed a memorandum of agreement governing the area. Many residents have come to regret that agreement over the years, and County officials have repeatedly complained to the City about its regulations.
Lloyd has asked that a state, city and federal working group be formed to reassess regulations in the watershed and to recognize it “as a unique resource requiring special protection.” She wants the city to be given a say in the state’s permit review process, and for the public to be allowed to comment on each and every well’s permit, something that is not guaranteed now.The Department of Environmental Conservation, which oversees exploration, has estimated that Marcellus development could add as much as a billion dollars a year to the state’s economy.
The City’s worries revolve around hydrofracking, a process that shoots millions of gallons of water and drilling chemicals at explosive pressure deep underground to break up the rock, and allows the trapped natural gas to escape. The process involves chemicals, which are sometimes toxic, and protected as a trade secret, making it difficult to assess how wastewater can be safely treated and discharged. Drilling in other states has reportedly resulted in spills that have affected drinking water.
City officials are reportedly angry that they were not brought into the gas drilling conversation until mid-July, even though state officials had been working on the issue for months. Landmen representing gas companies have been signing up local property owners in nearby Pennsylvania for almost a year, and became very active in New York State a few months ago. The City sent a letter to state officials raising concerns about a new well-spacing bill that was before the governor, and Lloyd requested special consideration for the watershed a few days later.
According to the ProPublica article, James Gennaro, a New York City councilman and chairman of the city’s committee for Environmental Protection, wants a complete moratorium on drilling anywhere in the Catskill watershed, which makes up the heart of the Marcellus deposit. He said he will ask the EPA to conduct its own study of the threat drilling poses to the city’s drinking water.
“I just don’t think it’s a proper activity for an area which is the city of New York’s most precious capital asset,” he said, apparently referring to the several sovereign upstate counties, including Delaware.
Gas companies are leasing land for up to $3,000 an acre in parts of the state and nearby Pennsylvania, areas with stagnant economies.
Eric Goldstein of the Natural Resources Defense Council said New York City may have the law on its side, “because public health code gives it the power to set and enforce any pollution controls in the watershed.” He predicted that “unilateral action would be a last resort,” and that the City would choose a path that “leaves the door ajar for upstate economic growth while still saving the city’s water.”
County officials have fought the City for years over what they see as its regulatory stranglehold over the local economy, as the City tries to keep development in the watershed at a minimum, mainly by strict septic rules that virtually eliminate building in some areas, and by using secret purchases of easements from local landowners to put some land permanently off limits to developers.
The City originally acquired the land for the Pepacton and Cannosnville reservoirs by using eminent domain, displacing thousands of residents and eliminating entire settlements. The procedure was so traumatic that eminent domain has never been used by Delaware County officials.
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All contents herein Copyright 2008
