My little Sullivan County town seems to have caught the petrophilia virus from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The symptoms are acute myopia and – a new word to me – paralogia, a type of reasoning disorder.
While the rest of us have been riveted to the point of distraction by photos and stories on the latest legacies of fossil fuel mania in West Virginia and the Gulf of Mexico, these two paladins have been preparing the way for New Yorkers to experience these legacies first-hand. What a pair. Both appear to think they can play the role of David and tame the savage Goliath by being a welcoming host. History says otherwise.
The step my town is taking is to amend its zoning to provide that gas drilling will be a permitted use, subject to “special use” restrictions, throughout districts which comprise 90% of the town’s land area. I’m not sure yet why the town thinks this is a good idea and I’m going to assume for now that its intentions are defensive. But I am quite sure that substantially all those special use restrictions, setbacks being only one example, will fall within the ambit of the DEC’s regulatory scheme which, legal authorities agree, will therefore place them off-limits to local enforcement.
As everybody knows, the DEC, with its shrunken corps of inspectors, is not set up for much enforcement itself. So what is likely to happen? Well, a driller who has been invited in, subject to special use, may wish to knock out those special use restrictions by tying up the town in litigation – the towns’ greatest of all fears -- and with a pretty good cause of action, at that, meanwhile banking on inaction by the DEC. The invitation and the fray will logically attract more drillers, who, like water, have repeatedly displayed a tendency to run toward the places of least resistance, and the operations of those drillers will be similarly ungoverned. This is the way they behave; I’m not making this up. Our town, as Keith Lambert, the mayor of Rifle, Colorado predicted, will be overrun. He knows. His almost was. Dish, Texas, really was. Its mayor, Calvin Tillman, came to New York communities at his own expense to warn about the realities of drilling.
It is still hard for me to believe that a ‘smart’ state like New York can’t take its cues from the messes that cutting-edge fossil fuel extraction has caused elsewhere; that it fails to take note of the dawning awareness on the part of other governments and agencies that the trade-offs are unreasonable; that it cares so little about its beautiful environment and its rural communities to leave them scrambling to protect themselves by whatever misguided means. Good intentions or not, my rural town, which sits on the upper Delaware River, could end up an industrial zone and a major polluter of the river for millions of downstream users.
I will be joining the local dialog and doing what I can to see that common sense prevails here. But it may take millions of protesters to see to it that common sense prevails in Albany.
Showing posts with label Delaware River Protection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Delaware River Protection. Show all posts
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
And How About the Delaware, NY Times?
Below is an editorial from yesterday's New York Times. Below that is my letter in response.
*********************************************************************************
Hands Off the Watershed
Published: January 1, 2010
New York City has now officially registered its ringing opposition to a proposal by state regulators to allow natural gas drilling in the watershed that supplies drinking water to more than eight million city residents. Albany should amend its proposal and put the area permanently off limits to drilling.
The watershed covers roughly a million acres of farms, forests, lakes and streams northwest of the city. Its subsurface rock formations contain rich deposits of natural gas and are part of a much larger geologic formation known as the Marcellus Shale, which runs northward from West Virginia into New York’s southern tier.
The state wants to exploit this resource because it could add to the region’s energy supplies and give a much-needed lift to the upstate economy. But the watershed contains just one-tenth of the state’s known gas deposits. That means New York would not be giving up all that much if it does the right thing and bans drilling there.
Last fall, Albany issued a thick set of rules intended to regulate drilling. Environmentalists and city officials immediately cautioned that while carefully regulated drilling could proceed in other parts of the state with minimal environmental damage, it would be foolish to risk the city’s water supply.
A new report commissioned by the city, and written by scientists and engineers who specialize in gas drilling, confirms those fears. It says that the drilling process — which is done by injecting water and chemicals at high pressure into the rock formations — “creates a substantial risk of chemical contamination and infrastructure damage.” That, in turn, could force the city to build a $10 billion filtration plant and negate the sizable investment it has already made to keep the watershed clean. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is to be commended for commissioning the report and demanding a quick turnaround.
The good news is that the Chesapeake Energy Corporation, believed to be the largest leaseholder in the watershed, has already announced that it will not drill there. But its decision is voluntary and not binding on other companies. The only sure way to guarantee the protection of the watershed, and New York City’s supply of drinking water, is to quarantine the area.
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To the Editor:
Your editorial ( HANDS OFF OUR WATERSHED Jan. 2) states a strong position on protecting New York City's water supply from possible contamination by natural gas drilling and hydrofracture. But there is another water resource in New York State that deserves special protection. The Delaware River supplies water to local communities before it becomes a major source of drinking water for Philadelphia and other points south. Numerous leases have been signed by landholders on both banks of a river that has been designated Wild and Scenic by the federal government. The runoff from these potential drilling sites would not only pollute the Delaware's drinking water, it would ruin one of the State's most beautiful recreational venues. Fishing, boating and swimming would become dangerous activities and the visually stunning vistas of this peaceful waterway would be compromised by chemical effluent. Grace van Hulsteyn ,Cochection, NY.
*********************************************************************************
Hands Off the Watershed
Published: January 1, 2010
New York City has now officially registered its ringing opposition to a proposal by state regulators to allow natural gas drilling in the watershed that supplies drinking water to more than eight million city residents. Albany should amend its proposal and put the area permanently off limits to drilling.
The watershed covers roughly a million acres of farms, forests, lakes and streams northwest of the city. Its subsurface rock formations contain rich deposits of natural gas and are part of a much larger geologic formation known as the Marcellus Shale, which runs northward from West Virginia into New York’s southern tier.
The state wants to exploit this resource because it could add to the region’s energy supplies and give a much-needed lift to the upstate economy. But the watershed contains just one-tenth of the state’s known gas deposits. That means New York would not be giving up all that much if it does the right thing and bans drilling there.
Last fall, Albany issued a thick set of rules intended to regulate drilling. Environmentalists and city officials immediately cautioned that while carefully regulated drilling could proceed in other parts of the state with minimal environmental damage, it would be foolish to risk the city’s water supply.
A new report commissioned by the city, and written by scientists and engineers who specialize in gas drilling, confirms those fears. It says that the drilling process — which is done by injecting water and chemicals at high pressure into the rock formations — “creates a substantial risk of chemical contamination and infrastructure damage.” That, in turn, could force the city to build a $10 billion filtration plant and negate the sizable investment it has already made to keep the watershed clean. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is to be commended for commissioning the report and demanding a quick turnaround.
The good news is that the Chesapeake Energy Corporation, believed to be the largest leaseholder in the watershed, has already announced that it will not drill there. But its decision is voluntary and not binding on other companies. The only sure way to guarantee the protection of the watershed, and New York City’s supply of drinking water, is to quarantine the area.
************************************************************************************
To the Editor:
Your editorial ( HANDS OFF OUR WATERSHED Jan. 2) states a strong position on protecting New York City's water supply from possible contamination by natural gas drilling and hydrofracture. But there is another water resource in New York State that deserves special protection. The Delaware River supplies water to local communities before it becomes a major source of drinking water for Philadelphia and other points south. Numerous leases have been signed by landholders on both banks of a river that has been designated Wild and Scenic by the federal government. The runoff from these potential drilling sites would not only pollute the Delaware's drinking water, it would ruin one of the State's most beautiful recreational venues. Fishing, boating and swimming would become dangerous activities and the visually stunning vistas of this peaceful waterway would be compromised by chemical effluent. Grace van Hulsteyn ,Cochection, NY.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Letter To Chesapeake Energy Re: Marcellus Shale
Welcome to Gracenomics. I'm opening with the theme of drilling in New York's and Pennsylvania's gas-rich Marcellus Shale. Recently, one of the major industry players, Chesapeake Energy, announced that it would not be doing any development within the New York City watershed, although it is the sole gas leaseholder of properties there. The announcement was taken by many city dwellers as an admission that hydrofracking poses a danger to drinking water. Today, Mayor Bloomberg joined the rising throngs opposing its use. I give grudging credit to Chesapeake for helping to bring that about.
Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia and other mayors should be urged to oppose fracking wherever their communities' water supply may be at risk. Here's what I wrote to Chesapeake's CEO last week:
"December 11, 2009
Mr. Aubrey McClendon
Chesapeake Energy Corporation
Post Office Box 18496
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73154-0496
Dear Mr. McClendon:
As a part-time resident of New York City, I was very happy to learn that Chesapeake Energy voluntarily decided not to drill for natural gas in the City’s watershed, owing to concerns about water contamination. As you know, you are several steps greener than our Department of Environmental Conservation in that regard.
I am also a part-time resident of Sullivan County, New York, below the watershed but less than two miles, as the bird flies and the water flows, from the Upper Delaware River. Next door to me is a hunting parcel that has been leased to Chesapeake-Appalachia LLC, which I take to be a wholly-owned Chesapeake Energy subsidiary. Most of the groundwater on the particular parcel flows across and under mine, as it does those of my lateral neighbors, and, during seasonal flooding, it gushes without any filtration into the Delaware. I have personally tracked it doing so. I surmise that the same can be said of the water on and under virtually any property in this hilly, wet region that is within a few short miles of the river on either side.
I am concerned, of course, for my own water well in the event that natural gas drilling takes place next to me. But the river itself provides drinking water, I’m told, to some 18 million people, even more than the New York watershed does. Philadelphia is just now waking up to the possibility of contamination from gas drilling. You would win millions more fans if you would make the same pledge to them that you made to Gotham.
The Delaware, of course, is vital not only as a drinking water source but as a federally designated Wild and Scenic River and a recreational resource. I would like to propose a protection zone from drilling of three to five miles from the river’s edge, and hope you would find such a gesture appealing and worthwhile. Wishing you success in your commercial ventures and your pro-environment initiatives, I am
Sincerely yours,"
Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia and other mayors should be urged to oppose fracking wherever their communities' water supply may be at risk. Here's what I wrote to Chesapeake's CEO last week:
"December 11, 2009
Mr. Aubrey McClendon
Chesapeake Energy Corporation
Post Office Box 18496
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73154-0496
Dear Mr. McClendon:
As a part-time resident of New York City, I was very happy to learn that Chesapeake Energy voluntarily decided not to drill for natural gas in the City’s watershed, owing to concerns about water contamination. As you know, you are several steps greener than our Department of Environmental Conservation in that regard.
I am also a part-time resident of Sullivan County, New York, below the watershed but less than two miles, as the bird flies and the water flows, from the Upper Delaware River. Next door to me is a hunting parcel that has been leased to Chesapeake-Appalachia LLC, which I take to be a wholly-owned Chesapeake Energy subsidiary. Most of the groundwater on the particular parcel flows across and under mine, as it does those of my lateral neighbors, and, during seasonal flooding, it gushes without any filtration into the Delaware. I have personally tracked it doing so. I surmise that the same can be said of the water on and under virtually any property in this hilly, wet region that is within a few short miles of the river on either side.
I am concerned, of course, for my own water well in the event that natural gas drilling takes place next to me. But the river itself provides drinking water, I’m told, to some 18 million people, even more than the New York watershed does. Philadelphia is just now waking up to the possibility of contamination from gas drilling. You would win millions more fans if you would make the same pledge to them that you made to Gotham.
The Delaware, of course, is vital not only as a drinking water source but as a federally designated Wild and Scenic River and a recreational resource. I would like to propose a protection zone from drilling of three to five miles from the river’s edge, and hope you would find such a gesture appealing and worthwhile. Wishing you success in your commercial ventures and your pro-environment initiatives, I am
Sincerely yours,"
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