CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

As the gas drilling boom continued in Pennsylvania, it was still largely on hold in New York as the state Department of Environmental Conservation updated its regulations on high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” the controversial technique used to tap the lucrative Marcellus Shale.

But even with the moratorium, the gas boom managed to generate plenty of controversy in the Southern Tier in 2010.

In late winter, a proposal surfaced by Chesapeake Energy to build a facility in the Town of Pulteney, near Keuka Lake, to inject wastewater from gas well drilling deep underground. The plan generated intense resistance and Chesapeake eventually pulled its permit application.

After a long, controversy-filled review process that included a state Supreme Court challenge, Schlumberger’s $30 million campus in The Center at Horseheads – built to provide fracking services to wells being drilled within a 300-mile radius – finally broke ground this spring. A handful of other gas-related companies soon followed Schlumberger into the industrial park.

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