CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

LaBella Associates' acquisition of a Pennsylvania engineering firm could help the Rochester company get into environmental issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing, LaBella President Robert Healy said Friday.

The "hydrofracking" technique involves the blasting of water, sand and chemicals into underground rock fissures in order to release natural gas. The process is on hold in New York while the state Department of Environmental Conservation studies it, with critics alleging that hydrofracking could result in chemicals getting into water supplies.
Hydrofracking has been used in Pennsylvania in natural gas recovery from the vast Marcellus Shale formation, which also sits beneath much of New York's Southern Tier.
"We think there will be an opportunity in New York to be involved in this and to help answer some of the environmental questions with respect to wastewater and disposal," Healy said.

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