CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

For natural gas companies and eager landowners hoping to tap into New York's vast underground reserves, 2008 was looking like "the year."

The same could have been said every year since.

It's been 3 1/2 years since New York began assessing the risks and benefits of using high-volume hydraulic fracturing to extract gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations that lie deep beneath the state's surface.

And while the state has taken clear steps toward allowing the much-debated technique, the highly polarizing decision on whether to give the green light looks like it will drag on well into 2012 -- if not longer.

"It's going to be the year we decide if democracy exists in Albany," Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said about next year. "We have seen a record outpouring of public engagement on this issue, unlike anything I have seen in my 26 years doing this work."

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As many other towns across Livingston County, such as North Dansville, have already done, Springwater Town Council voted last week to draft a moratorium that could put the brakes on permits for hydraulic fracturing in the town.

High volume, horizontal hydrofracking is a process of natural gas extraction that involves drilling multiple wells from a single well site and uses millions of gallons of water laced with thousands of gallons of chemicals. Many citizen action groups, including Frack Free Genesee in Livingston and Ontario counties, oppose allowing the practice in New York.

Springwater Resident Herb Tinney spoke Monday night about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing and criticized the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s ability to oversee the process. He urged the town council to begin the process toward a one-year moratorium.

“The DEC has now publicly states it cannot regulate the hydraulic fracturing process,” Herb Tinney said. “The more information we are getting, the more we are realizing we do not yet have.”

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The state Public Service Commission gave the go-ahead Thursday to the sale of a controlling interest in three upstate New York nuclear power plants, including the Ginna facility in Wayne County.

Saying the sale would have no significant impact on ratepayers, the commission ended an eight-month review of the purchase by Exelon Corp. of Constellation Energy Group's 50.1 percent interest in the Ginna plant and the Nine Mile Point I and II reactors in Oswego County.

The minority ownership share would continue to be held by Electricite de France, one of the world's largest utilities.

Transfer of Constellation's interest in the three upstate power plants, which can generate about 2,300 megawatts of electricity, is part of a $7.9 billion merger of the Baltimore-based company with Exelon, of Chicago.

The PSC said the combined companies, which will operate under the Exelon name, will have about 5 percent of the electricity generation market in New York state. Exelon will have only a "small" ability to influence the market, the commission concluded.

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Some Steuben County residents had put a lot of hope into hydrofracking making big money for them, and numerous permits have been filed for Marcellus Shale drilling in the Steuben County towns of Lindley and Tuscarora. Permits have also been filed in Bath, Cameron, Jasper and other towns too.

However, according to one top local official, the price of gas is affecting the chances for a lot of hydrofracking in Steuben County. Hornell Industrial Development Agency Director Jim Griffin says he's been told by sources that the price of gas being at $2.00, that's affecting the chances drilling in Steuben County. "It's not economically feasible to drill and recover marcellus shale gas at $2.00," Griffin has been told.

Griffin also informs WLEA/WCKR News that it could be two to 10 years before hydrofracking becomes the money maker many hoped it would be in Steuben County.

A new law for New York authorizes establishment of benefit corporations with a dual focus on social responsibility and profits.

While officers and directors of existing companies are required to pursue profits on behalf of shareholders, sponsors say the new model envisions other fiduciary responsibilities meant to have a positive material impact on society and the environment.

It is meant in part to address concerns among some entrepreneurs who need to raise growth capital but fear losing the social or environmental missions of their business.

The bill will go into effect in 60 days. It unanimously passed the Senate and Assembly and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed it.

Supporters say New York is the seventh state to enact the legislation, following Maryland, Vermont, New Jersey, Virginia, Hawaii and California.

Questions are surfacing about the $7.1 million Bath Electric Gas and Water Systems substation now under construction on the residential Fairview Drive in the village of Bath.

A number of residents on Fairview recently attended a village board meeting, to complain about the size of the project, possible noise and lighting.

But many of those issues apparently could have been addressed when the project was first discussed more than four years ago.

According to information received under the Freedom of Information Law, a report by the BEGWS Commission indicated in March 2007 the project would:

•Be located over a primary, principal or sole source aquifer.
•Be near a building, site, or district listed on the state or national registers of historic places.
•Be located in a 100-year flood plain.
•Would produce operating noises exceeding local ambient (normal) noises.
•Would impact aesthetic resources.

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URBAN WATER SUPPLIES The rules rightly forbid drilling inside the two major unfiltered watersheds serving New York City and Syracuse. But New York City officials warn that hydrofracturing outside the watershed boundaries could set off tiny subsurface shocks, cracking the aging tunnels that bring water to the city and allowing water to leak out of the tunnels and gas to seep in. The proposed rules would limit drilling within 1,000 feet of the tunnels; some experts believe that a setback of several miles will be necessary.

HAZARDOUS WASTEWATER A federal panel found recently that the biggest risks arise from “flowback” — the huge volumes of water laced with naturally occurring toxic pollutants that drilling brings to the surface along with the natural gas. In Western states, these and other wastes are sometimes safely stored underground, but this may not be possible in New York’s geological formations. Sewage treatment plants are not equipped to handle these wastes, open pits are out of the question, and surface storage — even in airtight steel tanks — may be no more than a temporary solution. State officials concede that they don’t have an answer, but until they do, not a single well should be drilled.

OVERSIGHT When fully operational in a decade, the industry could be drilling hundreds of wells a year. Two questions arise, neither addressed in the proposed regulations: First, who’s going to police all this activity? The minerals division of the Department of Environmental Conservation has fewer than 20 employees. Joe Martens, the commissioner, says he wants 140 more, but even that doesn’t sound like enough. Second, who’s going to pay for the regulatory machinery? The obvious answer is the industry, which is growing rapidly and can easily afford permit fees or a volumetric tax on the gas or both. The state needs to ensure an adequate financing stream dedicated to monitoring and enforcement.

There are other issues that need meticulous examination. One is the danger of underground leaks of chemicals or methane gas. The Environmental Protection Agency reported on Thursday that wells in a remote valley in Wyoming may have been contaminated this way. Another issue is above-ground gas leaks that would add to global warming (methane is a potent greenhouse gas). Still another is what industry should be required to do to restore the landscape to its original condition after wells go dry.

There is no reason to hurry the rule-making or the drilling. The only way New York can safely move ahead with hydrofracturing is by designing and executing a tough regulatory program that could also serve as a model for the rest of the nation.

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A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report linking hydraulic fracturing for natural gas to groundwater contamination for the first time puts pressure on the agency to move sooner on efforts to regulate drilling.

The Dec. 8 report that chemicals consistent with those used in drilling were found in groundwater samples in west-central Wyoming may be used by the agency to accelerate action, according to Ken von Schaumburg, a Washington-based attorney and former EPA deputy general counsel. The EPA is weighing three rules on fracturing, or fracking, the first of which is planned for April.

Environmental groups say fracking, in which millions of gallons of chemically treated water are forced underground to shatter rock and let gas flow, is a threat to drinking-water supplies. The EPA’s draft report on groundwater contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northeast of Salt Lake City, is the first to blame the drilling technique for spoiling water.

“They’re trying to move the rule-making along,” von Schaumburg, who served in President George W. Bush’s administration, said in an interview. “They’re getting a lot of pushback from industry. This may be a tool for EPA to speed up the process.”

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the first time has implicated hydraulic fracturing — a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells — for causing groundwater pollution.

The EPA’s findings add fuel to a growing movement to protect watersheds and communities statewide.

This past week, the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Council became one of the latest groups to plead formally for protection from the gas drilling procedure, also called hydrofracking, which involves blasting chemical-laced water into the ground. The council consists of leaders representing the 14 municipalities dependent on Canandaigua Lake for their drinking water.

“Based on the current technology of high-volume hydraulic fracturing and the proposed regulations, we believe that this method of drilling for natural gas poses unacceptable risks to the lifeblood of this region,” the council stated in a detailed letter to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens.

Ontario County Watershed Manager Kevin Olvany said the letter signed by the council urges the DEC to look to the EPA’s national comprehensive study on the impact of fracking. The study is due to be completed by the end of 2012.

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Chemung County is joining its counterparts throughout New York in asking the state for help to pay for increased staffing to handle anticipated demand to test drinking water due to gas well development in the Marcellus Shale.

The Chemung County Board of Health this week approved a resolution asking Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature to provide funding to cover completely the cost of additional staffing and resources to investigate complaints about drinking water, should hydraulic fracturing be approved by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Local health departments have been specifically identified in the DEC's revised draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement as being responsible for responding to all initial complaints about water related to drilling, said Tom Kump, director of environmental health for the Chemung County Health Department.

"That's going to put a huge burden on us, and we're looking at that as an unfunded mandate," Kump said. "We'll do the best we can, but at some point we'll just get saturated where we just can't respond."

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