ABOUT NATURAL GAS DRILLING IN NEW YORK STATE

New York’s Southern Tier and Catskills are home to small towns, family farms, scenic rivers and irreplaceable open spaces, as well as the drinking water supplies of millions of New Yorkers. But beneath this natural beauty lie trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, trapped within the rock of the Marcellus and Utica shale formations.

The natural gas industry is eager to drill in New York State. Drilling companies propose to use a dangerous technique, called hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” to extract the natural gas. Fracking endangers our drinking water and will  turn parts of New York State into industrial drilling zones.

Each time a new well is drilled, 2 to 8 million gallons of water laced with toxic chemicals are required. With thousands of wells proposed, that means billions of gallons of water will be used every year!  Withdrawing this volume of water from local waterways and aquifers could devastate sensitive habitats and drinking water.

Recent events in Pennsylvania show how dangerous fracking can be when it’s not properly regulated. Click here to learn more, and here. 

What’s happening now?

Last fall, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation released a draft plan to guide natural gas drilling. Our thorough review of the agency’s DRAFT Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement has revealed that the State’s approach could allow our air, lakes and streams, and our drinking water, to be polluted——just as natural gas drilling already has devastated the environment in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming.

The DRAFT was open for public comment from New Yorkers like you. The Governor's office alone estimated that it had received more than 14,000 letters about the DRAFT. The comment period closed on December 31^st.  Environmental Advocates of New York reviewed the DRAFT. We’ve testified before the State Senate, the Assembly and the Department of Environmental Conservation about the need for a better approach to regulating this booming industry.

Click here to read comments on the DRAFT from Environmental Advocates of New York, Atlantic States Legal Foundation and the National Wildlife Federation.

Click here to read our fact sheet on Natural Gas Drilling in New York.

Here are some of the problems we’ve identified:

►  New York does not have a comprehensive approach for regulating the withdrawal of the huge amounts of water required for fracking. For each well, 2 to 8 million gallons of water are used to extract natural gas. New York lacks a statewide policy to limit surface and ground water withdrawals in order to protect sensitive habitats and drinking water. 

What is Environmental Advocates doing? We’re calling for a statewide program to regulate all water withdrawals and ensure that sensitive habitats and drinking water supplies are protected and don’t come up dry.

►  New York’s policy will not adequately protect our wells and waterways from the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. While the Department of Environmental Conservation requires companies to list the chemicals in their fracking fluids, simply knowing what’s in the chemical cocktail won’t protect New York’s waters.

What is Environmental Advocates doing? We’re calling on the agency to develop a list of environmentally benign chemicals approved for use in fracking and a ‘hit list’ of forbidden chemicals. 

►  New York State does not have enough staff to enforce environmental policy. Thousands of wells will be drilled and it will take a lot of manpower to oversee this growing industry. Instead of adding much-needed staff, Governor Paterson is cutting 500 environmental scientists, engineers and regulators. New York cannot oversee natural gas drilling at thousands of sites with the 17 staff currently in its Division of Mineral Resources. 

What’s Environmental Advocates doing? We’re pushing the Governor to give the Department of Environmental Conservation sufficient resources to oversee a booming natural gas industry. Policies are meaningless if nobody is available to enforce them.     

►  The DRAFT does not provide a big picture analysis of how natural gas exploration and fracking will impact our state. The draft assesses risk on a well-by-well basis, without considering the fact that up to 2,000 wells may be drilled each year. The cumulative impact of such activity is enormous. The State’s failure to assess cumulative impacts is irresponsible and could devastate our air, water and quality of life. 

What’s Environmental Advocates doing?  We’re calling on New York State to conduct a cumulative impact analysis that shows the true risks of widespread gas drilling.

Our current laws and regulations are inadequate to protect our communities and water resources from hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.  If these laws and regulations are not updated and properly enforced, we risk the devastation that has already occurred in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Wyoming where this type of drilling already happens. Environmental Advocates of New York is working with a broad coalition of national, state, and regional groups to get comprehensive, protective legislation passed this legislative session. 

What is Environmental Advocates’ strategy to protect New York from drilling dangers?

Here’s what we’ll be doing in the days and weeks ahead:

• Distributing plain-language summaries of the technical documents now open for comment, as well as legislation and other policies developed in response to our advocacy on this issue;
• Working with a broad coalition of groups to make sure they are informed and up-to-date on events in Albany;
• Taking reporters and VIP’s on guided tours of fracking sites in Pennsylvania, to show first-hand the disruption and risks of industrial drilling;
• Keeping members like you informed and giving you the opportunity to make your voice heard. In the last month alone, more than 3,000 of our members and supporters contacted New York leaders and agencies to demand improved protections from natural gas drilling.

What can YOU do to get more involved & how can Environmental Advocates help?

• Call your state legislators. Let them know that you are very concerned about natural gas drilling in the state and that your concerns extend well beyond concerns for New York City’s drinking water supply. Tell them that we need stronger laws and regulations to protect our communities and our drinking water from the threats of industrial hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. You can find your legislators’ contact information through the Assembly and Senate websites.
• Meet with your legislators in their district offices, or even visit them in Albany to deliver the same message.  Environmental Advocates staff can provide you with talking points, materials, and information on the legislation.
•  Host an event in your home. If you’d like to host an event, Environmental Advocates would be happy to help.  We could provide an expert staffer from Environmental Advocates, or if we’re not available we can help put you in touch with one of our coalition partners. Contact Marcy Stengel at 518-462-5526 for more information.

To find out how you can make a difference on this issue, contact Katherine Nadeau at Environmental Advocates of New York: knadeau@eany.org.