OUTDOOR Forum at canaaninstitute.org

[Mike_L]

Is shale gas the answer to US energy independence? Read this article and think again: "And if you divide that by three, which is the component that is shale gas, you get about 150 Tcf and that’s about 7 year’s worth of US supply from shale. I happen to think that that’s a pretty darn realistic estimate. And remember that that’s a resource number, not a reserve number; it has nothing to do with commercial extractability. So the gross resource from shale is probably about 7 years worth of supply." http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2011/07/july-8-2011-get-ready-for-north.html
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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

Town of Ithaca bans gas drilling
6:40 PM, Jul. 12, 2011 |
Written by
Shawnee A. Barnes

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20110712/NEWS01/107120348/Town-Ithaca-bans-gas-drilling?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

ITHACA -- The Ithaca Town Board has amended the town's zoning law to become the first municipality in Tompkins County to ban gas drilling within its borders.

The town had not previously permitted gas or oil drilling, but the amendment clarifies the language in the zoning bylaw to make it clear that it will not be allowed in the future, said Town Supervisor Herb Engman.

About two dozen residents attended the public hearing on Monday, many of them thanking the board for their efforts.

Residents voiced their concerns over the potential impacts of gas drilling though hydraulic fracturing on the community's water supplies, tourism, traffic and health. Residents also spoke about the need to unify with neighboring towns on the issue.

"Unless all the towns have something similar, we out on the edges are not protected," said Gretchen Herman, a Town of Ithaca resident who lives near the Enfield town line.

So far, Dryden, Ulysses, Danby and Caroline have also discussed restricting future gas drilling in their borders.

Claire Forest of Buttermilk Farm on West King Road said she supports the ban and implored the board to do everything they can to keep gas drilling out. She said she's been contacted by gas companies to lease her land but has refused to sign.

"I'm one of the only farmers in Ithaca who has not leased their land," she said. "The reason I haven't is that I've looked into the science of this, read reports and learned from the farmers in Pennsylvania who thought it would be a good deal for them and now their farms are unfarmable, their wells undrinkable and their communities have all these people in them who have no stake in the community," she said.

After the hearing, Engman said his town's future doesn't include gas exploration.

"I think the future of the town of Ithaca relies on our educational institutions like Cornell and Ithaca College, on tourism and agriculture. Gas drilling would harm it greatly, and it would take us decades and decades to recover from it," he said.

Engman added that he believed the town has a solid case if gas companies challenge the ban in court.

"We think our ban will hold up in court because we are not attempting to regulate the industry. We are saying it doesn't mesh with the future well-being of the town," he said.

Elsewhere in Tompkins

The towns of Dryden and Ulysses are next in line for setting restrictions gas drilling and exploration within their borders, and town action also is being considered in Caroline and Danby. Here's the lineup:

» At a crowded June 15 meeting Dryden's town board unanimously voted to advance a law that would effectively ban gas drilling within its borders to a public hearing and final vote on July 20 at 7 p.m. at Dryden Town Hall. If the law passes, it will become an amendment to the current zoning law, not the proposed new zoning.

» More than 150 Ulysses residents pledged support for the town's proposed ban on natural gas extraction at a public hearing June 29 at the Trumansburg Elementary School. The proposed amendment to the town's zoning law will undergo a county review and a statement of environmental quality review before going to the full board at 7 p.m. Aug 10.

» The Danby town board asked the planning board in a resolution from June 6 to draft a law that would ban the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing.

» In Caroline, the town board scheduled to take up discussion Tuesday night of a resolution to prevent the town from banning hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. The resolution drew about 250 people to the town's June meeting, where action was postponed
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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

More details on Caroline “Ban the Ban” Resolution FAILING

As Kim reported, the "Ban the Ban" resolution FAILED. The vote count was 0 votes for, 4 votes against, and 1 abstention. Thank you to all the many citizens who came out to voice opinions at last month’s public hearing on the resolution and at tonight’s board meeting. The board heard you. There were NO votes in favor of the resolution; resolution co-sponsor Peter Hoyt abstained and resolution co-sponsor Linda Adams joined board members Toby McDonald and Dominick Frongillo and Town Supervisor Don Barber in voting against the resolution.

(For background, Peter Hoyt abstained because he has stated he will recuse himself on all votes regarding gas drilling for the remainder of his term. After all the hullabaloo at the last town board meeting over conflicts of interest, the Town Attorney was asked to make a determination and declared that Peter, Toby McDonald, and Linda Adams DO NOT have conflicts of interest, according to the letter of the law. Pete decided that he still had the appearance of a conflict of interest, and would abstain from voting on gas drilling issues for now. If voters return him to office next year, it will be with the knowlege that he has a gas lease and he will feel free to participate in votes in gas drilling matters.)

The resolution stated purpose was to “clarify the role of the Town Board of Caroline” regarding gas drilling. In doing so, it would have restricted the Town Board’s authority to just town roads and the town’s storm water law (thereby preventing a gas drilling ban or many other possible town actions regarding gas drilling).

Roughly 30 people spoke during the two-hour Privilege of the Floor session. Around 80% of those speaking indicated support for Caroline passing a ban on hydraulic fracturing or high impact industrial use.

Board discussion was brief. Toby McDonald and Peter Hoyt declined to comment. Linda Adams acknowledged that all the statements made by the public last month and today made her realize that the community clearly wanted the Town Board to play a role regarding gas drilling and shouldn’t simply limit itself to roads. Dominick Frongillo stated that the Town Board is just beginning to understand the impacts of gas drilling on the community and that in his mind the legal issue of whether the town is preempted by state law is unsettled. Since gas development would conflict with the town’s Comprehensive Plan, he felt the Town Board should not limit its role as the resolution sought to do.

The longest statement was made by Don Barber. In a carefully reasoned and eloquently expressed statement, Don explained why he opposed the resolution and laid out several actions the town should take. I can’t do justice to Don’s statement; I’ll summarize it briefly and hope that a longer version makes it into the media sometime soon. Don received a lengthy standing ovation at the conclusion of his statement.

Key points in Don’s statement:

The role of government in a civil society is protecting the health, safety and well being of the citizens and protecting the process of democracy. At the Federal and State level, government is run by the rich and does not look out for the best interests of the citizens. As the only level of government still accessible to and responsive to the common citizen, local government is the last defense against runaway corporate power and MUST stand up in defense of civil society.

Property rights include the right to peaceful enjoyment of one’s property. The size of one’s property holding does not affect the size of one’s rights. What will be the effect of huge multinational corporations entering our community, as will happen with high-volume hydraulic fracturing? They will impact our freedoms­leasing itself is a loss of freedom, ceding control over minerals and often the surface of one’s land to a non-human, corporate entity.

In regard to concerns over zoning issues, Don noted that with no public input whatsoever, Caroline has just had a major shift in land use policy since control of over 50% of the town’s land area has been handed over to corporations through leasing. At least zoning or other town-based land use decisions require public notice and public discussion.

Acknowledging that this is a polarizing issue, Don asked all sides to “remain sensitive to the possibility that they might be wrong.”

Regarding preemption, Don noted the preliminary revised draft SGEIS recognizes the role of local governments in setting land use policy and clearly indicates that the DEC, at least, will not sue towns over the preemption issue. State preemption of local authority is not a black-and-white issue; since it is uncertain, the resolution should be rejected.

Finally, Don laid out a road map of actions he would like to see the town take. The steps were:
(1) Enact industrial site plan review legislation.
(2) Adopt rigorous aquifer protection plans.
(3) Develop a strong road preservation law.
(4) Give serious consideration to a ban or other control by the town on high impact industrial uses.

===================================================================

Thank you all again for your support. Great job! It is only with the strong backing of all of you that our Town Board will have the courage to make a firm stand in favor of the majority interest of the citizens of our community.

Bill

Bill Podulka
Chair, Residents Opposing Unsafe Shale-Gas Extraction
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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

Caroline rejects move to stay out of hydrofracking
Board defeats measure pledging town would stay neutral on procedure

Written by Alyson Martin 7:46 PM, Jul. 13, 2011
http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20110713/NEWS01/107130371


CAROLINE NY -- A resolution that would have prevented a future ban on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas was voted down by the Caroline Town Board.

The resolution would have clarified the town's role with regard to gas development, stating the town would "not attempt to either encourage or limit gas drilling in the Town of Caroline."

Tuesday's result keeps open the possibility of a natural gas drilling ban in the Town of Caroline.

Overwhelmingly, residents spoke out against the proposed resolution, saying they feared it would open the floodgates to gas companies looking for new land for development. About 50 people attended Tuesday night's meeting, filling the seats and standing and sitting on the sides of the room. They listened intently as four town board members dissented and one abstained.

And in a dramatic ending to the three-hour long meeting Tuesday, residents cheered and applauded loudly and gave the board a standing ovation after it voted down the resolution. Several residents had tears in their eyes and congratulated and hugged one another.

Before the vote, Town Supervisor Don Barber gave a short statement about his stance on hydraulic fracturing in Caroline. He told residents in attendance that they had participated in government and had their voices heard in a way that doesn't always happen, especially not at a state or federal level. A meeting last month drew more than 250 Caroline landowners and residents. A petition that has circulated around Caroline has more than 900 signatures in favor of a ban on hydraulic gas fracturing.

"This is a rare opportunity and you should treasure this," Barber said, of the role residents had in the democratic process. He went on to say that local government has to stand up for the civil society, referring to the town as "Davids" in a "David and Goliath" style battle.

"We're talking about safety. We're talking about being able to drive our roads and not face truck after truck after truck. Being able to walk our roads with our kids or bike," Barber said. "Civil society needs a voice and this local government has to be the voice," he said later.

In a roadmap suggestion for how to move forward, Barber said the town needs to get started on an industrial site plan review to talk about how to deal with corporate neighbors. Barber also said the town needs to adopt rigorous aquifer protection plans.

"Pure water is essential to human life," he said.

Board members Linda Adams and Peter Hoyt authored the resolution; Adams dissented and Hoyt abstained. Last month, several residents said there appeared to be of a conflict of interest because of Adams' affiliation with the Tompkins Landowner's Coalition and the involvement of several board members with gas leasing companies.

"This is hard to say," Hoyt said. "I think that that resolution was a mistake and I'm sorry I supported it. Our intentions were good. I think we should wait for the people who want us to do something to bring their resolution forward. I can't be right 100 percent of the time. I wish I could."

Joy Weber, a registered nurse, spoke during a public comment period. She presented a scenario by comparing the advent of hydraulic fracturing in Caroline to a doctor who has mistakenly prescribed a patient a medication that could cause a severe allergic reaction and the nurse, knowing that information, going ahead with administering the medication because she was ordered to do so.

"That's an outrageous scenario right? Well, so it this one. Board members afraid to fight for our air, our land, our water, our children, our health? Yes, it will be a hard fight. But the majority of the town supports you."
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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

Dryden confirms ban on hydraulic fracturing
http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20110803/NEWS01/108030348

DRYDEN NY (Aug. 3, 2011) -- Applause erupted from most of the 50 or so residents in attendance when the town board unanimously voted to ban hydraulic fracturing in Dryden.

"I'm overjoyed (by the decision)," said resident Hilary Lambert, a member of the Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition, the group that gathered 1,700 residents' signatures asking the board to ban hydraulic fracturing in town. "I'm hoping that the example set by the Town of Dryden will be paid attention to by other towns state-wide."

By Tuesday night's action, Dryden became the second town in Tompkins County after Ithaca to ban the gas drilling technique, and at meetings over the past several months, it appeared that at least three quarters of residents in attendance supported a ban. Ulysses, whose residents also circulated a petition asking for a ban, is widely expected to also vote into law its own drilling ban on Aug. 10.

Dryden Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner said that the heavy industry and pollution associated with hydraulic fracturing for natural gas is at odds with the town's comprehensive plan and many residents' way of life.

"Sometimes we're not able to do things that the majority wants, but this time we can," she said.

The board's decision, she said, was not a ban so much as a clarification of existing zoning, which "prohibits all uses which are not expressly permitted," and does not permit extractive industry, she said.

"It removes any doubt that extractive activities are permitted," said board member Jason Leifer, who co-authored the legislation.

In addition, the ban will be added only to the current zoning, not the proposed new zoning code that town officials have been working toward completing in coming months, though Leifer said they plan to add the ban to the proposed zoning as well. As with any legislation, board members said in the event that the town decides hydraulic fracturing has become safer, or if citizens elect a new town board, the ban can be overturned.

Sumner and each town board member explained their feelings on the vote, with all stating that they felt a ban was the only way to represent the electorate and keep their consciences clean.

While town officials have said previously that they could face legal action as a result of a blanket ban, Sumner said the recent Draft Generic Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement released by the state Department of Conservation regarding hydraulic fracturing proposes that drilling applications conform to local zoning, which she said reaffirms the town's ban.

"It's one more way of hearing from the state that local land use authority may be respected," she said.

There were a few opponents in attendance, who were displeased by the board's vote.

"The town board didn't look at the economic risk of this," said Henry Kramer, a resident and member of the newly created Dryden Safe Energy Coalition, which supports regulated gas drilling in the area. "They assumed power they didn't have. This will not end here. There's the possibility of an appeal, and litigation."

Resident Ron Szymanski, who is opposed to a blanket ban on gas drilling, said he presented town board members with questions he wanted answered about how drilling would affect the town's tax base and residents' right to their mineral rights, and he hasn't heard back.

"They said 'we'll get to it when we can,' but that's not acceptable," he said.

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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

=== all points bulletin --- For New York --- all points ===

We need this on every NY List-serve please forward.

Our water is in grave danger.
And our bodies are in grave danger.

Please read this
and please make 2 phone calls today.

This work is for you and me
and Seven Generations

From: Irene Weiser:

I just called DEC and Gov. Cuomo
to ask that they
EXTEND THE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD
on the SGEIS.

I was told they’ve only received
a few such requests so far!!!! (Yikes!)

We’ve GOT to make noise about this!!

Here’s what I said:

"The 60 day public comment period
on the dSGEIS is not enough time
to read, digest and respond
to such a large, technical document
that will affect the lives
of millions of New Yorkers.

It’s especially unreasonable
considering that the comment period
begins in AUGUST – a month when
many people are away on vacation.

Please extend
the public comment period to 180 days.

Also, please hold public meetings
as was done before
to allow people to give comments in person."


Here’s the numbers to call –
PLEASE MAKE THESE CALLS and ASK OTHERS TO DO SO TOO!

DEC dept of Public Affairs and Communication:
518-402-8044

Gov. Cuomo’s office:
518 -474-8390

PLEASE MAKE THIS CALL...
say:
"Extend the public comment period
to 180 days."

=== all points bulletin --- For New York --- all points ===

We need this on every NY List-serve please forward.
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

Gas Drilling Information Meeting Goes on Despite the Storm

Neither rain nor flood could stop the people concerned about gas drilling and hungry for answers from showing up at the fire hall in Dryden last night (Sept 7). They came from Syracuse and Skaneateles, Utica and Cooperstown, and many Tompkins County towns looking for information. The forum they came to participate in, originally organized by the Dryden Safe Energy Coalition (DSEC), was hampered by area flooding when one of their speakers, a representative of Chesapeake Energy, was unable to get to Dryden. The moderator arranged for the event, Dave Veiser of WHCU, was kept busy at the radio station airing flood updates.

However, two other speakers, Bill Kappel of USGS in Ithaca, and James Northrup of Cooperstown, did complete the wet trip to Dryden and arrived on time for the meeting ready to make their presentations. A half hour before the scheduled start of the meeting, with about 45 people already in the hall, Henry Kramer of DSEC announced that he was cancelling the event.

All of the people present, including the speakers, made the request that the meeting go on. After some negotiating, and with the hall filling up with people who drove through flooded streets to hear the message Kappel and Northrup brought, it was agreed to allow the meeting to go forward although the sponsorship of DSEC was withdrawn.

Bill Kappel gave the standing room only audience an excellent understanding of the geology that lies under our feet. He talked not only about the Marcellus shale layer, but also of limestones and sandstones, the Utica and other shales. He gave good clear explanations of the fracturing process and how far the fractures may extend outside of the well bore.

James Northup talked about the very real problems that have occurred in other areas of the US where gas well development is happening, stressing that most of the problems are associated with surface spills and accidents. According to Northup, 80% of the dollar value that comes out of the ground under NY in the form of methane (natural) gas will leave the state as corporate profits and worker pay checks. Without a severance tax in NY, the state gains nothing but the income tax on royalties paid to lease signers. He told of better laws regulating the industry in TX, CO, and NM, among other states. With a Texas-sized sense of humor he brought laughter to an otherwise dark subject.

Stressing that public comments are vital to NYS Department of Environmental Conservation on the just released revised draft of the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (rdSGEIS)** that will guide the permitting of hydrofracked gas wells, Northup also focused on home rule ordinances, saying that local road use and land use ordinances are in place out West where gas extraction by use of hydrofracking is common, and that towns in NY should adopt local land use ordinances and support Home Rule.

** Northup and Bill Huston have a guide for responding to the proposed rdSGEIS: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=2011_SGEIS_Flaws(NY)#Strategies

William Kappel’s background and qualifications:

William (Bill) Kappel has been a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, New York Water Science Center at Ithaca, NY since 1979. Previous to that time he served as a hydrologist for the U.S. Forest Service for 5 years in the National Forests of Missouri, and the Chequamegon National Forest in northern Wisconsin. His Survey career started with two projects, the National Urban Runoff Program (NURP) in Rochester, NY and the West Valley Nuclear Waste Facility Characterization project at West Valley, NY. These studies were followed by a series of groundwater studies in the Niagara Falls region in the 1990s. At the same time the study of 'unique' hydrogeologic phenomena known as mudboils or mud volcanoes began south of Syracuse, NY in the Onondaga Creek Valley. This long-term study also lead to a series of several unusual hydrogeologic studies including landslides in glacial lake clays, land-surface subsidence due to various anthropogenic activities, and the use of 'forensic' hydrogeologic techniques to further understand the hydrogeology of these study areas - Carbon-14 age dating, dendrogeomorphology, dendrochronology. Bill has also served as Study Section Chief of the Ithaca office over this time.

James Northup’s background and qualifications:

· General partner in a 1000 acre suburban real estate development. General partner in a 40-acre development in downtown Dallas TX.

· Partner and investor in the acquisition and sale of offshore oil rigs, including the Teledyne fleet and WR Grace fleets, and an investor in oil and gas projects.

· Co-owner of Northrup Energy, which was sold to ARCO Solar, which subsequently became BP Solar, the largest solar energy company in the world.

· Served on the Governor of Texas's Energy Advisory Council.

· Co-author of one US patent.

· Co-founder of the White Rock Boathouse, Inc., the largest rowing boathouse in the world, the Ursuline (Dallas) Crew and the Jesuit (Dallas) crew.

· Brown University, BA, Southern Methodist University 1973, MBA, Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania, 1976.

Contact: Marie McRae mmmcrae@juno.com

Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition http://draconline.wordpress.com

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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

The main source of NYSEG electricity is actually natural gas,

The main source of NYSEG electricity is actually natural gas, not coal, according to the webpage http://www.nyseg.com/GivingBack/intheenvironment/envdisclosure.html
Not coal, as claimed in the "Tour de Frac". According to the NYSEG page only 11% of our electricity comes from coal, 44% from natural gas, 25% from nuclear power.
See my essay http://camoo.freeshell.org/frack.doc which I rewrote recently. It has a lot of useful info.
Laura


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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

Summary Report on The Economic Consequences of Marcellus Shale Gas Extraction

This report was from the Cornell Environmental Law Society’s 2011 Energy Conference earlier in 2011 where I was a volunteer for the weekend. Susan Christopherson, the opening keynote from the conference, and her team have completed the attached study on the economic consequences of shale gas extraction. This information was kindly forwarded to me from Ben Tettlebaum, Chair of the Environmental Law Society at Cornell Law School. -Mike

MESSAGE FROM SUSAN CHRISTOPHERSON

Attached you will find a Summary Report on The Economic Consequences of Marcellus Shale Gas Extraction, outlining some of the key issues explored by a team of researchers centered at Cornell University during the period of New York’s moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) for natural gas. Our research focused on Pennsylvania, where Marcellus HVHF drilling has already begun, and on New York, which is still considering how to regulate HVHF, but we also made use of the experience of other states that have shale gas plays where HVHF has been in use far longer than in Pennsylvania. [ attachment stashed here http://canaaninstitute.org/docs/CaRDI%20Report.pdf ]

At 17 pages, this report is a series of snapshots about what we found. For a more fulsome account of our analysis and findings on most of these issues, we encourage you to read the complete working papers and policy briefs we have made available for download at: http://www.greenchoices.cornell.edu/development/marcellus/policy.cfm.

We launched this research project because it had become evident that the public and policy discussion over the consequences of Marcellus shale gas extraction had devolved to a polarized debate contrasting potential effects on water supplies with potential economic benefits. The consequences for water resources were (and are) receiving a great deal of attention; the economic consequences were not. We did not begin with a disposition for or against shale gas extraction, but we wanted to develop a realistic picture about what to expect, and about the economic consequences both in the short term and in the longer term.

As you will see in the accompanying report, the consequences that should concern us all go well beyond environmental concerns, and their economic implications include costs as well as benefits. On balance, is shale gas extraction likely to be an economic winner? Not necessarily. We conclude that while there are real economic benefits for some parties, if shale gas extraction is to be at all a positive force for economic development broadly and long term, it will require intensive planning and a new structure of regulation, monitoring and enforcement – along with the means to pay for it – that are not currently in place.

That is why it is important that the issues identified here become a part of the discussions and actions demanded of government at the state and local level now, before it is too late. To that end, we urge your help, and we encourage your dissemination of this report to whomever it might prove useful.

Susan Christopherson
Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University
Principal Investigator

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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

Pennsylvania towns see crime, carousing surge amid gas boom
http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20111028/NEWS01/110280374/
Marc Levy and George Osgood

ITHACA JOURNAL OCT 28 2011 - In a modern-day echo of the raucous Old West, small towns enjoying a boom in oil and gas drilling are seeing a sharp increase in drunken driving, bar fights and other hell-raising, blamed largely on an influx of young men who find themselves with lots of money in their pockets and nothing to do after they get off work.

Authorities in Pennsylvania and other states are quick to point out that the vast majority of workers streaming in are law-abiding. But they also say the drilling industry has brought with it a hard-working, hard-drinking, rough-and-tumble element that, in some places, threatens to overwhelm law enforcement.

Wellsboro Police Chief Jim Bodine has seen a "dramatic" increase in criminal activity since the influx of gas industry workers. And it seems to have a common element -- at least in Wellsboro.

"Basically, it's all alcohol-related," Bodine said. "These guys work very hard and they like to play very hard and, usually, that involves alcohol for them. We are seeing a lot more bar fights ... and they are serious fights. Guys getting kicked in the head, in the face. It's gone way beyond your usual pushing and shoving."

Sometimes, the cases are difficult to prosecute. On Oct. 22, a fight broke out between two gas industry workers at a Wellsboro bar.

"It was a bad one," Bodine said. "The guy who got beat up had to get stitched up and ... staples to close the cuts. But you investigate and you get nothing. No one knows anything. These guys seem to have a code of silence. They will take care of their own business later."

In Bradford County, Pennsylvania's most heavily drilled county in the 3-year-old rush to tap the Marcellus Shale, the nation's largest-known natural gas reservoir, the stream of men from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and elsewhere has been accompanied by increases in arrests, traffic violations, protection-from-abuse orders and warrants issued for people who don't show up in court, law enforcement officials said.

"We definitely do drink a lot. I ain't going to lie," said Jordon Bourque, a 23-year-old pipe inspector from Lafayette, La., who was drinking beer at a bar in the Williamsport, Pa., area one recent night.

But he said that many in the industry obey the law and that authorities in Pennsylvania have less tolerance for troublemakers than police in small-town Texas, where rig workers are used to raising hell and getting a pass from law enforcement.

"You can do that (stuff) and get away with it," Bourque said. In Pennsylvania, "they look at it totally different."
Lots of cash, time

Leaving a diner in Towanda, Jason Phillips, a 30-year-old drilling-equipment supervisor from Coldspring, Texas, said the problem is not really the drilling industry -- "it's young people making a lot of money."

As for himself, he said, "I'm not too much of wild person."

The boom in drilling has been made possible by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, a technique that cracks open rock layers to free natural gas. Large numbers of workers are needed to operate drilling equipment, drive trucks, handle chemicals, lay pipeline and perform other tasks.

The hours are long. Some employees put in two weeks on, two weeks off. But entry-level laborers or truck drivers can make $40,000 or more, while workers on the drilling rigs can easily pull down twice that. Their employers often pick up the tab for hotels, meals and practically everything else.

What that means is the many single gas workers don't have the same responsibilities as long-time residents or new residents with families, such as going home after work to mow the lawn or rake leaves, said Bradford County District Attorney Dan Barrett.

That means a lot of time for trouble, he said, and he has the numbers to back that up.
Court cases on rise

In 2009, Pennsylvania State Police made 136 drunken driving arrests in Bradford County; in 2010, the number of DUI arrests was 216. The agency is on track to make 351 rests in the county in 2011, Barrett noted in a presentation he made at U.S. Department of Justice-sponsored law enforcement conference at State College, Pa.

In Towanda Borough, with a population of about 3,000, police have also seen a rise in DUI cases from 21 in 2009 to 30 in 2010 and a projected 60 for 2011.

"We can't attribute any crimes to the industry itself," Barrett noted in his presentation. "The strain is from the large numbers of people who work in the industry. Most behave, some don't."

In just the past year, scores of misdemeanor and felony cases involving gas workers have landed in the office of Tioga County, Pa., District Attorney George W. Wheeler, among them: a stabbing homicide; a motor vehicle homicide involving an operator who didn't have a driver's license; a pending DUI homicide and an aggravated assault in which one gas industry worker beat another with a baseball bat, breaking an arm and a leg, among other injuries.

"That guy, we had to chase all the way to Louisiana," said Tioga County, Pa., Detective Scott Henry, a retired Pennsylvania state trooper with more than 25 years of law enforcement experience in both city and country settings. "A lot of times, these guys will just take off, and we have to hunt them down."

Crime numbers in general have spiked in Tioga County over the past couple of years -- partly because of the economy and other factors -- and partly because of criminal behavior by gas industry workers, Henry said.

"It's hard to talk about specific numbers," Henry said. "But that's the case. No doubt about it. The numbers are going through the roof. We are already past the 2010 numbers (of criminal cases), and there's a couple more months to go in the year. The gas industry is having a significant impact on those increasing numbers."

It's becoming a familiar theme.

"Just the night before, a lady pipeline installer was riding her motorcycle into town on East Avenue (in Wellsboro)," Bodine, the Wellsboro Police chief, said.

"When she stopped, she forgot to put her feet down and she laid the bike down. A passerby helped her get it back up, and when we arrived, we found that she was intoxicated, too. That was another DUI arrest."

Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 26, Wellsboro patrol officers arrested 11 people for driving under the influence. "The majority of them were gas workers," Bodine said.

Bradford County Sheriff C.J. Walters said his officers are handling about a 25 percent increase from last year in everything from warrants for people who fail to appear in court to protection-from-abuse orders. The flood of arrests is such that his office's van is no longer big enough to transport all the inmates at once from jail to court, Walters said.
Keeping the peace

Gas companies work with police to try to keep disturbances to a minimum, Bodine said.

"The companies are very, very concerned about these things and safety in general," he said. "They are very receptive when we give them information, and they act on it right now."

But information on only the most serious offenses reaches company headquarters. And not all the perpetrators drive pickups with license plates from Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

"A lot of local people have been hired by the gas companies," Bodine said. "And we are getting problems from some of them, too. Again, almost all alcohol-related. So it's the same dynamic, Do we call these gas industry people, or locals? I don't know. And I don't know where this is going to end. I don't even think we've seen the worst of it yet."

In Chemung County, which hosts critical natural gas industry infrastructure, and where some Pennsylvania gas workers live, Sheriff Christopher Moss said he hasn't seen a major increase in crime.

"We've had probably a couple of DWIs and weapons possessions in reference to some people from out of the area," Moss said, noting that he'd been paying attention to the situation south of the state line.

Back in Pennsylvania, a Bradford County commissioner, Doug McLinko, said the crime spike doesn't change his mind about the importance of the drilling boom to the local economy. Other states, he said, would "cut an arm off" to have such a surge.

"I'm always a little apprehensive about painting this as a big problem around the county, because it just isn't," McLinko said. "A lot of these people are really well-behaved. ... To a large degree, is it out control or a major issue? Absolutely not."

Marc Levy writes for the Associated Press; George Osgood is a correspondent for this newspaper based in Wellsboro. Staff writer Jason Whong contributed to this report as did Associated Press writers Michael Rubinkam in Montrose, Pa., and Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston.

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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Community and Regional Development Institute at Cornell University has posted a new narrated PowerPoint presentation that highlights the latest revisions to the SGEIS. The presentation can be found at http://bit.ly/SGEIS
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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

DEC report on fracking is full of holes ...

Written by Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton
Ithaca Journal 11.11.2011 http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20111111/VIEWPOINTS02/111110311/1129/

The Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation recently held a public hearing on the Department of Environmental Conservation's revised environmental impact statement to safeguard public health and the environment from hydraulic fracturing. As a committee member, I listened to 12 hours of detailed, scientific and compelling testimony.

This hearing made clear that fracking will fundamentally change the landscape of our region, the character of our communities and its economies. One witness pointed out that, for the first time, New York would allow heavy industry to be located near people's homes.

In 2010 and 2011, the governors ordered the DEC to "make such revisions to the Draft SGEIS that are necessary to analyze comprehensively the environmental impacts associated with high-volume hydraulic fracturing combined with horizontal drilling, to ensure that such impacts are appropriately avoided or mitigated."

The DEC, the Business Council and Petroleum Institute agreed that New York should begin drilling soon, saying there won't be negative health consequences. But the SGEIS exempts the New York City and Syracuse watersheds, saying "a risk remains that significant high-volume hydraulic fracturing activities ... could result in a degradation of drinking water supplies."

Which is it — safe or risky? You can't have it both ways. Cayuga Lake supplies water for nearly 30,000 residents, and Six Mile Creek watershed supplies Ithaca's drinking water. The 500-foot buffer for Cortland's aquifer leaves the drinking water for 45,000 residents vulnerable, given that contamination has occurred 1,200 feet from drilling in Pennsylvania.

More than 60 government officials, lenders, landowners, environmental groups and individuals testified that the DEC's revised draft SGEIS is inadequate. Their concerns include the DEC's failure to address:

» Health hazards posed by wastewater and air pollution from wells, pipelines and compressor stations.

» Wastewaters laced with toxic chemicals, including benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, barium, lead, radon and other radionuclides. No facilities in New York can treat such wastewater.

» Mortgage problems for homeowners, who are now having trouble selling their homes or getting home equity loans because of gas leases.

» Questions over local control, with the DEC saying gas drillers must certify that their extraction plans comply with local land-use laws, but also saying if there is a local dispute with the gas company, the agency would not intervene.

» The DEC rejecting climate scientists who recommend a 20-year window for methane as a potent greenhouse gas because of the urgency of global warming; the DEC unwisely chose the 100-year window.

Until the DEC resolves each of these concerns and provides a meaningful plan to afford all New Yorkers equal protection from fracking, the moratorium on drilling should continue.

Lifton is the assemblywoman representing the 125th District of New York.

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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

Tompkins County Council of Governments Sponsors Public Hearing on Proposed DEC Gas Drilling Rules

Thursday, December 1, 2011 from 7:00 - 11:00 p.m. at The State Theatre, 107 West State Street Ithaca, NY 14850

ITHACA - The Tompkins County Council of Governments, TCCOG, announces that it is sponsoring a public hearing on Thursday, December 1st to provide citizens an opportunity to comment on the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining and regulations that will govern high-volume hydraulic fracturing.

The hearing will be held from 7-11 p.m. in ITHACA's State Theatre, adjacent to the downtown Ithaca Commons. The proceedings will be transcribed by a professional court stenographer. At the hearing, TCCOG will accept both written and oral testimony and present the comments to the DEC prior to the December 12th comment deadline.

TCCOG Co-Chair Don Barber said ,“TCCOG’s mission for this public hearing is to provide a local venue for citizens to voice their opinions about the Department of Environmental Conservation’s 2011 revised Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) as it pertains to high volume hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shales”.

According to Martha Robertson, Chair of Tompkins County Legislature, the Tompkins County Council of Governments supports open and transparent government processes and so is proud to sponsor this hearing. While the DEC has scheduled public hearings in other parts of the State, there are none within the Finger Lakes Region. To facilitate participation in the comment process, the TCCOG hearing is for citizens within Tompkins County, the Finger Lakes Region and beyond, to make comments on the dSGEIS.

Caroline Town Councilman Dominic Frongillo will moderate the hearing. Doors will open at 6:30 pm. Anyone wishing to make oral comments must register on a sign-in sheet that will be available at the hearing. Forms will be provided for written comments. People are welcome to come with comments already prepared. This hearing will follow the same format as others held by the DEC, with oral presentations limited to three minutes and speakers presenting in the order registered, as time permits. Those wishing to make comments will be asked to focus their comments specifically on the contents of the draft SGEIS, rather than general statements for or against gas drilling.

The dSGEIS can be viewed at http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/75370.html and the proposed regulations at http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/77353.html. A paper copy is available for review at the Tompkins County Public Library.

For questions, please contact: Michelle Pottorff at (607) 274-5434

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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

ADK (Adirondack Mountain Club) Comments on State Forest Leases and Hydraulic Fracturing

Gas drilling using high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) could have substantial environmental impacts on more than 1 million acres of publicly owned land from the Catskills to Lake Erie. Hikers who use the Finger Lakes Trail, the North Country National Scenic Trail, and other trails in the region should be especially concerned. Fracking would greatly alter the environment and setting of these trails.

In response to ADK’s advocacy efforts, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has recommended a ban on gas drilling on the surface of public lands, including state parks, state forests, and wildlife management areas. The DEC recommendation would prohibit the siting of wellpads, hydraulic pumps and other drilling infrastructure on state lands. But the energy industry has been lobbying hard to convince Governor Cuomo to reverse DEC’s decision and open our public lands for intensive gas exploitation. DEC admits in section 6.4.4 of the September 2011 SGEIS that the level of development and cumulative environmental impact of HVHF activity on public lands would violate Article XIV, section 3 of the state constitution and the various Environmental Conservation Laws that authorized the purchase of state forests, unique areas and wildlife management areas. See also pages 22 -28 of the DEC Regulatory Impact Statement for regulation changes that pertain to those lands. ADK believes that leases for HVHF exploitation under state lands would cause similar impermissible impacts because of the spillover of impacts from drilling operations on adjacent private lands.

As it stands now, the proposed surface-drilling ban does not go far enough. It might not prohibit some gas drilling infrastructure, such as transmission pipelines or access roads on state land. The ban would not prevent the state from leasing subsurface oil and gas rights to these lands, which would allow them be tapped from well pads on adjacent private lands. The revised environmental impact statement (SGEIS) states that the state may enter into leases for exploitation of natural gas under state forests and wildlife management areas.

New York acquired these lands to promote healthy forests and to protect ecosystems, wildlife habitat, aquifers, rivers, and streams. High-volume hydrofracking is an industrial process that is inconsistent with those purposes and the state laws governing the management of these lands. Current gas exploration techniques involve extensive land clearing and tree cutting for well pads, large wastewater storage pits, large hydraulic pumps, pipelines, and compressors. It requires construction of roads and parking lots to accommodate hundreds of 18-wheel tanker trucks needed to transport millions of gallons of water to each well site. In order to horizontally drill the farthest under leased state lands, the HVHF drilling would have to be done very close to the boundary of state lands

HVHF is so much more destructive, noisy and potentially damaging to forest, wildlife and water resources that HVHF wellpads that directly adjoin or a closely proximate to state forest lands violate the letter and spirit of Article XIV, section 3. If these wellpads will necessitate feeder pipelines or roads across state forest land to access the wellpads, our argument becomes even stronger

Moreover, there is the danger of accidental spills of toxic chemicals and well blowouts impacting adjoining state lands. ADK is also deeply concerned about the billions of gallons of contaminated wastewater produced from fracking. This “backflow” not only contains fracking chemicals, it is also highly saline, contaminated with heavy metals like bromides and bariums, carcinogenic hydrocarbons like benzene and toluene and radioactive. If it is not properly treated and disposed of, this wastewater poses a serious threat to New York’s rivers, streams, and underground water supplies. Currently, there is not a single waste water treatment plant in New York that can safely cleanse this highly contaminated water sufficiently so it can be returned to our rivers and streams.

.ADK has made the unassailable legal argument under Article XIV, section 3(1) that the state can not enter into the lease of gas rights that are part of the fee estate of state forests located in the Forest Preserve Counties of Greene, Ulster, Sullivan and Delaware in the Catskills as well as all state forests located in the Adirondack Forest Preserve Counties should the Black River, Trenton and Utica Shale plays ever become an issue. Forest Preserve lands inside the Blue Lines of the Adirondack and Catskill Parks can not be leased for gas drilling or used for any commercial purpose under Article XIV.

In comments submitted to DEC in advance of its Jan. 11 deadline, ADK will urge the agency to

• Prohibit surface drilling on all state parks, state forests, and wildlife management areas.
• Prohibit the lease of subsurface oil and gas rights under state parks and DEC-managed state forests, reforestation area and wildlife management areas.
• Prohibit gas pipelines, pipeline access roads, compressor stations, and other gas-drilling infrastructure on state lands.

Most of the debate over gas drilling has focused on the potential environmental impacts of high-volume hydraulic fracturing, both below ground and on the surface. But in recent months there has been growing concern about the impacts of gas leases on the rights of property owners. Signing a lease with a gas company can have serious legal consequences. In some cases, a gas lease is considered a violation of terms of a mortgage agreement. Many banks will not issue a mortgage or equity loan on property with a gas lease, which would make it difficult to sell the property. What’s more, damage to property caused by gas drilling, such as contaminated drinking water from a spill or blowout, is not generally covered by homeowners insurance. See the article by Elisabeth N. Radow in the November/December issue of the Journal of the New York State Bar Association.

But some New York landowners who choose not to sign a lease may find themselves in a similar predicament. Under New York State law, drilling companies can acquire the subsurface rights to your property without your consent or approval using a process called compulsory integration. According to the DEC, “an applicant for a permit to drill an oil or gas well in New York State must include, in the permit application, a map showing the area that will be assigned to the well. This area, called a spacing unit, may include some or all of your acreage even if you haven't signed an oil and gas lease.”

The company can seek a compulsory integration order if it controls the rights to 60 percent of the acreage in the spacing unit. DEC can order compulsory integration if it finds (after a hearing) that the integration will prevent waste and lead to the greatest possible recovery of natural gas. Landowners involved in a compulsory integration order have choices about how involved they will be in the gas exploration process, and that choice impacts their potential liability and compensation. But unwilling landowners have no choice to just say no to HVHF under their property and the compulsory integration process does not compensate them for any diminution of their real property rights caused by a seizure of their gas rights under a DEC compulsory integration order.

Our legal research and discussions with DEC staff indicate that state leases could make the acreage of state lands under gas leases available to the gas producer to calculate the 60% statutory threshold for invoking compulsory integration. ADK contends that this discretionary decision by the state to lease gas rights gives the state a financial interest that disqualifies DEC as a disinterested party in an administrative law process where DEC is the prosecutor, judge and jury with respect to seizure of privately owned gas rights.. There is obviously a conflict of interest. The gas producer could gerrymander the spacing units to use the potentially large amount of state forest acreage under lease to accumulate 60% in many spacing units and force the remaining owners in the spacing unit to either lease at a low rate of compensation or be forced into the production unit by compulsory integration.

In our view, the compulsory integration statute and process is also subject to collateral legal attack because it does not compensate those landowners for the impairment of their real property title such as the ability to mortgage, secure title insurance and/or loans based on the involuntary alienation of gas rights, a diminution of their full bundle of property rights inherent in clean fee simple title as described in the Radow article, supra.

It is ADK’s opinion that HVHF is so much more destructive, noisy and potentially damaging to the state’s forest, wildlife and water resources than the simple oil and gas wells previously leased on state forests that we can make the case that HVHF wellpads that directly adjoin or are closely proximate to state forest lands violate the letter and spirit of Article XIV, section 3. If these wellpads will necessitate feeder pipelines or roads across state forest land to access the wellpads, our legal argument that the lease is unconstitutional and violates ECL section 9-0501 (1) becomes even stronger.

In any event, ADK can make a compelling legal argument under Article XIV, section 3(1) that the state can not enter into the lease of gas rights that are part of the fee estate of state forests located in the Forest Preserve Counties of Greene, Ulster, Sullivan and Delaware in the Catskills as well as all state forests located in the Adirondack Forest Preserve Counties should the Black River, Trenton and Utica Shale plays ever become an issue.

The statute of limitations for Talisman and Chesapeake to challenge DEC's non-renewal of their gas leases due to an alleged force majeure argument is running. Since those DEC leases were entered into before the existence of HVHF gas drilling, were entered into on the basis of the 1992 Gas Drilling Environmental Impact Statement which DEC has admitted did not address HVHF and in the absence of any applicable case law that would extend a state lease under the doctrine of force majeure on the basis of government deliberation on necessary laws to address the radically new HVHF drilling process, there is no legal basis for a court to compel the extension or renewal of those expired state gas leases. It is a discretionary action by the agency not to extend those leases that is not subject to a legal challenge by the drillers under Article 78.

These are draft preliminary comments that will be amended and supplemented by the Adirondack Mountain Club prior to submission to the Department of Environmental Conservation on or before January 11, 2012.

Neil F. Woodworth
Executive Director and Counsel
Adirondack Mountain Club
adk@nycap.rr.com
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Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

Hydrofracking sure to contaminate water
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2011

As an environmental engineering technician with NYSDEC Region 5, I managed scores of groundwater remediation projects in the 1990s. I’ve reviewed countless hydrogeologic reports and seen thousands of lab results from contaminated wells. I’m familiar with the fate and transport of contaminants in fractured media, and let me be clear:

Hydraulic fracturing as it’s practiced today will contaminate our aquifers.

Not might contaminate our aquifers. Hydraulic fracturing will contaminate New York’s aquifers. If you were looking for a way to poison the drinking water supply, here in the Northeast you couldn’t find a more chillingly effective and thorough method of doing so than with hydraulic fracturing.

My experience investigating and remediating contaminated groundwater taught me some lessons. There’s no such thing as a perfect well seal. Occasionally sooner, often later, well seals can and do fail, period.

No confining layer is completely competent; all geologic strata leak to some extent. The fact that a less-transmissive layer lies between the drill zone and a well does not protect the well from contamination.

A drinking water well is never in “solid” rock. If it were, it would be a dry hole in the ground. As water moves through joints, fissures and bedding planes into a well, so do contaminants. In fractured media such as shale, water follows preferential pathways, moving fast and far, miles per week in some cases.

In the absence of oxygen (such as under the ground), organic compounds break down infinitesimally slowly. Chemicals injected into the aquifer will persist for many lifetimes.

When contamination occurs—and it will occur— we will all pay for it, regardless of where we live. Proving responsibility for groundwater contamination is difficult, costly and time-consuming, and while corporate lawyers drag out proceedings for years, everyone’s taxes will pay for the subsurface investigations, the whole-house filtration systems, the unending lab analyses.

I’d love to see hundreds more jobs created. But not if it means hundreds of thousands using well water will be at a high risk of contamination. Not if it means every New Yorker will be on the hook for the cost for cleanup and for creating alternate water supplies. If your well goes bad, neither you, nor your children, nor their children will ever be able to get safe, clean water back. That’s too high a price.

Drill for gas, absolutely, but develop safe technologies first.

Paul Hetzler

Canton NY

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20111213/OPINION02/712139975
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