Gas Drilling and Fracking Hearings

[John Mayo]

gas drilling
MARY ESCHMARY ESCH,
Associated Press Writer THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES
AND PRINCIPLES

Sep. 8, 2010 9:03 AM ET

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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The oil and gas industry is urging the
Environmental Protection Agency to keep a narrow focus in its study of
how a drilling technique that involves blasting chemical-laced water
into the ground may affect drinking water — while environmental groups
want the study to cover everything from road-building to waste
disposal.

The issues will be aired Monday in two-minute speaking slots at an EPA
hearing twice postponed last month because of security concerns over
rallies and crowds anticipated in the thousands.

The hearing, the last of four around the country, will be held in two
sessions on Monday and two more on Wednesday at The Forum in
Binghamton, 115 miles southwest of Albany. The EPA is taking comment
on how broadly to construct its study of hydraulic fracturing, or
fracking, a technique for releasing natural gas from rock formations
thousands of feet underground by injecting at high pressure millions
of gallons of water mixed with chemicals and sand.

Congress directed the EPA to take a new look at fracking as gas
drillers swarm to the lucrative Marcellus Shale region beneath
Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio and other shale
reserves around the country. Concerns that the process can poison
private wells and water aquifers have driven opposition, while the
industry insists there's no evidence linking fracking to any
contaminated water sources.

In Wyoming, which also has large shale reserves, the EPA has told
residents in Pavillion, a farming and ranching area, not to drink
water from about 40 nearby wells. Residents speculate their water
supplies have been polluted by fracking, but the EPA's tests have been
inconclusive.

Just last week, the EPA asked nine major gas drilling companies to
voluntarily disclose the chemicals used in fracking. Drilling
companies, calling their chemical formulas proprietary, have largely
sought to avoid that disclosure.

Fracking is specifically excluded from regulation under the federal
Safe Drinking Water Act, in part because of a widely quoted 2004 EPA
study that concluded the process posed no threat to drinking water
sources. That study was widely criticized for, among other things, its
narrow focus on coalbed methane deposits and its lack of independent
field studies.

Environmental groups hope the new EPA study will validate their
position that there are many risks that need to be addressed by
regulators at the federal level. Beyond the fracking process itself,
concerns have risen from environmentalists over the long-distance
hauling, treatment and disposal of the resulting wastewater.

"We want the new study to be free of political and special-interest
influence and based on science," said Craig Michaels, watershed
program director for Riverkeeper, an environmental group whose stated
mission includes safeguarding the drinking water supply of New York
City and the lower Hudson Valley. "We want it to look not only at the
fracturing of the well but the whole life cycle of drilling operations
from road building to waste disposal and everything in between."

Gas drilling advocates oppose taking a broad view.

"Congress asked the EPA to look at a specific thing, which was the
potential impact of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water sources,"
said Stephanie Meadows, a senior policy adviser of the American
Petroleum Institute. "That's where the focus and the limited dollars
that EPA has been given to do this should remain."

Industry groups oppose having fracking regulated at the federal level,
which API acknowledges would be more costly.

"We don't see the need for another level of oversight," Meadows said.
"States have the authority to regulate this and have been doing that
effectively for the last 60 years."

Even if the EPA study doesn't lead to new federal regulations, the
information gathered will help states improve their own regulations,
said Katherine Nadeau, a program director of Environmental Advocates,
an Albany group that says it tries to protect air, land, water and
wildlife and the health of all New Yorkers.

"That's why it's so important that they be as thorough as possible,"
said Nadeau, whose group is urging the EPA to look at the impact of
natural gas exploration on air quality, communities, ecosystems and
waterways as well as on drinking water. "We would be able to use the
scientific results from these studies to set up better water and
community protections here in New York as well as nationwide."

The Natural Resources Defense Council, which says it combines the
grass roots power of 1.3 million members with the expertise of more
than 350 lawyers, scientists and other professionals, is urging the
EPA to conduct numerous field studies in communities where known or
suspected water contamination has been reported, such as Washington
and Bradford counties in Pennsylvania.

NRDC senior attorney Kate Sinding said she would speak Monday about
the need to do mapping studies of rock formations before and after
fracking occurs to evaluate the potential for migration of
contaminants through new and existing cracks.

Groups representing New York landowners with gas leases, frustrated by
the slow pace of a Department of Environmental Conservation review of
issues surrounding natural gas exploration in the Marcellus Shale
region, want the EPA to keep its study narrow and finish it quickly.

The DEC has had permit approvals on hold since it started its review
in July 2008, and some politicians and environmental groups want
permitting further held up until the EPA study is complete.

"The hidden agenda of environmental groups is to delay it as long as
possible," said Noel van Swol, president of the Sullivan-Delaware
Property Owners Association. "This is all-class warfare on the part of
weekenders and Hollywood types from New York City who want to keep
this area as their playground and drive out those of us who have lived
here all their lives."

He called the natural gas industry "the last best hope for this
region," where jobs are in short supply and farms are struggling to
survive.

The industry contends gas drilling has already brought millions of
dollars in tax benefits and thousands of jobs — with promises of
thousands more — in the vast Marcellus Shale region. Geologists say
the Marcellus could become the nation's largest natural gas field.

Michaels said Riverkeeper would present the EPA with a report that
documents "significant environmental impacts from natural gas
drilling, including hydraulic fracturing."

"I'm not sure there's any form of energy production that's completely
risk-free," Michaels said. "But people are realizing that they're
being exposed to dangers that they shouldn't be. People shouldn't have
to sacrifice clean air and water for a clean energy supply."

Associated Press

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