New report cites dozens of incidents in 9 states of leaks, spills, water contamination, explosions, and water theft caused by gas drilling process planned for NY

 "Toxic cocktail" of benzene, toluene and other carcinogens poses threat to reservoirs 

Saturday, February 28, 2009 (New York, NY) -- Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, joined by environmental groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council; Earthjustice; Riverkeeper, Inc.; and the Sierra Club today called for a ban on natural gas drilling in New York City’s upstate watershed.

The drilling process – known as "hydraulic fracturing" – uses toxic chemicals under high pressure to break up rock formations deep underground. Borough President Stringer and the gropus said the progress poses too great a risk of leaking toxic and carcinogenic chemicals into the upstate reservoirs that hold New York City’s drinking water.

As evidence of this concern, Mr. Stringer today released a report documenting some two dozen incidents in 9 different states that describe potentially severe public health dangers where this type of drilling has been allowed to proceed.

From a water well in Wyoming with a concentration of benzene 1,500 times the level safe for human consumption, to a house in Bainbridge, Ohio that exploded in a fiery ball, to contaminated wells discovered just two months ago across the New York State line in Dimock Township, Pennsylvania, the report presents a substantial catalogue of activity from around the United States that demands a pause and careful review before New York State embraces this method of drilling for natural gas.

Borough President Stringer said, "Today’s economic pressures are the most severe we’ve seen in my lifetime.  But we can’t allow those pressures to push us into hasty decisions that come at the cost of New Yorkers’ health – or the state’s long term interests.  That’s why I want to call the public’s attention to the many alarming incidents we’ve seen around the country related to this drilling technique."

City Council Environmental Protection Committee Chair James F. Gennaro, who has held two public hearings on this issue and has an online petition at http://citizenspeak.org/node/1436, said, “Natural gas drilling in the city's upstate watershed will not only contaminate our drinking water supply, but it will force the building of a filtration plant costing New York City taxpayers upwards of 20 billion -- that's a ‘b’ -- dollars. As a geologist and an activist on NYC watershed issues for almost 20 years, it is my well-informed opinion that this practice is both environmentally and economically unsustainable, and should be ruled out unequivocally by the Paterson Administration and the State Legislature. The ‘drill, baby, drill’ era is over; we will continue to fight to protect our pristine, unfiltered drinking water supply from this ominous threat.”

Kate Sinding, Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said, "This report shines a critical spotlight on the looming risks posed by massive new industrial gas drilling in New York. Hydraulic fracturing has a troubling track record in other parts of the country - including right next door in Pennsylvania - and this report proposes a set of concrete, practical recommendations to reduce the health risks for all New Yorkers.  The Borough President is to be commended for raising the volume on this important issue and identifying real solutions to ensure the continued safety of the city's treasured unfiltered drinking water supply and the environment of all New Yorkers."

Alex Matthiessen, President of Riverkeeper, said, "Riverkeeper commends Borough President Stringer for joining our call for a permanent ban on gas drilling within the New York City Watershed. His report detailing the impacts of gas drilling on the NYC water supply provides a strong case for an outright ban. Industrial gas drilling in the watershed would be an unmitigated disaster, needlessly jeopardizing the drinking water supply of 9 million New Yorkers – half the state’s population. Riverkeeper looks forward to working with Borough President Stringer to safeguard the upstate watersheds that make living in New York City possible – and pleasurable."

"We have learned painful lessons from our experience with oil and gas drilling in the West," said Deborah Goldberg, managing attorney of Earthjustice’s Northeast Office. "We want New York to be a model of public health and environmental best practices, and we want the industry—not the taxpayers—to shoulder the full costs of its operations."

Geoffrey Thyne, Senior Research Scientist for the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute at the University of Wyoming, said, "If petroleum companies can’t use these chemicals when drilling in the ocean, how can they use them when drilling in our aquifers?"

Trillions of cubic feet of natural gas lay thousands of feet underground in the area called the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from West Virginia to New York, and lies beneath all or parts of 28 New York counties. New York State has begun the process of permitting drillers to recover this gas by using "hydrofracing" mixtures of high-pressure chemicals to break up underground rock formations and free concentrations of natural gas, which is then collected at the wellhead.

While the chemical mix varies from driller to driller – and some drillers have maintained that their mix of chemicals is a trade secret that they will not divulge -- most "hydrofracing" fluids appear to involve toxins, including benzene and toluene.  When the well is functioning, some of the hundreds or thousands of barrels of the "frac-fluid" mixture of water and chemicals remain in the well, where it has the potential to leak into groundwater supplies. 

In addition to the contaminated fluid that remains in the well, hundreds of thousands or even millions of gallons of water containing "frac-fluid" are pumped out of each well.  This water must be stored in sealed tanks or artificial basins with impermeable linings, and eventually trucked away to be specially treated to remove pollutants. An average well could need as many as one thousand truck trips, increasing the possibility for spills and other accidents.

Background

As a fuel, natural gas is abundant and relatively affordable.  Drillers typically pay landowners substantial fees for the rights to drill on their property, and the State collects both taxes and fees from drillers.

The Delaware/Catskills Watershed produces 90 percent of the City’s drinking water and is thought to have substantial natural gas deposits. The Croton Watershed east of the Hudson River, which is also part of the city’s water supply system, does not extend over the Marcellus Shale.

New York City has spent billions of dollars building and maintaining its drinking water collection, storage delivery systems, and has aggressively protected its watershed from overdevelopment. 

Because of these efforts the City is one of the few not now required by the federal government to filter its drinking water.  The City is building a filtration plant in the Bronx for the water from the Croton watershed, but the plant is behind schedule and over budget.

Creating a new filtration plant for the Catskill/Delaware portion of the system could cost an estimated $20 billion, with no guarantee that the toxic chemicals used in the "hydrofracing" process – which are difficult to filter -- would be completely removed.

State environmental officials have held a number of hearings on the "hydrofracing" drilling process, but no hearings have been held in New York City.