DEC Environmental Engineer says Fracking WILL Pollute Water

Paul Hetzler, an environmental engineering technician with NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Region 5 says hydraulic fracturing – as it’s practiced today – will contaminate our aquifers. Not might. Will.

In  a letter to the Watertown Daily Times Hetzler criticizes current technology. “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,” he writes. “There’s no such thing as a perfect well seal. Occasionally sooner, often later, well seals can and do fail, period.”

And that failure, when it happens, will be expensive. Everyone, regardless of whether they are receiving royalties or living miles away, will end up paying for the subsurface investigations, whole-house filtration systems and unending lab analyses as industry lawyers tie up complaints in courts.

“I’d love to see hundreds more jobs created,” Hetzler writes. “But not if it means hundreds of thousands using well water will be at a high risk of contamination.” The solution? Develop safe technologies before drilling.

Hetzler isn’t the only DEC staffer to speak out against the agency’s current – and proposed – fracking regulations. At the November 30 DEC hearing in New York City Stephanie Low read a statement from DEC employee Wayne Bayer. Bayer is an Environmental Program Specialist and Executive Board member of the DE’'s union, the Public Employees Federation (PEF). He speaks for the 1774 members of the professional, technical and scientific staff of the DEC – those on the ground, he says, who know the issues of fracking and the draft SGEIS best.

“The 25 percent  reduction in existing staff at DEC has crippled our ability to carry out all existing regulatory and statutory responsibilities assigned to our agency,” Bayer states. “There is no fracking way we can presently, honestly and adequately add any new responsibility as labor-intensive as regulating, monitoring and inspection activities related to high volume hydraulic fracturing of natural gas.” Until DEC can hire adequate staff … “the moratorium should be extended.” You can hear the entire statement here.

Fracking Hearings Begin in NY

New York residents and state officials are gearing up for the hydrofracking hearings that begin this week. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is holding four official hearings on the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) regarding high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing in shales.

DEC hearings will be held on Wednesday at the Dansville Middle School auditorium and Thursday at The Forum Theatre in Binghamton. Two additional hearings will be held later this month in Sullivan County and New York City.

But some communities are holding their own “public hearings” sans DEC officials. About 400 people showed up last Thursday, November 10 at the State University College at Oneonta for a public hearing organized by the City of Oneonta, the Otsego County Conservation Association and Otsego 2000. State Senator James Seward opened the public forum by criticizing the SGEIS, saying they offer uneven and inadequate protection to most upstate New Yorkers.

A stenographer recorded public testimony to submit to state officials, who are expected to give it the same consideration as comments taken at the four upcoming DEC hearings.

The Tompkins County Council of Governments has decided to sponsor a public hearing on Thursday, December 1 in Ithaca’s State Theatre. As with the Oneonta hearing, a stenographer will record comments to submit to DEC. This hearing runs pretty late, though – from 7 to 11 pm. Plan on showing up around 6:30 to get a good seat and sign up to comment.

This week's DEC hearings could be crowded. If you hope to speak at this Thursday’s hearing in Binghamton, plan to arrive early and sign in. Speakers will be limited to three minutes.

You don’t have to speak to get your voice heard – written comments carry equal weight. According to DEC the agency has already received 4,200-plus comments. The draft SGEIS generated around 14,000 comments so DEC expects more to arrive as the December 12 deadline approaches.

As for drilling permits for high-volume horizontal hydrofracking – they’re on hold until the environmental review is finalized. At last report DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens said it’s not clear whether any will be issued in 2012.

DEC issues Draft Regulations for Fracking

This morning the DEC issued their draft regulations for high-volume hydraulic fracturing and announced a series of four public hearings.

 The draft regulations, says DEC Commissioner Joe Martens, “are based on the proposed requirements contained in the agency’s revised draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement released earlier this month.”

Martens said that public review of the proposed regulations “is an important part of the environmental impact statement process. The comments from the 2009 public comment period proved insightful and helped inform the revised SGEIS.” He assured the public that the DEC is looking forward to continued oral and written comments during this round.

The draft regulations are supposed to create a legal framework for implementing the proposed mitigation measures published in the revised dSGEIS. The public comment period on the draft regulations begins today and runs concurrently with the public comment period on the dSGEIS, which ends Dec. 12.

In addition for the drilling rules, DEC also released the proposed State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) General Permit (GP) for Stormwater Discharges associated with high-volume hydraulic fracturing.

 Four Hearings:

Each public hearing will have an afternoon session from 1 – 4 pm and an evening session from 6-9 pm. Comments will be accepted in written and oral format at the hearings.

Here’s where the hearings will be:

• Nov. 16: Dansville Middle School Auditorium, 31 Clara Barton St., Dansville, NY 14437
• Nov. 17: The Forum Theatre, 236 Washington Street, Binghamton, NY, 13901
• Nov. 29: Sullivan County Community College, Seelig Theatre, 112 College Rd, Loch   Sheldrake, NY 12759  
• Nov. 30: Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street, New York, NY, 10007

Once the comment period is complete, DEC will review the comments and prepare responses to be released with the final SGEIS and final regulations.  No permits for high-volume hydraulic fracturing will be issued until the SGEIS is finalized and DEC issues the required Findings Statement.

 How to submit comments:

Via the Web at http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/76838.html

By mail to Attn: dSGEIS Comments; New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; 625 Broadway; Albany, NY 12233-6510

For More Info:

On the dSGEIS: http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/75370.html;

On the proposed State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) General Permit (GP) for Stormwater Discharges along with its fact sheet: http://www.dec.ny.gov/permits/77251.html;

On the proposed regulations: http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/77353.html

Hearing on LPG Storage Facility in Watkins Glen, NY

On Tuesday, September 27 the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is holding a public hearing on Inergy's application for a LNG storage and distribution facility on the shore of Seneca Lake, just three miles north of Watkins Glen.

The public hearing begins at 7pm in the Watkins Glen High School Auditorium, 301 12th St. Written comments accepted until Monday, October 10. Send your comments to:  David Bimber, Deputy Regional Permit Administrator, NYSDEC, 6274 East Avon-Lima Road, Avon, NY 14414-9516.

Inergy is a limited partnership developed to “acquire midstream energy assets.” They own and operate four natural gas storage facilities in NY and PA, with a combined gas storage capacity of 41 billion cubic feet (Bcf). Inergy also owns gas pipelines in NY and PA with 30 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) transportation capacity.

Their strategy, in their own words, is to “continue to develop a platform of interconnected natural gas assets that can be operated as an integrated Northeast storage and transportation hub”.

The Seneca Lake proposal

Inergy has proposed a new underground LPG storage facility for the storage and distribution of propane and butane on a portion of a 576 acre site located on NYS Routes 14 and 14A on the western shore of Seneca Lake. The storage facility will use existing caverns used by US Salt.

The company plans to store 2.10 million barrels (88.20 million gallons) of LPG in the salt caverns seasonally, displacing some of the brine currently filling them. The idea is to withdraw the fuel during the heating season.

During storage operations, the brine displaced by LPG will be stored and contained in a 14-acre double-lined surface impoundment with a capacity of 2.19 million barrels (91.98 million gallons) uphill of the facility.

The facility will connect to the existing TEPPCO LPG interstate pipeline, and will ship LPG by truck via NYS Routes 14/14A and rail via the existing Norfolk & Southern Railroad. The proposed project involves construction of a new rail and truck LPG transfer facility, consisting of a 6 rail siding capable of allowing loading/unloading of 24 rail cars within 12 hours, and a truck loading station capable of loading 4 trucks per hour.

Public concerns:

• Residents are concerned about the large 14-acre brine pit.
• They are concerned about the increased rail and truck traffic in a tourist area.
• They are concerned about safety – and note that Inergy has refused to release details of their planned safety measures until after the permit is granted. One concern is the proximity to Watkins Glen.
• They are concerned about air quality issues from the increased truck traffic and potential impacts of ground level ozone and other pollutants on wine grapes and other agricultural crops.
• They are concerned about the impact of this industrialization on the tourism and wine industry.
• They are concerned about the integrity of the brine pit in terms of “extraordinary” weather.
• They would like Inergy and DEC to disclose the number of years of similarly-sized LNG storage facilities and the number of accidents and explosions, so that an honest evaluation can be made of the possible disaster.

You can read the Environmental Impact Statement for the project at http://www.dec.ny.gov/permits/71619.html. Check out what my colleague, journalist Peter Mantius has to say about the project here.