Stop the SGEIS - I want to get off....

Nearly two weeks ago NY Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton sent a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo asking him to temporarily halt the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) process. Her reason:  The SGEIS is flawed and inherently inadequate. There are too many issues - including cumulative impacts, wastewater treatment and disposal, and health issues – that were excluded from the initial scoping document.

“We need to fix it,” Lifton said. She wants the governor to pause the SGEIS process for 30 days to allow the public to comment. Sixty-three of her colleagues from both houses and both sides of the aisle have added their signatures to the letter – but so far, no response from the guv.

Since the SGEIS process began, a lot of information has come to light. Lifton ticked off items that concern her:

• Given the increased salts and other pollutants that have ended up in Pennsylvania streams, we need increased state and federal oversight in wastewater disposal.
• Given new data on methane emissions from gas drilling and production, we need to consider the entire life cycle of unconventional drilling.
• Given that conventional drilling in NY has not brought increased economic benefit to those counties, when compared to non-drilling areas, we need to have better economic studies.
• Given that public health concerns were given short shrift in the original scoping document, they need to be covered more fully.

Add to Lifton’s list one more item: concern that landowners trying to buy or sell their leased properties may not be able to obtain financing. This week Walter Hang (of Toxics Targeting) sent his own letter to the governor asking that Cuomo expand the SGEIS to include leasing and property concerns.

“Gas leasing could have potentially catastrophic impacts on mortgage lending and real estate values throughout the Marcellus Shale formation,” Hang says. He cited a recent memo circulating from within the residential mortgage lending department at Tompkins County Trust. Items of concern included: 

• Drilling might reduce property value. That has already happened in other states, especially in neighborhoods where water has been contaminated.
• Neither FHA nor HUD will finance property where there is surface and/or subsurface activity within 300 feet of a structure or property line. Activity within 200 feet prevents most other conventional financing.
• Whether drilling qualifies as a “commercial venture” and thus would void title insurance.

Given the number of emerging concerns - things that were intentionally excluded from consideration in the SGEIS - asking for a time out to gather comments and extend the scope is not an unreasonable request.

PA to Regulate Marcellus Wastewater

Today, the Pennsylvania state Independent Regulatory Review Commission approved new rules that will protect Pennsylvania’s streams and drinking water supplies against total dissolved solids (TDS) pollution from Marcellus Shade drilling wells. The new rules ensure that rivers and streams do not exceed the safe drinking water standard of 500 milligrams per liter.

"Millions of Pennsylvanians rely on the state’s rivers and streams for drinking water,"  Governor Edward Rendell told the press. "So we cannot allow new, heavily polluted sources of wastewater to contaminate them. That’s why these regulations are so important." The new regulations now await review from the environmental resources and energy committees in the state house and senate.

John Hanger, Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) noted that as the drilling industry expands their activities in the Marcellus Shale, the volume of wastewater returned to Pennsylvania streams could increase exponentially. "The only way to protect our water resources is to implement new wastewater treatment standards for the drilling industry," Hanger said. "All other industries are responsible for the waste they generate, and the drilling industry should be no exception."

Hanger noted that drilling wastewater contains very high levels of chlorides and sulfides, dissolved solids that contribute to the TDS measure. These must be removed from wastewater before the effluent is discharged into surface waters. High TDS levels have damaged industrial equipment, caused drinking water companies to issue drinking water advisories and even led to a massive fish kill on Dunkard Creek. Some of Pennsylvania’s rivers are already nearing their capacity to absorb and dilute additional levels of TDS.

Several states, including Texas, Oklahoma, New York, Iowa, Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee, prohibit returning any drilling wastewater to streams. Read the DEP press release here.