Fracking debate heats up
Posted on 16. Sep, 2010 by Eleanor Miller in Uncategorized
The latest environmental buzz word is “fracking,” and no one is referring to the slang word from “Battlestar Galactica.”
“Fracking” is the shortened term for “hydraulic fracturing,” a process in which water mixed with sand and chemicals is forced into clay beneath the earth’s surface to extract natural gas and other resources. Last Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency wrapped up its series of public hearings on the issue with the second of two town hall meetings in Binghamton, New York. The EPA also announced it was requesting information about the chemicals used in fracking from nine major companies involved in harvesting the natural gas.
“In making the requests of the nine leading national and regional and regional hydraulic fracturing service providers,” the EPA said in a statement, the “EPA is seeking information on the chemical composition of fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing process.”
Currently, none of these chemicals or drilling procedures are regulated or tracked. The federal FRAC Act, which would regulate the chemicals used in hydrofracturing (currently free from Safe Drinking Water Act rules), stalled in Congress last session.
As a technique, fracking has existed since the 1940s, but its use in the Marcellus region of upstate and western New York has only begun in the last few years.
“There have been millions of these things done,” said geologist John Bredehoeft. However, there are potential problems: gas could potentially seep into water supplies during the fracking process (although Bredehoeft says this is more of a nuisance than a hazard), and chemicals used in the process could also contaminate aquifers located just beneath the surface.
Bredehoeft, an expert in groundwater science who worked with the U.S. geological Survey for more than three decades, says scientists are working on ways to reduce the pollution left behind, but how much harm fracking can cause is controversial.
“There’s a lot of stories, but not a lot of data,” said Bredehoeft. “I haven’t seen anybody that’s done a really good study” to determine environmental impact.
Fracking has become a contentious issue between environmental activists and local residents and energy companies, who say risks are minimal and potential benefits are huge.
Some New York City council members are concerned that fracking sites in upstate New York could contaminate water that supplies the five boroughs. In April, the state agreed to limit the amount of drilling that could be done in areas that supply the city’s drinking water, but did not approve a total ban.
The New York City Council held a town hall meeting in late August. Most who spoke were against fracking, but not all.
“The opportunity for New York to become the first energy independent state in the world is irresistible,” said Ray Olson, a landowner along the watershed upstate. “There are a million acres in the watershed. 900,000 of those are privately owned. It is not your watershed, and it is certainly not your water. It is ours.”
Environmental advocacy groups say action is sorely needed to prevent the potential for “contaminated drinking water, fatal explosions, dead livestock and destroyed landscapes,” as blogger and activist Kate Sinding, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, warned.
In the northeast United States, the Marcellus shale formation (covering parts of several states, including New York) is just one of several shale formations that geologists and gas companies say have yet to be fully exploited.
Advocates of fracking say potential benefits are huge: some estimates say there is enough energy to supply the region for decades, and would bring hundreds of jobs and enormous amounts of revenue into rural areas. Nearly 8,000 jobs were listed last week by companies involved in Marcellus fracking. Some residents have already begun seeing revenue after leasing drilling rights to their properties.
A 2002 study by the United States Geologic Service estimated that there may be more than 70.2 trillion cubic feet of untapped natural gas in the Appalachian Basin Province, of which the Marcellus Shale formation is a small part. An initial public offering of just one part of the Marcellus Shale in a single Pennsylvania county was worth an estimated $176,050,000.
In August, the New York state senate voted to place a moratorium on fracking until the EPA study was done, but it can’t be put into effect unless the state assembly also passes a similar measure.
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