Drill Waters Run foul

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Scott Baker on October 13, 2009 at 5:29pm

Since I posted the above Discussion post last April, T. Boone has not seen fit to reply. This is too critical an issue to let slide. I've had it. As anyone who has followed my history with the Pickens' Plan knows, I was originally an enthusiastic supporter of NG drilling and weaning us off foreign oil. But the unique (to this country) dangers of fracking to get NG out of the ground compel me to come out against this aspect of the Pickens' Plan. There is simply too much evidence of damage to watersheds; fantastic volumes of water needed, beyond what watersheds, often in drought areas can provide; and grossly insufficient wastewater treatment facilities that are literally grinding to a halt from being overwhelmed with sediment many times higher than that of the ocean. The current NY State proposal would place just the most basic restrictions only within 1000 FEET(!) of our city's reservoirs. That is less than a fifth of a mile and grossly inadequate!

A version of this story appeared in the Albany Times-Union [1] on Oct. 8, 2009.

A preliminary report [2] from a consultant hired by New York City warns that "nearly every activity" associated with natural gas drilling could potentially harm the city’s drinking water supply and that while the risk can be reduced with strict regulations, "the likelihood of water quality impairment … cannot be eliminated [2]."

That assessment contrasts sharply with the picture presented by an environmental review released by state officials last week [3]. Aside from clauses that ban some waste pits and promise additional consideration for drilling within 1,000 feet of the city’s reservoirs and water infrastructure in upstate New York, the environmental review does little to respond to New York City’s long-standing concerns [4] that the watershed deserves special environmental consideration and instead paves the way for drilling to proceed throughout the watershed.

Read the rest here:
http://www.propublica.org/feature/gas-drilling-vs-drinking-water-ne...

Permalink Reply by W. Dan Chance on October 13, 2009 at 6:02pm

How can we ask mothers and fathers to look their children in the eyes and stupidly confess that we have so messed up the environment by burning fossil fuels that we have to start burning natural gas because it creates less CO2 and at the same time admit that extracting the natural gas will so contaminate the precious little drinking water that most of our children and grand children will contract deadly cancers? If we don't have a conscience anymore, it's time to euthanize this whole generation. Now if someone has a plan to do the job safely with no possible contamination of ground water, let's hear it.