Early this year Bo Lindsay made this useful PDF file enabling others to stay informed on the DEC’s status of pending gas well applications in NYS. Unlike PA, NYS has no single URL that displays this data. Without these instructions there is no other way to access and to stay informed on status of individual gas wells. An example of the DEC data is shown at the top of the PDF.
The file has just been revised to include a live clickable link to the DEC’s site to avoid manually typing the long URL. Thanks to Bo for this useful tool. NYS gas well permit applications (PDF)
Basically I am someone who favors energy independence. I would love someone to install an electricity-generating windmill on the hill behind my house, and I am impressed by the dedication of neighbors who have installed solar panels, though I doubt that we get enough sun here to make it economically viable. So when, a few years ago, I first heard about the local drilling for gas, my thought was “what a good idea, and how fortunate we are to be over a gas deposit”. I could not understand how anyone could be opposed: after all, sink a pipe and up comes clean, natural gas.
Thus the past few weeks of reading what is happening to our area has come as a shock and a rude awakening. As many who live in the areas surrounding Ithaca, I discover by looking at the gas lease maps available on the web that I am surrounded by land that has been leased for gas drilling. I’m sure that these neighbors thought like I used to: it is perfectly safe, you stand a chance of getting rich (I am told by more than one landowner that the leasing agents gave figures to land-owners of $40,000 per month), and the operation is perfectly benign, so what’s the harm?
WRONG! Unlike my naïve original assumptions, drilling involves more than a simple hole in the ground. And I find that many of my neighbors are unaware that it’s possible for this drilling to take place in their back yard, unaware of the dangers to which we are all likely to be exposed. So to that end I would like to list what this drilling involves. Continue reading "On the Education of a ‘Fracking Neophyte" by Peter Davies
Cornell Faculty Senate passed a Marcellus Gas Drilling Resolution two nights ago:
A moratorium should be imposed on the leasing of Cornell lands for horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing until a scientifically informed consensus is reached at federal, state and local levels on the long-term environmental, health, economic and community impacts of this activity, federal and state legislation for adequate regulation of this activity is in place, and the infrastructure is in place to enforce these regulations…
Protect New York State drinking water from unsafe gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. The hydrofracking process endangers drinking water supplies, uses billions of gallons of drinking water in the process and creates contaminated water that cannot be properly treated. In New York State, Governor Paterson needs to ban unsafe gas drilling in order to protect our drinking water supply. Safer methods are being developed that are well worth waiting for.
At Ho Plaza (Cornell’s central campus, in front of Willard Straight Hall).
Come rally at Cornell to demand that the university not approve any land leases of Cornell-owned land in New York State! Students are speaking out against NG drilling and calling on the administration to denounce and reject fracking natural gas as a “transition” strategy. They are rallying to raise awareness on campus and to tell Cornell that they care. Please come in support and solidarity if you can! (They will have signs, but more are welcome.)
Hosted by KyotoNOW student organization.
Contact Maria at 845-489-4780 or maria.k.oldiges@gmail.com if you have any questions or need directions.
At Goldwin Smith Hall 132 (Hollis E Cornell Auditorium), Cornell Campus. RSVP on Facebook.
Presenters:
Walter Hang, Toxics Targeting
Lisa Wright and Ryan Clover, Shaleshock Citizens Action Alliance
Walter Hang is President of Toxics Targeting, an environmental database firm in Ithaca, New York. He is the leading authority on environmental, toxicity, and public health issues related to Marcellus Shale gas drilling and the controversial drilling technique known as “hydrofracking” (short for horizontal chemical-laden hydraulic fracturing of shale where natural gas is contained). Many concerned citizens are asking: Does it make sense to contaminate essential resources such as water and soil in order to extract one resource – natural gas? Are we to drill first and ask questions later? Walter Hang will address these issues. He will use multimedia presentation to discuss the history of gas drilling in New York State and summarize findings on gas drilling pollution and environmental protection.
Lisa Wright and Ryan Clover are leading organizers of Shaleshock Citizens Action Alliance, a grassroots group of Finger Lakes residents seeking to protect regional communities and the environment from natural gas exploitation in the Marcellus Shale. They will discuss the environmental justice response to hydrofracking. They will provide you with opportunities to become involved.
Sponsors: Palante (Proyecto Palante and Palante Salsa en Rueda Dance Troupe), Shaleshock Citizens Action Alliance, Kyoto Now, New World Agriculture and Ecology Group. Event financed in party by Graduate and Professional Student Assembly.
Given the very significant interest in the Marcellus Shale drilling, I’m pleased to inform you that the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science, the Paleontological Research Institution, the Cornell Water Resources Institute and Cornell Cooperative Extension will host a panel discussion on
“The Marcellus Shale: Energy, Environment and the Public Interest”
to be held in Uris Hall Auditorium from 4:45 to 6:45 pm on Tuesday, Dec. 1.
This forum is intended to inform the Cornell faculty on the broad range of energy and environmental issues that underlie the current controversy regarding extraction of shale gas from the Marcellus Formation in southern N.Y. and northern Pennsylvania. Cornell experts in geology, energy, groundwater, and public policy will be present to help answer questions regarding the potential risks and benefits associated with this national energy resource.
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