Archives

Ithaca council raises natural gas-drilling concerns

By arimoore, on August 25th, 2009%

Read Ithaca council raises natural gas-drilling concerns by Krisy Gashler:

Raising concerns about drinking water, roads and safety for emergency responders, Ithaca’s Common Council is getting involved in the discussion about gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

The majority of the city’s watershed for its Six Mile Creek drinking water source is outside the city in the Towns of Ithaca and Caroline. Roughly 38 percent of the total land area in Tompkins County has already been leased for oil and gas drilling, including 12 percent in the Town of Ithaca and 49 percent in Caroline, according to gas lease deed information compiled by the citizen’s action group Shaleshock.

Common Council Planning Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Dotson, I-1st, said city officials have concerns in four major areas: water use and wastewater disposal; impact on roads and infrastructure; safety, especially for firefighters who may have to respond to fires or accidents at drilling sites; and the tax structure for oil and gas revenue.

The planning committee this week discussed strategies they could use to protect the city, including identifying critical natural areas, adopting road preservation laws, and demanding disclosure of all chemicals in hydro-fracturing (fracking) fluid before considering whether to accept it at the wastewater treatment plant, which discharges into Cayuga Lake. (Read more)

Leave a comment   latest news   , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  

Tell the DEC you care about your water and roads

By arimoore, on August 17th, 2009%

Remind our DEC officials and the Governor’s office that the “produced water” laced with chemicals and worse will be transported by thousands of trucks pulverizing local roads designed for sightseeing like Route 89 or ones made for milk trucks, farm vehicles and school buses like Route 96. According to State Comptroller DiNapoli the upstate highway infrastructure is already crumbling and will require at least $250 billion dollars to fix and/or maintain in the next decade.

Let’s not forget to mention we are very concerned about where the hundreds of millions of gallons of water necessary to frack wells will come from – and where it will go once it’s polluted with chemicals!

Please contact:

Pete Grannis, DEC Commissioner
625 Broadway, 14th floor
Albany, NY 12233
petegrannis@gw.dec.state.ny.us
(518) 402-8540

Judith Enck, Deputy Sec. for the Environment
State Capital Executive Chambers
Room 245
Albany, NY 12224
judith.enck@chamber.state.ny.us
(518) 473-5442

Governor David A. Paterson
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
518-474-8390

Leave a comment   Uncategorized   , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  

"What is the true cost of doing this?"

By arimoore, on August 12th, 2009%

Marie McRae wrote a letter to the editor in July 31′s Ithaca Journal, Drilling traffic also a concern:

In the article on truck traffic hauling New York City garbage through Tompkins County, John Grant of Trumansburg is quoted as asking “what is the true cost of doing this?” I completely sympathize with those whose lives are impacted by the truck noise, accidents and road damage.

However, if you think that a few (I use that word deliberately) garbage trucks are wreaking havoc now, just wait until the hydraulic fracturing trucks come to town. Fifty-ton trucks making hundreds of trips per well drilled, some carrying a mix of water and toxic chemicals.

In Pennsylvania, and other places where hydro fracing has occurred, the record is clear on: damage to roads (with the bill shouldered by local taxpayers), damage to land and water and risks to human health (information: shaleshock.org, catskillmountainkeeper.org).

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation holds the power to regulate gas drilling in New York with its Supplemental Generic Impact Statement. Ask DEC now for a 90-day public comment period for the draft of that statement when it is released. Clean water and peace of mind are priceless. Ask: What is the true cost of doing this drilling?

Marie McRae
Freeville

One comment   Uncategorized   , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  

Action recommendations from the Chair of the Tompkins County Council of Governments

By shirari, on June 19th, 2009%

Action recommendations from Don Barber, Chair Tompkins County Council of Governments, Supervisor Town of Caroline:

June 15, 2009 7 PM
Broome Community College

Natural Gas Drilling and Local Government Responsibility to Protect the Health, Safety, and Well Being of its Citizens

In general local governments need to find ways to insert themselves into a process that the State has written us out of.

Potential action steps:

  1. Develop overweight vehicle permits and driveway permits to protect your roads and create direct contact/negotiations with the drilling firm.
  2. Identify and legislate critical environmental areas (CEA) within your municipality. DEC must then perform site specific SEQR review for permit applications which affect these CEA’s
  3. Contact every State Legislator, Governor Paterson and his Deputy Secretary for the Environment, and the DEC Commissioner that we need:
    • Notification of permit applications and permits issued;
    • Emergency Services need contact info, hazardous material info, gas fire training;
    • Fuel production tax or Severance tax to create proper revenues to local governments – tax revenue to support DEC oversight program
  4. Contact State Legislators requesting that ECL Section 23-0303 be amended so that local governments become involved agencies for SEQR review. And to support S8748 Natural Gas Drilling Prohibition Near Watershed
  5. Contact your Congressperson and US Senator to support HR 2766 Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2009.

Signed,
Don Barber
Chair Tompkins County Council of Governments, Supervisor Town of Caroline, 607-539-3395, supervisor@townofcaroline.org

Please Contact:

Pete Grannis, DEC Commissioner
625 Broadway, 14th floor
Albany, NY 12233
petegrannis@gw.dec.state.ny.us
(518)402-8540

Judith Enck, Deputy Sec. for the Environment
State Capital Executive Chambers
Room 245
Albany, NY 12224
judith.enck@chamber.state.ny.us
(518) 473-5442

Governor David A. Paterson
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
http://161.11.121.121/govemail
518-474-8390

There was a special TCCOG meeting held at the Ithaca Town Hall on March 30th by Municipal and Environmental Attorney Kimberlea Rea. The white paper for her talk is available by following the gas drilling link on the TCCOG website:
http://www.tompkins-co.org/legislature/TCCOG/

A video of the meeting can be found at http://tompco.net/tccog/gas.html

Leave a comment   Uncategorized   , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  

Morrisville State College to Host Regional Legislative Conference on Natural Gas Development – See gas well sites

By shirari, on May 29th, 2009%

A Proactive Municipal Response to Natural Gas Development in Upstate New York will be held at John W. Stewart Center for Student Activities (STUAC) at Morrisville State College (conveniently located off State Rte. 20 in southern Madison County). Immediately following the conference, tours will be offered of existing gas well development in the towns of Lebanon and Smyrna, which adjoin in Madison and Chenango counties and have more than 100 gas wells in various stages of operation, development and permitting.

Program
Welcome from Morrisville State College President Raymond Cross, Ph.D.
9 a.m. to 11 a.m. – What Municipalities Can Do Regarding Natural Gas Development
11 a.m. to noon – Discussion, question and answer session and developing consensus on a comprehensive legislative agenda for local municipalities in the region to advance in Albany to address local concerns and impacts.

The conference, A Proactive Municipal Response to Natural Gas Development in Upstate New York, is suggested for elected and appointed town and county officials who are currently experiencing natural gas development activities in their communities or are located in the Marcellus Shale Reserve and expect such activity in the coming months and years.

Speakers include Kimberly Rea, Esq. Bosworth, Gray & Fuller, Environmental and Municipal Attorney; Mark R. Millspaugh, P.E., President of Sterling Engineering, PC, Latham, NY; and a panel of local municipal officials including Madison and Chenango County representatives.

Topics that will be covered include Environmental Conservation Law Section 23-0303 – the powers it gives and the powers taken from local government and towns, the impact of the draft Supplemental GEIS on hydrofracking process for gas drilling of Marcellus Shale gas wells for local governments – what will be the regulations and when will these be implemented and how.

Additional topics include actions municipal governments can take to address local road impacts and protect local roads, actions municipal governments can take to protect critical areas in their municipalities.

The current system of assessment of fuel production and property taxes in New York State and proposals to create a severance tax or fuel production tax, and its ramifications or opportunities for local municipalities will also be discussed.

The conference, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Morrisville State College, the Association of Towns of New York State, New York State Association of Counties and Madison County.

Pre-registration is preferred, but not required, by contacting Town of Lebanon Supervisor Jim Goldstein at Lebanon@citlink.net or 315-837-4152.

Please feel free to circulate this information to all interested parties and all media are encouraged to publicize it and attend to provide coverage so that local officials in our region are aware of and have opportunity to attend this free, accessible conference. Please encourage your local officials to attend!

For more information, contact:
Franci Valenzano, Public Relations Associate
Phone: 315-684-6041 E-mail: valenzfr@morrisville.edu

2 comments   calendar   , , , , , , , , ,