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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)
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
By arimoore, on August 12th, 2009%
The 2009 draft State Energy Plan that was just released seems to be getting little public attention. The interim plan (March 2009) was developed after a number of hearings last winter and was focused on renewable sources. The interim plan was replaced on the website by the draft plan this week and has expanded coverage to all energy sources including development of the Marcellus Shale.
Pages 49-51 address natural gas development and quote the potential recoverable production that are prevalent in the industry publications but are now being questioned based on experience in the fully developed Barnett Shale. There are a lot of assumptions about the economic benefits of increased landowner wealth and tax collection although property taxes on gas production are extremely modest and NY presently has no severance tax on natural gas production. It does acknowledge concerns about the local impacts to communities, including increased truck traffic, noise, aesthetics, and impact on quality of life. Assumptions are made that environmental protection is fully satisfied by the DEC during the GEIS process.
The Ithaca Journal had an article on the Plan this week based on the Governor’s executive order and a press release. It also quotes environmental advocates.
There is a series of public meetings through Aug and Sept. (PDF) and a mid Oct. deadline for written comments with the final report due in November.
It seems to me that this deserves a high priority for all government officials and environmental advocates.
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:
- Develop overweight vehicle permits and driveway permits to protect your roads and create direct contact/negotiations with the drilling firm.
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
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About Us Shaleshock is an information hub connecting people to regional groups and projects working to stop exploitative drilling in the Marcellus Shale.(more)
2009 Signs of Sustainability
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