NY state next battleground over fracking

For Robert and Christine Applegate, the 40-acre farm in upstate Virgil, near Cortland, where they raise chickens and grow vegetables including broccoli and eggplant to sell at the local farmers market, is the property they've always dreamed of owning.

They fear that the push to permit hydrofracking -- the pumping of millions of gallons of water underground to force the release of natural gas -- in New York could destroy their land, pollute their drinking water and turn the countryside into an industrial landscape.

"We go out and work all day and all you hear is the wind," said Robert Applegate, 64, a retired teacher whose property borders land he said has been leased to a fracking company. "For each one of those wells they're talking about 8,000 truck trips. There's the roar of the compression station if there's a well anywhere near the house. I'm told that it drives you crazy."

But Don Niver of nearby Cortlandville, a facilities manager at an asphalt company, says drilling can be done safely, and he hopes to make a modest amount of money by leasing his land to the energy companies.

"I'm kind of wishfully thinking that maybe down the road my children might benefit from it," said Niver, 47.

The debate over the natural gas extraction process called high-volume horizontal fracturing, or fracking, is pitting neighbor against neighbor across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions of New York.

Steady revenue eyed

Energy companies are eyeing steady revenue, while some residents of economically depressed communities are hoping to collect royalties from gas revenue and see an influx of jobs. A study for the state Department of Environmental Conservation suggested that fracking could provide 6,200 to 37,000 jobs in the peak 30th year of production, depending on how much gas can be extracted, and generate $31 million to $185 million in state personal income taxes. The estimates were derived from industry projections.

But the prospect of widespread drilling has sparked opposition from environmentalists and other residents who fear air pollution, water contamination and the industrialization of rural areas. Governments also would have to spend money on bridge and road improvements to accommodate truck and equipment traffic needed to support drilling.

As the battle rages on the airwaves and in courts and town halls, the state has embarked on a regulatory path to gain the income that fracking generates while avoiding the mistakes of Pennsylvania and other parts of the country.

Pennsylvania's problems with well construction and equipment failure have led to methane gas seeping into water supplies. While dissolved methane is not classified as a health hazard, the gas could cause asphyxiation and explosions in enclosed spaces, according to a study published this year in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Chemical spills also have occurred. In September 2009, about 8,000 gallons of liquid gel at the site of a Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. gas well in Dimock Township spilled into Stevens Creek, killing fish and polluting a wetland, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The wetland was flushed with water, and the gel mixture was pumped to storage tanks.

Shale formations deep in the earth contain pockets of natural gas that can't be tapped economically by conventional methods. Hydraulic fracturing pumps millions of gallons of water mixed with chemicals, some of them toxic, into the shale to release the gas. The gas, along with some of the water and chemicals, rises to the surface.

The Marcellus shale formation stretches across Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. It holds an estimated 84 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that can be extracted, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Based on Henry Hubb spot natural gas prices last week, that would be worth $244.14 billion. U.S. households used 4.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2010.

In New York, the Marcellus and Utica shales lie under the state's western and central regions, the Southern Tier, the Catskills and parts of the Hudson Valley. The USGS has not estimated how much gas can be recovered from the Utica shale.

The gas industry says fracking poses no threat to water supplies because the fracturing occurs deep below them. But reports of water contamination and chemical spills in other states have set off alarms in New York. The state released a draft environmental impact statement in 2009, and last December, then-Gov. David A. Paterson issued a seven-month moratorium on fracking and called for a new environmental study. Energy companies are waiting for the state to complete new regulations and issue drilling permits.

"There are far more questions than answers even at this stage of the game," said Robert Moore, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York, which lobbies for stronger environmental laws, and a member of a state advisory panel on fracking.

"We're still struggling with what are the negative consequences associated with hydrofracking . . . Are they really outweighed by the perceived benefits in terms of jobs and revenues for state and local governments?" Moore said.

Concern about wastewater

One concern is what happens to the mix of water and chemicals that will come out of the wells. "We're talking about billions of gallons of wastewater being generated," Moore said. "We know most municipal sewage plants are not set up to adequately treat this stuff."

Mark Boling, executive vice president and general counsel for Houston-based Southwestern Energy, a natural gas producer, said environmentalists and the industry have become engaged in a kind of trench warfare that doesn't help the public understand the safety issues.

"It is very difficult to actually sit down and have a healthy debate with someone and say, 'Listen, you need to look at the science,' when in their hearts the emotion is there saying this is going to ruin my water, this is going to hurt the land that I love,' " he said.

Boling conceded that the gas companies have been slow to disclose the chemicals they use and to address concerns about problems such as methane gas migration into water supplies.

In September, the state issued a new environmental impact study and proposed regulations that would ban fracking from the New York City and Syracuse watersheds. The public comment period ends Dec. 12 and final regulations could come next year. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has left it to the advisory panel, the DEC and the public hearing process to recommend how government agencies should monitor hydrofracking and enforce regulations.

"I know that the temperature is high," Cuomo said last month. "Let's get the facts. Let the science and the facts make the determination, not emotion and not politics."

State Sen. Greg Ball (R-Brewster) said regulations can be effective, but New York shouldn't rush into rules. "I don't want to see what happened on farms and with private property owners in Pennsylvania happen in New York State," he said.

Ball is pushing legislation that would increase protections for property owners so drilling companies would have to pay market value for properties that sustain damage.

Other officials also have warned that local governments could see millions of dollars in increased costs for bridge and road repairs. The early stages of developing a single well pad -- a site from which multiple wells can be drilled -- would involve 1,148 trips by heavy trucks and 831 by light trucks, according to the state revised draft environmental impact statement.

But Sen. Tom Libous (R-Binghamton), Senate deputy majority leader, said a gas drilling boom would bring jobs to an area that has seen companies disappear or downsize. "We're a struggling region here in upstate New York," he said. "I just don't see another emerging industry coming our way."