The Facts Behind It All and What to Know
By Brendan O.
Emotions are running high in the natural gas drilling conflict. Fear of damaging the environment clashes with the vast economic benefits that drilling could bring. As with any large issue, facts are often hidden in a lot of bias and embellishment. Each side presents the information it wants you to know and not much else. The fact of the matter is that there are a substantial number of pros as well as cons to the natural gas debate.
The fears associated with drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale in upstate NY range from deforestation, pollution, and contamination, to harmful health effects related to the chemicals and extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing. But are these fears credible?
When drilling began in Dish, Texas, people feared adverse health effects on the population. They did a few tests and found that their air was full of benzene and other chemicals. They immediately blamed it on the drilling. They didn’t take into consideration the fact that their town is located near Alliance Airport, and that their town is literally sprayed with benzene and other chemicals on a daily basis from the planes taking off. In fact 70% of gasoline is benzene, so anyone who lives along a highway would probably be exposed to more benzene and other harmful chemicals than someone who lives in a rural area and has a drilling rig nearby.
There have been no documented cases of groundwater contamination or air pollution as a direct result of hydraulic fracturing. Many people worry that since so much water is needed for fracking that their local streams and ponds will be drained. This is also not true because GE has invented a type of filtration system that will allow the drilling companies to filter and reuse water that has already been utilized for fracking.
New York currently has the tightest restrictions on air and water pollution of any other state, and gas drilling companies in N.Y. are even required to perform seismic tests to check for fault lines or other conditions that would put the water table at risk.
Chris Fitzsimmons, Chairman of the Joint Landowners Coalition, believes that New York may have gone overboard with restrictions. According to Fitzsimmons, the real concerns should be damage to roads and human error. “Accidents happen,” said Fitzsimmons. It is inevitable that people will make mistakes, and spills of chemical-laced fracking fluid have occurred. However, the SGEIS, the DEC’s environmental impact statement, has tightened the regulations to prevent spills and has laid out procedures to follow in the event of a spill.
Natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale could potentially bring in enormous profits to New York, money that could help schools and communities, and lower state taxes. NYS collected $900,000 from 500 80-acre wells. Thousands more wells are proposed, closer to 640 acres per well. It all adds up to a colossal windfall for New York.
