NY Group Joins Call on Feds to Study Gas Drilling Impact
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
NEW YORK - A group of eight organizations is calling for a comprehensive study of potential risks to water safety and the environment from drilling for natural gas, in New York and five other northeastern states. They say drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation will generate much-needed energy, jobs, and billions in state revenues, but it needs to be done safely.
Pat Carrulo, a co-founder of New York-based Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, one of the groups signing the petition, says his organization is concerned about the extraction process the industry calls "fracking;" it involves fracturing subsurface rocks to free gas trapped in the stone.
"They're using up to 900 toxic chemicals which they're injecting into the ground, bringing up radiation from deep below. It's very, very problematic, which is why we're asking for a study."
Backers insist the drilling process is safe and they see natural gas as a necessary bridge to a future of renewable energy sources. Carullo says the study must examine the possibilities of long-term environmental impacts and threats to human health. The groups are asking for a study under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Carullo says New York has a moratorium in place against horizontal fracking, a method that many claim is the most dangerous extraction method, but that ban expires in June. He says there are applications pending for thousands of wells, with the potential for long-term damage to the regional water supply.
"New York City gets its water from there, but also Philadelphia and half of New Jersey, get their water from the watershed region here, in what's called the Upper Delaware Watershed."
Carullo says New York has yet to undertake a comprehensive study of the impacts of natural gas drilling. He hopes federal authorities get started soon.
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