Looking Ahead

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis Saturday April 22, 2012m Earth Day, came to us with a warning of the greatest April storm and three-inch rainfall ever, to attack the Northeast within a day or two. It also came with another warning, from our upstate friends Kathy and Paul, who told us to worry about a possible decision of the NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation and its Advisory Council, approving hydro-fracking for natural gas in our southern area, on the edge of the gas-rich Marcellus Shale. You may remember that President Obama stated, in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 that his administration will take every possible action to safely expand shale gas drilling efforts. It was an endorsement of a practice that has divided statehouses, as lawmakers debate how to develop the industry while mitigating its environmental impacts. The development of natural gas will create 600,000 jobs and produce power for trucks and factories that is cleaner and cheaper, proving that we don’t have to choose between our environment and our economy, said the President, in what appeared to be a politics-over –conviction decision. His words could be a boon to lawmakers in shale-rich states hoping to stoke natural gas development by limiting restrictions on the practice of hydraulic fracturing, a method of improving the extraction of natural gas by drilling deep (200 to 2,000- plus ft) wells, and blasting deep into the openings millions of gallons of water laced with sand and toxic chemicals. Opponents of the technique — commonly known as fracking — say it taints local aquifers, putting drinking water supplies at risk. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has strongly indicated that he wants NYC water supply protected from contamination; he may able to protect the three NYC conduits, Croton (completed 1880), Catskills (1916) and Delaware aqueducts (1945, supplies ½ of city water) ,but there is the concern that the last mentioned uses some water from the Delaware River Basin (a source contractually shared by NYS-including NYC- NJ, DE and PA) that may cross hydro- fracking territory. Governor Andrew Cuomo has directed NYS Environmental Conservation Department to evaluate, with the aid of its legislative advisory committee, whether the state should engage in supporting hydro-fracking. Meanwhile, in a law suit between Anschutz Exploratory Company and the town of Dryden in Tompkins County, Judge Philip R. Ramsey of the NYS Supreme Court in Feb 2012 ruled that local governments can use their zoning laws to determine whether to permit oil and gas drilling.; and a farmer in Otsego County sued her local government, claiming encroachment on her rights regarding exploring on private property. And then there is a statement from the NYS Conservation Department that in matters of gas and oil state mining laws should prevail over local laws , except in jurisdiction over local roads. This seems to open new reviews, since roads are highly destructible. Further, some concerns about earthquakes have arisen. Checking the status of hydro-fracking further, in the NYSCD website, it appears that wells of 600 ft. plus depth need NYS review and approval. We should note that, since the late 1800s, NYS has drilled 75,000 oil, gas and salt wells, of which 14,000 are still active. To gain first-hand knowledge, our upstate friends have driven over to Williamsport in PA, a town of 120,000 inhabitants , west of Scranton, once the lumber capital of the world, with baronial mansions, currently the place of Little League world championships. Five years ago land agents invaded the territory and bought up gas drilling rights , and by 2009 Talisman Energy from Calgary had 53 wells, estimated to reach 150 plus during 2011. They produce 315 M cubic feet of gas a day. The roads are clogged by super-heavy Halliburton trucks, country lanes are in bad repair and getting destroyed . There is the thought that Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret meetings with gas and oil industry executives formed the basis of this activity, which is spreading towards the M arcellus Shale area edge in New York. Explorations in PA continue, with nearby Youngstown OH another active area. This activity, starting with drilling down as much as 2,000 feet, then sinking a pipe to contain the filling up of the hole, then sinking a liner cement pipe, and , if necessary, drilling up to another 2,000 feet and putting in a lower containment pipe, before pouring water, oil and chemicals under high pressure to fracture the rock, or shale, and pressing out the gas, has impact on the hard cover of the planet, the skin above the boiling magma. Most immediate is that of earthquakes. The chemicals constitute less than ½ of 1 percent of the fracturing mix, per industry sources, and have not yet heavily penetrated people’s water sources Governor John Kasich of Ohio, subsequent to the 4 Richter scale earthquakes in Youngstown, just over the PA borderline, had ordered a moratorium in a certain area of his pre-Cambrian layer of shale, which has since been removed, compensated by the addition of new government controls. Earthquakes were also reported in Arkansas. In NYS the resistance against hydro racking is limited, seemingly led by the Riverkeepers and land conservancy people. NY capital market money has gone into development, and the argument of “poisoning of water, our nonrenewable resource,” is being countered by proposals of how industry will stop the possible dangerous contamination of water. One might ask, how do you bring the water back back when it is dissipated and used to keep up the pressure on the gas; ? How do you purify all drinking water for mankind, at what cost? It may be that the markets are realizing this, since 1st Q 2012 economic growth is at 2.2 percent, and while manufacturing is up, the expected oil and gas industry investment spending is not there. President Obama may well be advised to review the controls needed to fulfill his 600,000 job proposal.