Anticipating a gas attack

2009: the year in gas drilling

By FRITZ MAYER

RIVER VALLEY — Although there is not a single gas well operating in the Upper Delaware River Basin, this newspaper published about 200 stories on gas drilling in 2009. It is high on the radar of area residents and it is an ever-changing conversation.

The prospect of gas drilling began to spread through Wayne County, PA in 2008, making its way eastward to Sullivan County, NY as well. By the first issue of 2009, a story headlined “They’re heeere” marked the beginning of seismic testing and gas exploration in Pike County, PA.

Early in the year, the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced that it had received applications from Chesapeake Energy to drill five wells in the Town of Hancock, but the DEC said there would be no drilling until the updating of new permit conditions for the specific type of drilling was completed.

Over the next few months, many residents and public officials would come to understand the regulatory process as one that would necessitate the development of a supplemental generic environmental impact statement (SGEIS) for deep horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale. It’s a process that entered a final phase on December 31, when the DEC stopped accepting public comment on the SGEIS, and will soon issue the new permit conditions for drilling in the Marcellus Shale in New York.

When the DEC released the draft of the SGEIS in late September, the agency described it as providing various additional protections for the environment and New York residents. The new proposed permit conditions, for instance, would require that gas drilling companies reveal all the ingredients of the fracking fluids they use, and drillers would be required to perform baseline testing of private water wells within 1,000 feet of a gas well and allow for ongoing monitoring of the private well water.

Proponents of gas drilling were pleased with the draft.

Environmental groups, however, strongly opposed the proposed permit conditions for numerous reasons, not the least of which was that there is no study or consideration of the cumulative effects of hundreds or perhaps thousands of gas wells in the region. Another objection was that the issue of public safety was handed over to local municipalities who were ill equipped to handle it. Also, there was no meaningful economic impact study regarding how the drilling would impact such industries as tourism, agriculture, hunting and fishing.

By December 3, 26 environmental groups wrote to NY Governor David Paterson asking him to rip up the SGEIS and start from scratch, which would delay the process for at least another year and, perhaps, quite a bit longer. So far, the governor has not responded to the letter.

The issue in Pennsylvania was no less contentious. In March, with the issuance of a memo, John Hanger, secretary of the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), stripped oversight authority.

regarding issues such as run-off and erosion in connection with gas wells, from the county-based conservation districts and handed those responsibilities over to the DEP.

There was a loud and immediate outcry from the conservation districts and from environmentalists. Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, said at the time, “DEP’s actions are complete give-aways to the oil and gas industry. DEP acted without any public notice or opportunity to comment and, in so doing, have increased the likelihood of more sediment pollution to Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams. In taking these actions, DEP has ignored its own core values of environmental protection and public transparency.”

Hanger defended the move as being a more efficient way to deal with drilling, but that didn’t fly with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF). In August, the organization brought a lawsuit against the DEP. In a press release, the organization wrote, “Instead of protecting the environment, DEP is rubber stamping [drilling] permit applications without any formal review.”

Against this backdrop, up jumped the matter of Dimock Township, PA where gas drilling caused enough havoc that the stories from contaminated gas wells there made news across the country.

On November 20, 15 Dimock families filed a lawsuit against Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation to address what the families claim is damage that has occurred to their homes, property and health as a consequence of natural gas drilling.

Beginning in the fall of 2008, Cabot, which drilled a number of wells in the area, experienced numerous incidents with negative impacts. There were spills of diesel fuel, spills of fracking fluid, drilling mud discharges and contamination of private wells. The DEP investigated these incidents and determined that Cabot was responsible for multiple violations of Pennsylvania law and was also responsible for allowing or causing methane to infiltrate the wells of 13 homes. The lawsuit is pending.