LOCH SHELDRAKE — Landowners eager to cash in on natural gas leases implored state regulators to swiftly clear the way for hydraulic fracturing while other residents, farmers and environmental groups called for a ban on the technology at a public hearing Tuesday in the Catskills.
Supporters insist that the practice known as fracking has a long track record of safety. Opponents fear contamination of water supplies and note the state ban on gas drilling in the New York City and Syracuse watersheds demonstrates that environmental regulators consider it risky as well. Fracking stimulates shale gas wells into production by injecting millions of gallons of chemical-laced water into the well shaft to fracture rock a mile underground, freeing trapped gas.
The Department of Environmental Conservation is taking comment until Dec. 12 on its 1,537-page environmental review and proposed regulations for gas drilling and fracking in the Marcellus Shale, the nation's richest natural gas field, which underlies southern New York, Pennsylvania, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. About 500 people attended the DEC's third public hearing on the proposal Tuesday. A large turnout is expected at the final hearing, to be held Wednesday in New York City.
Carl Chipman, supervisor of the town of Rochester in Ulster County, told the agency at Tuesday's hearing that the agency doesn't have enough staff to properly oversee gas drilling because hundreds of staff members have been laid off due to state budget cuts in the last few years. "DEC has been gutted by the governor," Chipman said.
Another town supervisor, Jim Greier of Fremont, said the state's track record for natural gas development was excellent, and after 3 ½ years of environmental study, "it's time to move forward."
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