New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) last week sent a petition with more than 10,000 signatures to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo asking the state to take steps to protect drinking water from possible pollution caused by hydraulic fracturing, a form of natural gas drilling.
The Binghamton University chapter of NYPIRG collected 1,800 of the signatures.
Portions of New York sit on top of the Marcellus Shale, a formation of rock stretching beneath several states that contains one of the country’s largest deposits of natural gas.
Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, releases natural gas from subsurface rock formations by drilling into the ground and pumping water and chemicals down to fracture the bedrock and release the gas.
According to a report from The New York Times that was published in March, the result of thousands of documents obtained by the Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the wastewater produced by hydrofracking contains dangerous materials and is often not properly treated before it is released into waterways used for cities’ drinking water. These include the Susquehanna River, which provides drinking water for communities from Binghamton to Baltimore.
NYPIRG’s petition begins by expressing the organization’s concern “about the inherent hazards of such an intense industrial activity as … hydraulic fracturing.”
A statement from NYPIRG, which describes itself as an “environmental, consumer, and good-government watchdog group,” states the petition’s goal is to “urge Gov. Andrew Cuomo to protect drinking water in New York from the gas drilling method known as hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale.”
The petition suggests improvements to the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) drafted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The changes would take greater account of the environmental effects of fracking, according to Lauren Mattina, a junior majoring in environmental studies who is completing an internship with BU’s chapter of NYPIRG this semester.
“We want [gas companies] to disclose all the chemicals used,” Mattina said.
She pointed out that NYPIRG is not seeking an outright ban on fracking, but rather increased environmental research and regulation.
Brendan Woodruff, the campaign organizer for BU’s NYPIRG chapter, thinks the SGEIS presently does not adequately address fracking’s cumulative impacts, air pollution it may cause, or issues related to waste disposal.
“Those are things that we think need to be addressed,” Woodruff said.
Fracking has become a contentious political issue around the nation and has garnered significant press attention in recent months. Many, including the gas lobby and regional associations of landowners, have argued that fracking will bring economic benefit in the form of jobs and payments on land leases. Others have cautioned that fracking would damage people’s health and harm the environment. More fracking wells are operating in Pennsylvania than anywhere else in the nation, whereas New York has imposed a moratorium on fracking until its effects can be better studied.
Among the drilling’s proponents is Julie Lewis, a Republican Broome County legislator and vice president of the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York.
She cited a 2004 Environmental Protection Agency survey of officials from state regulatory agencies, which reported no cases of water contamination from fracking.
The New York Times reported that an EPA whistleblower, Weston Wilson, said that the EPA had been forced by political and industry pressure to excise determinations that fracking caused dangerous levels of drinking water contamination from this study.
“[Fracking] is not a new process,” Lewis said. “So for people to say all of a sudden, ‘this is going to destroy our water and destroy our land’ … Tell me all the cities and counties that have already experienced drilling for the last 60 years. Where’s the destruction?”
But there is a mounting body of evidence that fracking may not be benign.
The Times reported that Sublette County in Wyoming, which has a population of about 10,000 but a high concentration of fracking wells, has higher levels of ozone than Houston or Los Angeles.
A hospital system in Texas that serves six counties that have some of highest levels of drilling in the state reported a 25 percent incidence of asthma among young children — much higher than the statewide rate of about 7 percent.
Lewis acknowledged some problems with fracking, principally the potential for surface-water spills, but said she does not believe that the fracking itself inherently causes these accidents. She also asserted that accidents have been less widespread than some believe.
NYPIRG believes that procedures for fracking are being implemented in haste and that the risks outweigh benefits.
“I think a lot of those benefits are exaggerated,” Mattina said.
She suggested that drilling companies will disappear once gas resources dry up.
“These business are left that are built up and now they don’t have that business anymore, so a lot of boom and bust economies are happening,” Mattina said. “That’s overall more devastating than helpful.”
In addition to collecting signatures for the petition to Cuomo, BU’s NYPIRG chapter has also been holding a speaking series this semester featuring doctors, academics and other experts talking about the effects of fracking.
The chapter has been the subject of campus controversy this semester. The Student Association Rules Committee in February ordered that NYPIRG be evicted from its office space in the New University Union after the committee received a petition from Adam Shamah, the SA’s vice president for finance, which claimed that “there has been no sign of any activity whatsoever from the group.” The SA’s Judicial Board ultimately upheld the SA’s eviction order, but the chapter has not complied to date, and the University has so far declined to enforce the decision.