Please sign perhaps our most important coalition letter yet: here. I cannot overemphasize how critical this letter is to safeguarding New York from all types of shale fracking.
Read this Tutorial about all the Swiss cheese loopholes in Governor Cuomo's so-called fracking prohibition.
Use this Quick Action Guide to require the Governor to fulfill his promise to prohibit all types of high-volume hydraulic fracturing in New York.
Greetings,
Thank you so much for the amazing response to our new coalition letter which requests that Governor Cuomo require his Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to issue a Supplemental Findings Statement to prohibit all types of shale fracking in New York, not just high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) involving "300,000 or more gallons of water."
The coalition letter already has 1,000+ signatories from all over New York and the rest of the nation. Those signatories referenced more than 100 organizations and institutions.
Fractivists have been calling and emailing the Governor day and night to echo the same focused and clear request. Pour it on.
Our closely coordinated efforts have received extensive news coverage. Many thanks to former Binghamton Mayor, Matt Ryan, who joined me at a news conference on this critical issue.
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/news/2015-09-24/is-fracking-really-banned-in-nys
New York's Fracking Prohibition Has More Holes Than Swiss Cheese
It is now beyond dispute that Governor Cuomo has not kept his word to prohibit all types of high-volume hydraulic fracturing in New York.
The "fine print" of New York's shale fracking prohibition reveals more holes than Swiss cheese. As a result, Marcellus Shale fracking using "gelled propane" could be permitted literally any day in Barton, NY. Due to the unclear and complex wording of the high-volume hydraulic fracturing prohibition adopted on June 29th, it is not certain that any shale fracking would actually be banned in New York.
See my excruciatingly detailed explanation of these matters here and at the end of this alert.
Take Action Today to Prohibit All Types of Shale Fracking in New York
The bottom line is that we must require Governor Cuomo to prohibit all types of shale fracking in New York. This can be achieved by requiring DEC to issue a Supplemental Findings Statement that strengthens the fatally flawed HVHF prohibition in two ways.
First, it must apply to the use of "water or any other substances" as the base fluid for hydraulic fracking. This would eliminate the exemption for "gelled propane" and other waterless fracking methods.
Second, the "high-volume" definition hydraulic fracking must be reduced from 300,000 or more gallons for all stages of a well completion to 5,000 or more gallons for any stage of a well completion. This revision would prohibit all shale fracking in New York.
What You Can Do
1. Become a signatory to the New Coalition Letter and beat the bushes for more signatories: http://toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/letters/2015/9/24/coalition-letter-supplemental-findings-statement
2. Persuade Big Green and all anti-fracker groups and leaders to become signatories even though they will likely try to offer lame excuses why there is no need to worry despite recent front-page coverage of proposed "gelled propane" Marcellus Shale fracking.
If groups and leaders refuse to call for the loopholes in New York's shale fracking prohibition to be closed, you can crank up the heat. Promise that you will hold them accountable. Tell them that you will a) tear up your membership card, b) halt annual dues and all other financial contributions, c) resign from boards, d) refuse to host events and d) pledge to ding grant proposals.
In short, play hardball. That should help close the Fractivist ranks.
3. Call Governor Cuomo during business hours at 518 474 8390.
Demand that DEC to issue a Supplemental Findings Statement to prohibit all types of shale fracking in New York.
Demand that the Governor totally prohibit all types of hydraulic fracturing, including "gelled propane" or Liquefied Petroleum Gas, carbon dioxide and nitrogen foam. NO FRACKING METHODS MUST BE EXEMPTED FROM THE PROHIBITION.
Demand that the Governor fulfill the promise in the Findings Statement that: DEC " will not establish a high-volume hydraulic fracturing permitting program; that no individual or site-specific permit applications for wells using high-volume hydraulic fracturing will be processed; and that high-volume hydraulic fracturing will be prohibited in New York State."
Feel free to read this proposed Amended Supplemental Findings Statement to the Governor's associates or include it an email: https://www.governor.ny.gov/contact
Proposed Amended Supplemental Findings Statement
New language in bold.
"High-volume hydraulic fracturing is defined as the stimulation of a well using 5,000 [300,000] or more gallons of water or any other substances as the base fluid for hydraulic fracturing for any [all] stage[s]in a well completion, regardless of whether the well is vertical or directional, including horizontal, in Marcellus Shale and other low-permeability gas reservoirs. The 5,000 [300,000]-gallon threshold is the sum of all water or any other substances, fresh and recycled, used for any [all] stage[s] in a well completion. Well stimulation requiring less than 5,000 [300,000] gallons of water or any other substances as the base fluid for hydraulic fracturing for any [all] stage[s] in a well completion is not considered high-volume, and will continue to be reviewed and permitted pursuant to the 1992 GEIS, and 1992 and 1993 Findings Statements, but not for Marcellus Shale and other low-permeability gas reservoirs."
See original text of the HVHF prohibition at the bottom of PDF page three: http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/findingstatehvhf62015.pdf
Conclusion
Please take focused action to prohibit all types of shale fracking in New York before it is too late. I implore you to take nothing for granted. .
Thanks so much for your assistance.
Cheers,
Walter
Tutorial on Why All Types of High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing Have Not Been Banned in New York
A. The Final SGEIS Findings Statement issued on June 29, 2015 only prohibits high volume hydraulic fracturing involving: "300,000 or more gallons of water." Hydrofracking is only one type of hydraulic fracking.
New York's HVHF prohibition deliberately excludes so-called "environmentally friendly" fracking methods that use "gelled propane," aka Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), carbon dioxide and nitrogen foam.
This gaping loophole was adopted even though the Findings Statement determined that these waterless fracking alternatives, "all fail to limit unavoidable adverse environmental impacts and fail to address the risks and uncertainties of high-volume hydraulic fracturing."
B. DEC undoubtedly knew that its HVHF prohibition limited to water would open the door to LPG fracking in Marcellus Shale because the agency received a gelled propane fracking permit application on April 24th.
Toxics Targeting obtained extensive documents regarding the Barton, NY well permit applications. There can be no dispute that this is an extremely serious effort.
C. The HVHF prohibition has an even more problematic loophole that might render it all but useless. A close reading of the language of the prohibition reveals that the word "all" can also mean "each" with reference to the individual stages in a well completion.
If you use the word "each" in place of "all" in the prohibition, it is arguable that unless each and every stage in a well completion involves "300,000 or more gallons of water," the HVHF prohibition simply would not apply. The word "sum" in the definition does not necessarily negate that interpretation.
Read the prohibition for yourself:
"High-volume hydraulic fracturing is defined as the stimulation of a well using 300,000 or more gallons of water as the base fluid for hydraulic fracturing for each/all stage[s] in a well completion (emphasis added), regardless of whether the well is vertical or directional, including horizontal. The 300,000-gallon threshold is the sum of all water, fresh and recycled, used for each/all stage[s] (emphasis added) in a well completion."
See full text of the HVHF prohibition at bottom of PDF page three: http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/findingstatehvhf62015.pdf
There are typically eight to 13 stages in a HVHF well completion. It is arguable that if only one stage involves less than 300,000 gallons, fracking would be allowed. Yikes!!!
Wonder what a fracking stage is?
"The hydraulic fracturing process itself is conducted in stages by successively isolating, perforating and fracturing portions of the horizontal wellbore starting with the far end, or toe. Reasons for conducting the operation in stages are to maintain sufficient pressure to fracture the entire length of the wellbore,68 to achieve better control of fracture placement and to allow changes from stage to stage to accommodate varying geological conditions along the wellbore if necessary.69 The length of wellbore treated in each stage will vary based on site-specific geology and the characteristics of the well itself, but may typically be 300 to 500 feet. In that case, the multi-stage fracturing operation for a 4,000 foot lateral would consist of eight to 13 fracturing stages (emphasis added). Each stage may require 300,000 to 600,000 gallons of water, so that the entire multi-stage fracturing operation for a single well would require 2.4 million to 7.8 million gallons of water."
See PDF page 92: http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/ogdsgeischap5.pdf
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