Marcellus Shale Press Coverage

At a debate over hydraulic fracturing on Thursday night at Cornell, six experts from various disciplines debated the practice’s implications for the environment and the economy in New York State and the U.S.

The speakers drew on their personal experiences with the controversial practice, which involves injecting chemicals and water into the ground at high velocity to extract natural gas.

John Holko, president of Lenape Resources, an oil and gas company that has drilled in New York State for 30 years, opened the debate by arguing in support fracking for what he called its economic and energy benefits.

We need to “move forward,” Halko said. “You can’t prevent the process, just mitigate issues.”

However, Walter Hang, founder of Toxic Targeting Services, a watchdog group for environmental violations, argued that brine, a liquid containing toxic metals produced in fracking wells, could potentially contaminate drinking water and have a negative impact on the environment.

Asked to address the potential economic effects that the fracking industry could have on New York State, Hang said that the economic success experienced by communities where fracking occurs would not be sustainable in the long-term.

No matter how you look at it, Hang said, “fracking hurts New York State.”

Dr. Bill Podulka, co-director of the Marcellus Accountability Project and a New York landowner, echoed Hang’s sentiments.

“Fracking is capital intensive, so not many jobs are created” by the process, Podulka said.

Podulka also raised several other negative economic impacts fracking could pose for New York State — especially in the agriculture sector.

Citing fracking’s effect in Pennsylvania, he forecasted overall price increases for New York’s agricultural commodities, including milk, one of the state’s most important food products. He said increased ozone emissions from fracking could hurt agricultural production, particularly for soy and grapes.

However, Nancy Schmitt, an energy investment specialist, said that the U.S. could become the world’s largest oil producer by 2030 and could achieve energy prices four times lower than the world average if it expands its fracking operations.

In response, Prof. Robert Howarth, ecology and environmental biology, said that Schmitt’s data, provided by a report from the International Energy Agency, is misleading.

“The IEA report said that fracking is disastrous, if you read the whole report,” Howarth said.

The speakers then turned their discussion to the effects of fracking on climate change.

Howarth said the only way to combat climate change is to reduce methane emissions.

“Climate change gives us reason to expect more intense storms like Sandy,” Howarth said. “Shale gas aggravates methane emissions.”

Searchable maps with information about thousands of unplugged, abandoned gas and oil wells in upstate New York are being made available by an environmental data collection company.

Walter Hang, president of Ithaca-based Toxics Targeting, says the details about 5,046 old wells in 38 counties had not been available to the public.

Speaking on WNBF Radio’s Binghamton Now program, Hang said the wells can leak gas, oil and very high concentrations of toxic metals.

Hang said the wells are supposed to be plugs to prevent leakage. But he said the regulations haven’t been strictly enforced.

He said the Department of Environmental Conservation has never advised people who live near the abandoned wells that the sites exist.

Hang said Southern Tier residents will be “shocked” to learn how many uncapped wells exist in the region. He said some are near homes, drinking water aquifers and wetlands.

Hang said the existence of the wells contradicts DEC assertions that the agency has been regulating oil and gas extraction safely for decades.

Drilling for gas has been going on in New York state for nearly two centuries. The first well specifically for natural gas in the United States is said to have been located in Fredonia in 1821.

Hang said there are more than 12,000 active oil and gas production wells across the state.

After wells are no longer productive, they can release brine that contains toxic materials if they’re not plugged.

Hang said unplugged wells can leak five gallons of brine per minutes.

He said he believes the DEC has deliberately misled the public by not alerting New Yorkers of the existence of such wells.

Hang said it would be “irresponsible” for the state to allow shale gas fracking until the issues with the thousands of abandoned wells have been addressed.

Hang called on the state to delay acting on finalized environmental rules that could clear the way for high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale.

He said while everyone wants the benefits of gas, it “doesn’t make sense to exacerbate all the thousands of existing contamination problems” in New York.

Hang said he hopes Governor Andrew Cuomo will intervene to prevent fracking from going forward until the safety threat posed by old well sites has been tackled.

The abandoned well database can be found at http://toxicstargeting.com