New York environmental report calls for more fracking restrictions
Houston (Platts)--14May2015/429 pm EDT/2029 GMT
New York has released its long-awaited report on high-volume
hydraulic fracturing, which appears to cast doubt on whether the state
will ever give a green light to the drilling completion practice, which
essentially has been prohibited since 2008.
The Department of Environmental Conservation released Wednesday the
final supplemental generic environmental impact statement on fracking
"that identifies and examines continued major uncertainties about
potential significant adverse health and environmental impacts
associated with the activity," according to a statement.
The DEC will issue its formal findings statement after a required 10-day
period in accordance with the state's Environmental Quality Review Act.
In a statement, DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said he would rely on the
conclusions of the FSGEIS when he issues his findings statement.
New York has had a de facto moratorium on fracking since 2008 while it
first began to develop rules and regulations to govern the practice,
which has been used extensively just south of the state line in
Pennsylvania to tap the gas-rich Marcellus shale play.
Last December, Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, made the moratorium
official following the release of a state health department report that
emphasized the potential problems associated with fracking.
The FSGEIS incorporated that earlier report, "which determined there is
significant uncertainty about adverse health outcomes and whether
mitigation measures could adequately protect public health, including
impacts to air, water, soil and community character," according to the
DEC statement.
The DEC document called for "expanding many of the mitigation measures
previously proposed," in earlier versions of the SGEIS.
"As a result, more and more areas within the Marcellus Shale fairway
would be off limits to high-volume hydraulic fracturing. For example,
the department considered prohibiting high-volume hydraulic fracturing
on private lands within the Catskill Park, increasing setbacks to
residences, and natural and cultural resources, and expanding the
sensitive areas that would be off limits," the FSGEIS states.
The additional restrictions and prohibitions "would substantially
increase costs to industry, which would likely negatively impact the
potential economic benefits associated with high-volume hydraulic
fracturing," the document states.
"We considered materials from numerous sources, including scientific
studies, academic research and public comments, and evaluated the
effectiveness of potential mitigation measures to protect New York's
valuable natural resources and the health of residents," Martens said.
The long, drawn-out process for reviewing the environmental and health
effects of fracking has been a continued source of frustration for
representatives of the state's exploration-and-production industry, who
have looked with envy at the level of drilling activity taking place
just south of the state line.
New York's Southern Tier counties hold an estimated 20% of the
roughly 500 Tcf of gas reserves in the Marcellus Shale, plus an
undetermined amount of recoverable gas and oil in the Utica Shale.
DEC first issued a draft SGEIS in September 2009, examining the
potential impact from fracking, including the contamination of drinking
water supplies, groundwater and surface waters; air pollution; spills;
wastewater and solid waste treatment and disposal; ecological impact and
adverse effects on communities.
A revised draft SGEIS, which the department issued in September 2011,
proposed to: prohibit drilling in the New York City and Syracuse
watersheds, state-owned lands and primary aquifers; restrict fracking on
certain forest and grassland areas; and require additional drinking
water mitigation measures.
During the lengthy review process, DEC hosted numerous public forums and
received more than 260,000 public comments. The FSGEIS includes a
lengthy summary of the public comments and DEC's response to comments,
which is more than 300 pages long.
--Jim Magill,
jim.magill@platts.com
--Edited by Valarie Jackson,
valarie.jackson@platts.com
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