by Florence and John Carnahan

We went to a meeting held in Liverpool, NY on December 8, 2009. Similar meetings have been held in nearby communities over the past year. Information from both sides of the issue has been presented and reported on by the local newspapers. If you missed the meetings and would like one in our community there are people who are willing to hold  a meeting if we only ask them.

 Fracking

 Speakers described the type of drilling, called high-volume hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling or hydro-fracking. The drilling is done by drilling vertically and then using water mixed with chemicals injected into the ground under pressure to fracture the layer of shale that is way below the surface. Once the shale is fractured the gas can be extracted when drilled horizontally. The drilling is over the period of about 12-18 months for each gas well. A well can be productive over a period of 40 years.

The DEC says it is a relatively risk-free drilling procedure; that they are experienced regulators, and there have been few accidents. Actually there have been about 270 drilling accidents in NY over the years. The fracking is relatively new. It began in 1991 and in 1996 they began using the current method called slick water fracking. There is little the DEC can do in terms of regulation because of the 2005 federal legislation exempting the gas and oil industry from the responsibility to clean up superfund sites and which also gave them exemption to the Clean Water Act.

As of February 2009 there were 839 leases signed in Otsego County, some of them are your friends and neighbors in the Town of Burlington. This type of drilling is not just being done in our area. It has already been done and is producing in Montana, South Dakota, Texas, Colorado, West Virginia, Arkansas and Pennsylvania. To see what communities like ours have already encountered because of the drilling you can take a look at Hickory, PA. You can visit Dimock, PA only 105 miles from here on the NY border, in Northeast PA to see what it is like.

How Does this Affect us in the Town of Burlington?

 Here are some statistics from the meeting. Hopefully this will help those who haven’t yet considered what the near future would be like if drilling is done in our community and arm those who have already considered asking the governor and the DEC to protect our land from the disasters that befell our neighbors in Pennsylvania and other states.

We have milk, logging and delivery trucks that drive over our roads everyday to supply our local businesses. Now multiply just one of those milk trucks by 200 each day. That’s the number of water delivery trucks that will be traveling our town, county and state roads 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Each of these tanker trucks can carry up to 5,460 gallons of water. Think of what that will do to our roads! And consider this: the gas

companies will be using the roads and bridges that are already in trouble (remember the floods of a couple of years ago that took out some local bridges) but are not required to pay for maintenance or damage that heavy traffic will put on OUR roads. WE will pay for the maintenance through our taxes as we always have.

One well can require two million gallons of water for each fracking. There would be 366 tanker trucks hauling in fresh water and 183 tanker trucks taking out 80% of the now contaminated water from each well. A well may be fracked up to 12 times. It can be active for up to 40 years. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection one well may require 1000+ tanker truck trips during the drilling and fracking.

The water used for fracking is potable water that would otherwise be used by us for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing our clothing and dishes, irrigating fields, and watering livestock and family pets. No one in the industry tells us where they will get the water for drilling. Will it be our streams, rivers, ponds and lakes, the ones used locally for fishing, boating and swimming?

The waste water removed from a well contains chemicals that were added to it for fracking. Over 95% of these chemicals are known to have adverse effects, including brain damage, birth defects and cancer. For example the water coming from the faucet in a home in Candor, NY can be ignited with a match. Yes, the gas companies supply bottled water to households for drinking when drilling contaminates area wells. This doesn’t solve the problem of showering or washing your family’s clothing and dishes in contaminated water.

Life After Fracking

The figures above don’t include the number of trucks used when the well begins to produce, is maintained, or used to build the pipelines to transport the gas. Remember, these trucks will be working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for years to come. If you’re a homeowner or a renter living on a leased property you may have trouble sleeping at night from the noise, the stream of truck lights passing your house and the lights used to illuminate the drilling site. Maybe you’ll have to add more time to your drive to work because there’ll be more traffic to negotiate on your road and the other roads you travel. Add these trucks to the bus traffic when kids are going to and from school. Then add the normal delivery trucks, the milk trucks, the logging trucks, Gus the Bus, and visiting friends. If your life is busy already it may get busier because of the drilling trucks! Think about how an ambulance will get through if someone in your family is injured or ill. Take the example of a nurse in Colorado when there was a drilling accident and a worker was brought into the emergency room where she worked. She was exposed to the chemical fluids on his boots for only 10 minutes and almost died. No one knew what the chemicals were so they didn’t know what kind of treatment was needed. Remember that it takes longer than that to get to the hospital in Cooperstown. Would they be prepared for a major disaster? 

Constant noise and unaccustomed lights can cause stress we’re not used to feeling. Stress can cause accidents on the roads and at home. Add light pollution to the diesel truck fumes, the road and fracking dust and health issues begin to rise. Add even more stress when you realize that along with the water used in each well there are about 200 chemicals used to fracture the shale in order to release the natural gas. Even the DEC has no idea what all the chemicals are. The gas companies, by law (to protect them, not us) do not have to disclose what chemicals they use. The DEC does know that fracturing results in millions of gallons of radioactive waste water that needs to be stored somewhere. This water may be put into holding ponds that are lined. These linings have been known to tear and leak. Once an area has been contaminated in this way it cannot be uncontaminated.

How does this affect our rural community?

The term generic (Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement) means they don’t have to take into consideration important local aspects. We depend on the people who come to this area for tourism, hunting and fishing. That could change if the waterways and land are polluted and the fish and game die. It could change if the tourists find tanker traffic a hassle and certainly it would change the area’s rural beauty. It could change agriculture if farm animals don’t have clean water to drink. There is a farm in Freedom, NY that had to be evacuated due to contamination. It could add the burden of more illness to families. It could be an additional financial strain if people have to look for other ways to make a living.

How will it affect property owners?

 There are other issues to consider that concern property ownership. Some realtors are finding that it is difficult to sell properties with leases. You might want to have some questions answered before you sign a lease. Check to see if the mortgage on your property and home may be withdrawn or foreclosed if you sign away the mineral rights.

Another issue to consider is whether your insurance company will stop insurance on your property or possibly raise your premiums. Even if you don’t sign a lease and your neighbors do, this may affect your property if it becomes contaminated. If you are within the drilling site you are forced to be part of the lease because they can drill horizontally under your land. This is called “compulsory integration”. Something else to consider is that a right of way on your property can be taken by eminent domain when the pipeline is built.

For the sake of your children and grandchildren, please look carefully at the information in the links in the first article. You don’t have to take our word for it.

 Thank you.