Coalition Letter Which Requests That Governor Paterson Withdraw the Department of Environmental Conservation's Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) for Oil and Gas Mining

The Letter

Honorable David A. Paterson
State Capital
Albany, NY 12224

Dear Governor Paterson:

We, the undersigned, strongly support safeguarding the environment, public health and natural resources of the Catskills, Finger Lakes and Southern Tier regions that overlay the Marcellus Shale formation, potentially the largest natural gas reservoir in America. That is why we write to request you to withdraw the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement released on 9/30/09 by your Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

High-volume "slickwater" hydrofracking has been proposed to recover Marcellus Shale gas on an unprecedented scale, but you required DEC to update its 1992 Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) prior to issuing new horizontal drilling permits. The goal of that Supplemental GEIS (SGEIS) reportedly was "to ensure that all environmental impacts from drilling are addressed."

The Draft SGEIS is based on one critical, bedrock assumption: DEC's 1992 GEIS adequately safeguards against: "impacts on water quality; impacts of drilling in sensitive areas, such as Agricultural Districts, areas of rugged topography, wetlands, drinking water watersheds, freshwater aquifers and other sensitive habitats; impacts caused by drilling and production wastes; impacts on land use; socioeconomic impacts; impacts on cultural resources and impacts on endangered species and species of concern."

A total of 270 oil and gas spills is posted at www.toxicstargeting.com. These uncontrolled releases caused fires, explosions, massive pollution releases, contaminated drinking water sources, home evacuations, tainted farmland and widespread threats to wetlands, streams, ponds, aquifers and other "sensitive receptors." Many of these DEC-reported problems have exceeded clean up standards for decades.

DEC's own data document systematic, on-going failures to prevent oil and gas drilling pollution impacts or to clean them up. It is imperative that DEC resolve those regulatory shortcomings prior to issuing new drilling permits. Otherwise, the City of New York's reservoirs, other critical water supply sources and the environment of the Marcellus region as a whole could become irreparably contaminated.

Widespread Oil and Gas Hazards

Among those 270 oil and gas spills, a total of 65 reportedly do not meet clean up standards up to 26 years after being reported.

The remaining 205 spills reportedly meet clean up standards, but many of these oil and gas spills apparently were administratively closed as meeting clean up standards simply by being transferred from DEC's Spills Unit to its Division of Mineral Resources.

DEC's information documents that many spills are never remediated because the Division of Mineral Resources determined that no further action can be taken. Those cases routinely involve oil and gas contamination that spreads extensively in rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands and exceeds clean up standards. Many of those oil and gas releases reportedly have continued for decades. Notable spills include:

Dale Fox Well, Spill: 9610441, 11/20/1996: "DALE FOX DRILLING GAS WELL ON BIXBY HILL RD, FREEDOM. NATURAL GAS ESCAPED THRU FAULT IN SHALE, AFFECTED PROPERTIES APPX 1 & 1/2 MILES SW ON WEAVER RD. TOWN OF YORKSHIRE. GAS BUBBLING IN RON LEWIS’S POND. BUBBLING IN DITCH WEST SIDE OF WEAVER RD. 12 FAMILIES EVACUATED. GAS IN LEWIS’S BASEMENT (BUILT ON SHALE). FARMERS WELL IN BARN 11708 WEAVER RD (STEVE WOLDSZYN) VENTED TO OUTSIDE. GAS COMING UP THOU GROUND IN LEWIS’S YARD."

NATIONAL FUEL, Spill: 0375293, 09/10/2003: "CALLER SAID THAT ONE OF THEIR VALVES BROKE, CAUSING ABOUT 100,000 GAL OF BRINE SOLUTION TO SPILL...SOME OF THIS GOT INTO SHANADA CREEK; THE BRINE FLOWED TO THE WEST FROM THE BLDG TO AN OUTSIDE DRAIN AND DOWN A FIELD TO A WOODED AREA NEAR THE INJECTION WELL AND THEN SOUTH TO THE CREEK."

HARVEY WELL Spill: 0507041, 09/10/2005: "HAZARDOUS MATERIAL 800.00 GALLONS; THE BRINE OVERFLOWED INTO A DITCH THAT FLOWED TO A SMALL POOL/CATCH BASIN. THE BRINE THEN FLOWED UNDER THE ACCESS ROAD INTO A WOODED AREA WITH SEVERAL INTERMITTENT STREAMS RUNNING THROUGHOUT. IMPACTS COULD BE NOTED IN THE DITCH, POOL/CATCHBASIN AND AT THE CULVERT OUTLET."

NATIONAL FUEL GAS Spill: 9707892, 10/03/1997: "BRINE, 15000 GALLONS; BRINE TANK OVER FLOWED DUE TO APPARENT EQUIPMENT FAILURE (VALVE FAILURE) MATERIAL IS FLOWING OVERLAND INTO LOCAL CREEK; THE BRINE RAN THROUGH THE FIELD FROM THE NATIONAL FUEL SITE TO THE DITCH TO THE CULVERT TO THE SCRUB BRUSH TO THE CREED [sic] WHICH IS A TRIBUTARY TO THE GENESSEE RIVER. THE VEGETATION WAS KILLED IN THIS PATH; ONE LANDOWNER HAS COWS THAT DRINK FROM THE CREEK. NATIONAL FUEL WILL BUY A NEW FENCE & PROVIDE WATER FOR THE COWS. CHRIS MILLER FELT THAT THE BEST SOLUTION TO THE PATH OF DEAD VEGETATION IS TO LEAVE IT TO GROW BACK NEXT SUMMER."

BUCKEYE COAST PIPELINE Spill: 0270494, 12/16/2002: "THE PIPELINE BREAK OCCURRED BEHIND THE MAUER’S SHOP AT 9732 SNIPERY ROAD AND WAS ON A SLOPE. THE BRINE THEN FLOWED INTO AN AREA THAT LOOKS LIKE A HARD BOTTOM SWAMP. ALL THE TREES IN THIS AREA ARE DEAD. IT APPEARS THERE IS A COUPLE OF ACRES KILLED; ALL THE TREES ARE STILL DEAD IN THIS AREA, BUT THE GRASSES AND SHALLOW ROOTED VEGETATION IS COMING BACK ALL ACROSS THE IMPACTED AREA. PB ENERGY HAS TAKEN OVER OWNERSHIP OF THE PIPELINE AND WILL WORK OUT A SETTLEMENT WITH BOTH PROPERTY OWNERS. THEY MAY TRY PLANTING SOME SALT RESISTENT TREES IN THE SWAMP AREA."

In light of the extensive areas impacted by reported oil and gas spills, the dSGEIS's safeguards are entirely inadequate. The Bixby Hill Road spill reportedly migrated 8,000 feet in minutes and polluted wells, homes and agricultural land and surface waters. Other spills have reportedly migrated downstream up to 4,000 feet. Yet, site-specific State Environmental Quality Review is only required for gas well pads proposed within 1,000 feet of a public water supply well, within 300 feet of a reservoir and 150 feet of a private well or watercourse.

Issues

We further request that the scope of the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement be expanded to address the following issues:

1. Wastewater Concerns

The dSGEIS fails to provide any meaningful regulation of natural gas drilling "produced" wastewater that contains extremely high concentrations of dissolved solids and is documented to be contaminated with toxic and radioactive materials. It essentially requires local authorities to deal with that matter on their own. That approach has already proven to be fundamentally flawed.

The Village of Cayuga Heights, NY disclosed last March that its sanitary wastewater treatment plant received more than 3.0 million gallons of contaminated gas drilling wastewater. Without undertaking a state-required "headworks analysis" or enforcing local pretreatment requirements, the wastewater was discharged into an impaired section of Southern Cayuga Lake, where approximately 30,000 local residents obtain their drinking water downstream of the facility's discharge. That practice was temporarily halted.

Discharge of gas drilling produced wastewater to publicly owned treatment works must be banned unless the wastewater's toxic characteristics have been fully documented and pretreatment requirements have been adopted to prevent "pass-through," concentration of toxics in residual sludges or impacts on receiving waters. Similarly, traditional deep-well injection of contaminated drilling wastewater warrants equal DEC review and regulatory action.

2. Reporting and Liability Concerns

State-required reporting of uncontrolled oil and gas contamination releases is incomplete and warrants revision. DEC must require those releases to fulfill the reporting requirements required for leaking underground tanks. Remediating oil and gas releases must impose strict liability pursuant to the State Navigation law.

3. Dedicated Oil and Natural Gas Spill Remediation Funds

New York State's Spill Remediation Fund reportedly can only be tapped for emergency response associated with oil drilling contaminant releases. The availability of the Fund for cleaning up natural gas drilling hazards is unclear. New York requires a dedicated Oil and Gas Drilling Remediation Fund with sufficient wherewithal to respond to uncontrolled releases in a timely fashion.

4. DEC Regulatory Staffing

DEC is woefully understaffed for managing existing natural gas drilling activities. Prior to permitting additional natural gas drilling activities, fees should be increased to make sure DEC has the requisite staff to manage its regulatory responsibilities. A total of 17 staff for approximately 7,000 existing gas wells is utterly inadequate. We also oppose further budget cuts to DEC's pollution control programs.

5. Private Right of Action, Performance Bonds, Pollution Clean up Insurance

Given the long-standing shortcomings of existing oil and gas regulation, citizens must have a private right of legal action to safeguard their health and property values. Oil and gas firms must also post performance bonds or obtain clean up insurance to remediate any pollution hazards that occur without extensive delays.

Conclusion

With all due respect, the dSGEIS is a largely theoretical proposal that fails to deal with the harsh realities of DEC's long-standing oil and gas regulatory shortcomings. New York needs the effective means to prevent and clean up oil and gas drilling hazards. Unless and until DEC accomplishes that goal by addressing the drilling concerns outlined herein and voiced by concerned citizens, elected officials and environmental, conservation and community groups, the moratorium on high-volume, "slickwater" horizontal drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation must be maintained.

We trust you will find our request self-explanatory. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to your prompt reply.

Signatories

Very truly yours,

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