June 18, 2008

Since our last general meeting on May 31, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy has filed for status as a non-profit corporation and our website, www.catskillcitizens.org, is under construction.

Our original intention was to set up another public meeting on June 21^st, but when the State Legislature fast tracked A1056, we shifted our attention to lobbying against this objectionable bill.  

A10526

The gas industry favors A10526 because it facilitates horizontal drilling which is a more cost-effective means of extracting gas.

Sponsor Assemblyman Parment has tried to sell his bill as beneficial to the public because horizontal drilling can lessen the footprint of drilling operations.  And it’s true - a single horizontal well can extract gas from up to 640 acres and it would take over a dozen vertical wells to achieve the same result.

Unfortunately, the bill doesn’t require the industry to drill only one well every 640 acres.  In fact the bill would let drillers sink wells on much smaller units without holding the public hearings that are now required by law.  Undoubtedly gas companies will exploit this provision to drill wells on small lots when they can’t get the leases they need to extract gas from larger tracts of land.

OUR LOBBYING EFFORT

Many of us wrote letters to members of the state legislature opposing the bill but it was voted out of the Environmental Committee in the Assembly by a lopsided 28-2. Since then it’s also be voted out of committee in the Senate.   While this is discouraging, our efforts did have an effect. 

Sullivan County Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther voted against the bill in committee, and then to set up a meeting with the bill’s sponsor Assemblyman Parment where we had a chance to state our objections.  The Sierra Club and Catskill Mountainkeepers also attended that meeting and we joined them in asking that A10526 be tabled until there has been a full review of the potential environmental impact of Marcellus shale gas extraction on the Delaware River Basin and the Catskill Preserve.  Catskill Citizens also asked that important environmental safeguards be included in any new legislation that facilitates drilling in the region.

THE FUTURE OF THE BILL

It looks like A10526 will be voted into law before the legislature adjourns June 23.  That said, the full Assembly and the full Senate have yet to vote and it’s not too late to let our legislators know that we strongly oppose this bill. 

THE WAY FORWARD

A10526 is just the first battle in a war that’s going to be fought on many fronts in the years to come.  Our goals include:

• Planning Before Drilling

A coalition of environmental groups including Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Sierra Club intend to ask the DEC to develop a comprehensive plan for gas extraction in the region before any drilling gets underway.  In all likelihood this will require a moratorium on any new drilling.  Of course Catskill Citizens will lend our support to this effort.

• Strict Regulation:

Steel Containers Instead of Open Pits

The meeting with Assemblyman Parment was also attended by several DEC representatives from the Division of Mineral Resources.  They assured us that under existing law the Department already has the authority to require gas companies to use closed steel containers rather that open waste pits.  Steel containers (which are required by law in New Mexico) can go a long way toward reducing the threat of ground water contamination due to leaking and flooding and air pollution due to the evaporation of volatile organic compounds.

The DEC should require the use of steel containers when it issues drilling permits. 

Disclosure of the Contents of Fracing Fluids 

The DEC says it requires gas companies to perform certified testing of their fracing fluids.

We will demand that this information be made public.  After all it’s impossible for us to protect our water if we don’t even know what contaminants we have to worry about.

• New Legislation

Require Mandatory Water Testing paid for by the Gas Companies

Baseline and periodic testing of wells, groundwater and aquifers is absolutely essential if we are to protect the environment and our health.  Under existing law the gas companies are free to pass this cost of doing business onto the public.  Comprehensive testing even a single well can cost up to $1000.  This is an enormous burden that many of us cannot afford, and none of us should have to bear.

• Work with Property Owners Who Choose to Sign Gas Leases

Landowners who sign leases are in a position to make an enormous difference in the shape of things to come.  For example, they can insist on leases that provide all the protections that we’ll be seeking through regulation and legislation.  The use of steel containers, disclosure of chemicals and free certified water testing can all be written into the leases.

And, after putting their signing bonuses in their pockets, landowners can join forces with us to fight for the protections we all need.

• Work with Our Town Boards

The Towns of Highland and Cochecton are moving toward temporary moratoriums on drilling.   There is some doubt about whether a Town moratorium could withstand a court challenge but, if nothing else, these actions serve to focus everyone’s attention on an issue that none of us can afford to ignore.  Also they put the gas companies on notice that they can’t expect to steamroll our communities as they’ve done in so many other parts of the country. 

• Federal Regulation

Next year, when we have a new Congress and a new President, we will be among the millions of Americans demanding that the oil and gas industries be subject to the same environmental laws as the everybody us.  The exemptions they enjoy under the 2005 Energy Act must be repealed.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Catskill Mountainkeeper and the Sullivan County Division of Planning and Environmental Management are co-sponsoring two educational forums on Natural Gas Drilling in the Upper Delaware Region: Issues and Strategies for Property Owners and Municipals.

• Thursday June 26   7–9:30 PM  

Walton Theater

Walton, NY

• Friday June 27^th   7-9:30 PM

CVI Building

Ferndale, NY

A representatives from the Oil & Gas Accountability Project and the author of New Mexico’s gas industry regulations (which are considered to be the best in the nation) will be among the participants.

• On July 1^st the DEC will hold a public meeting on natural gas in Sullivan County.

• Catskill Citizens is working to set up a forum on “The Economic Impact of Gas Drilling on Sullivan County”.  It will look at how gas extraction may affect tourism, agriculture, property values in the region.

We’ll give you more information on all these events as they become available.