Industrial Gas Drilling
According to New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the entire West-of-Hudson portion of the New York City Watershed (supplying 90% of drinking water to over half the state’s population) sits on top of part of the Marcellus Shale, a large mineral reserve deposit 6,000 – 8,000 feet beneath the earth’s surface. Oil and gas companies have known about this shale reserve for decades, but the technology to extract natural gas from it has only recently become available. The Marcellus Shale spans across at least five states. To extract natural gas from the mineral reserve, oil companies plan to use a process called “hydraulic fracturing.”
Fracturing involves injecting toxic chemicals, sand, and up to a million gallons of water per well under high pressure directly into shale formations deep below the earth’s surface. This toxic brew, along with any natural gas, is then extracted, or leaked to the surface. Whether any toxic discharges will flow into New York City’s drinking water supply is uncertain.
Riverkeeper supports the supplemental environmental review of this proposed natural gas drilling and calls for a moratorium on all new drilling permits until the completion and public review of the Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS). The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s draft GEIS provides a comprehensive review of the potential environmental impacts of oil and gas drilling.
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The Marcellus Shale is a layer of deep sedimentary rock, deposited by an ancient river delta, with the remains of it now forming the Catskill Mountains. The vast Marcellus Shale extends from Tennessee, through most of West Virginia, across Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, and into the Southern Tier of New York, including the Catskills and the West-of-Hudson portion of the New York City Watershed. New York’s portion of the Marcellus Shale is approximately 18,750 square miles and is very deep – over 1 mile below ground.
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Hydraulic fracturing allows drilling companies to extract natural gas from this shale. Natural gas is trapped within fractures between the grains of this fine-grained rock. Drillers drill down vertically into the shale, turn 90 degrees to drill horizontally (sometimes over a mile in length), and then inject water, sand and chemicals under high pressure to release the gas. The pressurized water forms fractures in the rock, which sand and chemicals then prop open.
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Among the many environmental impacts associated with hydraulic fracturing are water consumption and wastewater disposal, toxic chemicals used in hydrofracking, substantial truck traffic, air pollution, noise from the loud hydrofracking operations, and surface water runoff from these large industrial sites.
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Whether any toxic discharges will flow into New York City’s drinking water supply is uncertain, which is why the state plans to update an outdated Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) to address impacts to the New York City water supply, among many other issues.
The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) GEIS provides a comprehensive review of the potential environmental impacts of oil and gas drilling. The DEC has set up a formal public review process to supplement this GEIS to ensure that any issues unique to Marcellus and other horizontal shale formation drilling are adequately addressed.
No hydraulic fracturing into the Marcellus Shale will take place in New York until the GEIS is complete, pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). Riverkeeper helped shape the scope of review for this study.
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