Hydrofracking in Focus

When:

May 5, 2012: 9:00AM to 1:00PM

Where:

Cary Institute Auditorium, 2801 Sharon Turnpike (Route 4) Millbrook, NY 12545 map

To Attend:

Registration Required

The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook is hosting an event, Science and Management Forum: Hydrofracking in Focus, that features Riverkeeper’s Watershed Program director Kate Hudson, among other speakers.

The forum will provide an overview of the science behind gas extraction via hydraulic fracturing, including potential groundwater impacts and the treatment of wastewater. The free forum’s goal is to provide citizens with current information on hydraulic fracture gas extraction, a drilling technique that has become the focus of environmental and economic discussions in New York State. Several of the speakers are from Pennsylvania, where drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation is already underway.

Riverkeeper has been highly critical of New York’s proposed regulations and draft environmental impact study for fracking in the Marcellus Shale formation.

Registration is required.

In addition to Kate Hudson, speakers expected at the forum include:

• William Schlesinger, president of the Cary Institute
• Avner Vengosh, from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, who will speak about “Methane and Water Contamination Associated with Shale Gas Development and Hydrofracking”
• Radisav Vidic, chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, who will speak about “Wastewater Quality, Quantity, and Management: Lessons from the Marcellus Shale Region”
• Mark Boling, executive vice president and general counsel of Southwestern Energy, who will speak about “Hydraulic Fracturing Operations–Separating Fact from Fiction”
• Dr. Bernard Goldstein, dean emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, who will speak about the “Potential Public Health Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing”
• Simona Perry, Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who will speak about “Rapid Shale Gas Developments and Stress Factors in Northern Appalachian Communities”