NRDC Action: Protect New York City’s Drinking Water From Gas Drilling (Comment By Dec 15)
December 9th, 2008 by EthanNRDC lets us know about an urgent call for action on one of the most important topics to a sustainable metropolis: fresh, clean, safe drinking water.
The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation is considering allowing gas drilling and development in the shale formations that sit directly below the watershed that is to the west of the Hudson River. Unfortunately, a review of the draft scope (pdf) shows that such a drilling process would have serious environmental impact — from air, noise, and visual impacts to greenhouse emissions of all the trucks and equipment to the use of more than 1 million gallons per well of fresh local surface water (piped in from local NYS lakes and rivers).
Please take action before December 15th:
- Send a letter to NYSDEC Commissioner Pete Grannis
- Send a letter to Governor Paterson
- Send a letter to Mayor Bloomberg
- Submit comments to: dmnog@gw.dec.state.ny.us with “Scope Comments” as the Subject. Or send them a note via snail mail: Attn: Scope Comments, Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral Resources, 625 Broadway - Third Floor, Albany, NY 12233-6500
More info on this disturbing development:
New York City’s drinking water supply is one of the purest in the world, providing nearly 9 million New Yorkers with abundant, unfiltered water. But the city’s watershed is facing one of the most significant pollution threats in its hundred-year history — industrial gas development.
Recent developments in technology and rising natural gas prices have made the development of significant natural gas reservoirs in the Marcellus Shale formation — which lies under much of southern and western New York — newly attractive to gas extraction companies. These new technologies carry with them the risk of a wide range of serious environmental damage, not least of which is the potential to contaminate New York City’s west-of-Hudson watershed. Should the city’s water supply become contaminated, filtering it could cost more than $10 billion.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is in the process of evaluating the potential health and environmental risks from industrial gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Although the DEC is holding a series of public meetings to solicit feedback from New Yorkers as it moves forward, it has not scheduled a single hearing in New York City, notwithstanding the significant potential harm to the city’s watershed.
The DEC is accepting public comments on this phase of the process through December 15th.
What to do:
Tell the Department of Environmental Conservation to give all affected New Yorkers a chance to participate in the environmental review process for proposed Marcellus Shale gas drilling by scheduling a hearing in New York City.
If you choose not to use the NRDC’s online form, here is the text of the letter that you can copy/paste into an email or letter:
I urge the Department of Environmental Conservation to conduct an additional hearing in New York City on the Draft Scope for the Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program for the Marcellus Shale and other formations.
As you know, New York City’s drinking water supply is one of the purest in the world, providing nearly 9 million New Yorkers with abundant, unfiltered water. I am very concerned about the potential threats to the city’s drinking water supply from industrial gas development in those portions of the Marcellus Shale formation that underlie the west-of-Hudson watershed.
Currently, the department’s closest scheduled hearing on the issue is located more than 100 miles away from New York City — a distance that is not practical for most working New Yorkers to travel. New York City residents deserve to be heard on this issue of critical importance to our drinking water source, and I urge your department to schedule a hearing within the city at the earliest opportunity.
For more information, read the draft scope (pdf) of the project provided by the NYSDEC.
Should we allow the DEC to release permits so that oil and gas companies can come into our state and potentially disrupt our watershed, then turn around and sell the gas on the open market? Methinks not…
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