By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau
On a rainy, windy Monday, landowners and environmentalists from throughout New York attended separate natural-gas rallies at the state capital.
``The weather was horrible,'' said Marie Lusins of Oneonta, a member of the Unatego Area Landowners Association.
Still, Lusins said the landowners were cheered by good speeches delivered by political allies, including state Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, and state Assemblyman Clifford Crouch, R-Guilford.
``They were tremendous and right on target: It's time to let the DEC get on with this,'' Lusins said, referring to the approval of its draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement.
According to geologists, central New York is awash in natural gas, buried deep in shale beds, and landowners stand to make good money if it can be extracted, she said.
Geologists have known for decades that the area might be rich in natural gas, but until recently, there was no economically viable way to extract it.
Now, with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing _ called "fracking" _ the gas boom is poised to come here if allowed by state regulators.
However, opponents have decried the use of fracking, the practice of injecting large quantities of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to explode rock and release gas, she noted.
Lusins, a former Oneonta town councilwoman, said people who don't want drilling don't have the facts on how safe it is.
``There never has been one instance in New York of fracking fluid contaminating someone's water,'' she said.
Martha Clarvoe of Hartwick also made the trek to Albany on Monday to ask the state not to allow the area to be exploited by gas drillers.
``The weather was bad. I was dressed for it,'' she said.
Leaders of the sustainable groups that oppose drilling decided their rally should move inside, and it was held near The Egg, the performing-arts center at the state capital, she said.
There, they heard from members of the Catskill Mountainkeeper and Environmental Advocates, as well as public officials talking about the dangers posed by unbridled gas drilling, including the threat to drinking water supplies, she said. Adrian Kuzminski of Sustainable Otsego was among the speakers, she said.
Opponents say that if gas drilling were safe, it wouldn't have been exempted from provisions of the federal Clean Air, Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water acts.
And although some landowners and companies may make a fortune on gas drilling, they are but a handful compared to millions of New Yorkers who rely on clean water, Clarvoe said.
After listening to speeches, members of both groups went to lobby legislators with hopes of influencing state policy.
