The DEC has proposed new regulations to govern horizontal gas drilling, addressing concerns about drinking water contamination, wear and tear on roads and disclosure of chemicals used on site.
The lengthy draft supplemental generic environmental impact statement can be seen on the Internet at http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/47554.html, and people have until Nov. 30 to offer comments on it.
Public information sessions about the proposed rules will be held around the state, with times and places to be announced soon, according to a statement issued by the Department of Environmental Conservation.
In addition, the state Assembly will hold a public statement hearing Oct. 15, beginning at 9 a.m.
Among highlights in the DEC's draft are provisions requiring drillers to:
Disclose the contents of fracturing fluids they use on site.
Test water wells within 1,000 feet of the drill site before drilling ``to provide baseline information and allow for ongoing monitoring. If there are no wells within 1,000 feet, the survey area will extend to 2,000 feet.''
``To follow Susquehanna River Basin Commission and Delaware River Basin Commission protocols for water withdrawal where applicable, but also complete a more stringent and protective analysis in regards to water withdrawal plans _ whether inside or outside the Susquehanna or Delaware basins.''
Drillers also would be required address greenhouse gas emissions, as well as ``visual impacts and noise impacts prior to commencing operations.
In addition, if a drilling company has not reached a road-use agreement with the local government, a trucking plan containing the estimated amount of trucking, approach for avoiding peak traffic hours, appropriate off-road parking-staging areas, and routes must be submitted,'' according to the DEC.
Rules governing how drilling will proceed include the requirement that waste water stored on site must be kept in steel tanks rather than makeshift ponds.
Elmira lawyer Christopher Denton, who represents landowner groups in several local counties, including Otsego, praised the DEC for ``an excellent start. They're saying New York is not Texas and we want to protect our environment while we extract this valuable resource.
``This is a draft; it's not complete, but I think the DEC deserves kudos for the effort. They've done a lot of good work here,'' he said.
Now it's up to the public to read the document and make informed comments so the final regulations work effectively, he said.
Denton said he planned to spend the weekend reading the document and would soon meet with landowner groups to discuss it.
James Powers, chairman of the Otsego County Board of Representatives, said he wanted to know more of the details before saying much.
``From what I've heard, it seems the DEC is doing just what we hoped it would do, working to make gas drilling as safe as possible.''
Otsego County Rep. Marty Stayton, D-Oneonta, said she, also, wants to read the details. Stayton said the gas industry, rather than the public, should pay for regulating gas drilling.
In response to a question about that, DEC spokesman Yancy Roy said that drillers will pay for testing water wells.
Roy noted the agency has only 17 gas and oil inspectors to police the gas boom, but ``DEC won't rubber stamp any permits or inspections or shortchange any environmental safeguards due to staffing. If, for example, we get a large number of applications at once, we have told companies they will have to wait for our review,'' he said in an e-mail to The Daily Star.
Adrian Kuzminski of Fly Creek, a member of the environmental group Sustainable Otsego, said he believes the DEC has listened to concerns raised by people, but he's not convinced the proposed rules will safeguard local water and land resources.
``The bottom line is we should be go very slowly with drilling and do much more with conservation,'' he said.
In the future, techniques for extracting natural gas may well be much safer than those employed today, he said.
Jonathan Kelafant, president of Covalent Energy, said Friday he has yet to read the proposed regulations.
``That's what I'll be doing this weekend,'' he said.
For more information about the draft SGEIS, see http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/46288.html on the Internet. On this website, the DEC states it will soon publish information on how to register public comments.
Those who want to address the Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation should contact Kali Michaels, committee assistant, at (518) 455-4363 or michaelk@assembly.state.ny.us.
