Hydofracking Pro and Con - Debate Goes On

By Dave Lucas

Middletown, NY – The Delaware River Basin Commission is set to meet on November 21st and possibly adopt natural gas development regulations to allow fracking to harvest natural gas: one of hydrofracking's biggest critics , New York Democratic Congressman Maurice Hinchey has asked the agency to suspend any such action until a "comprehensive and cumulative environmental impact statement has been completed" - just as a newly released University of Texas study claims there is no direct link between water contamination and fracking - Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports.

Last week, Hinchey wrote to DRBC members, warning that water resources for 15 million people will be put at risk if the commission allows fracking to commence without first studying what effect the industrial activity would have on water resources.

"While the DRBC notes that it is working to promote sound practices of watershed management, it has thus far failed to study or measure the substantial impacts we can expect from large scale deforestation and other activities that will accompany natural gas development," Hinchey wrote to the DRBC. "Without such studies, there is no guarantee that the DRBC's regulations are sufficient to protect the Basin. Further, such studies might lead the Commission to a conclusion that this major industrial activity may be wholly incompatible with protecting water quality, particularly in the sensitive headwaters of the Delaware River."

Hinchey, a co-chair of the Congressional Delaware River Task Force, has continually pressed the DRBC to conduct a comprehensive environmental review prior to issuing new regulations governing water withdrawals from the basin for hydraulic fracturing. Earlier this year, he strongly supported New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's lawsuit to compel the Delaware River Basin Commission to conduct a cumulative environmental impact study of shale gas drilling in the Delaware River Watershed.

About the same time Hinchey sent his letter, preliminary findings from a study of hydraulic fracturing and shale-gas development show no direct link between the controversial process and groundwater contamination. Charles "Chip" Groat is the University of Texas at Austin geology professor who led the study - Groat says a major goal of the study is to "separate fact from fiction" and produce accurate information that will help government policymakers adopt wise policies and regulations that "are grounded in science." Groat concedes that groundwater could be impacted by other activities carried out by gas extractors. Congressman Hinchey's concerns include the type of chemicals used in the hydrofracking process - he'd like to see a requirement such chemicals be publicly disclosed. Chip Groat believes fracking can be conducted safely.

Opponents of hydrofracking remain concerned about the potential impacts on the water supply of drilling in shale formations. They're concerned that the review and regulation processes are being rushed. In New York, the first of four public hearings on the state Department of Environmental Conservation's stringent gas drilling regulations will be held Wednesday in Livingston County. Citizens can mail, email and phone in their comments through December 12th.