Diesel not allowed for fracking, except when it’s allowed State, federal policies leave door open for petro-distillates

Conventional wisdom and certain regulations suggest that injecting diesel fuel into the ground is generally not an environmentally sound idea. Diesel fuel, to nobody’s surprise, contains toxic and carcinogenic chemicals, including The Big Four: Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene, collectively known in regulatory terms as BTEX. While part of a potent energy formula that has added vitally to the industrialization of our country – these compounds cause serious risks when let loose in nature. They can cause cancer, damage vital organs and wreck nervous systems. They dissolve easily in water. They are toxic at very low levels. Their individual dangers are compounded when they are mixed.

Diesel fuel contains all of these compounds, and despite calls for an outright ban of diesel as a primary fracking agent, it’s allowed with a Class II injection permit from the Environmental Protection Agency. There are also ways around the federal permitting process. Operators can add BTEX to fracking fluids and avoid federal regulations as long as the hydrocarbon mix doesn’t meet the technical definition of diesel. It’s up to states to regulate fracking, and because fracking is exempt from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, there are few restrictions on additives or requirements for their public disclosure.

The well service industry likes to use petroleum distillates because they are cheap and effective. According to a report from a U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, BTEX compounds appeared in 60 hydraulic fracturing products between 2005 and 2009. During that period operators knowingly injected 11.4 million gallons of products containing at least one BTEX chemical. Despite all the talk about “green fluids” from the PR branch of the industry, many operators favor petroleum distillates to produce shale gas, and have fought hard to keep them in the mix.

Recent legislation passed in Illinois, a place where state officials have touted rules as the toughest in the land, is an example. What I find striking, after being tipped by comments from several SGR readers on my last blog-post, are eleventh hour revisions to the Illinois statute dealing with the issue of petroleum compounds as fracking agents. HB 2615, the original version of the bill, would have made it “unlawful to perform any high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing operations by knowingly or recklessly injecting diesel or any petroleum distillates.” (Emphasis my own.) In the face of industry resistance, the final bill (SB 1715) dropped the term “petroleum distillates” and, further, defined diesel as any one of six particular chemical profiles listed by the Chemical Abstracts Service, or as “additional substances regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as diesel fuel.” (The National Resources Defense Council, one of many environmental groups with mixed reviews of the Illinois regs, characterized them as falling short of safeguards, but better than "a very bad situation" of proceeding with no policy at all. You can read NRDC staffer’s Ann Alexander’s blog here. Sandra Steingraber, an environmental activists, characterized the Illinois legislation as a lame compromise at the expense of open government and public health.)

That federal policy, meanwhile, remains inconclusive and incomplete after a history of ineffectiveness.  After determining in 2004 that fracking with diesel “may pose environmental concerns,” the EPA worked with delegations from some of the largest well service companies, including Halliburton, who agreed in a memorandum of understanding to voluntarily remove diesel fuel from fracking fluids. But when the companies found that diesel suited their needs in the field, they used it anyway. According to an ensuing Congressional investigation, oil and gas service companies injected over 32 million gallons of diesel fuel or hydraulic fracturing fluids containing diesel fuel into wells in 19 states between 2005 and 2009. For this, there were no permits issued, nor were fines levied. Since then, the EPA has begun a process to update its regulations on diesel and fracking and to provide a statutory definition of diesel. A precise definition is still pending along with final policy.

New York, the only state with major shale gas potential where permitting remains on hold, is also working on regulations that state officials have touted as the “best in the country.” Yet these regulations, as proposed, do not outlaw BTEX and other petroleum distillates. Nor do they forbid diesel fuel unless it is used as “a base fluid.” In other words, diesel can be added to fracking recipes, as long as the fluid is not the base ingredient. (In that case, operators would have to get a permit under the still undeveloped federal policy.)

The use of petroleum distillates to serve our lives is not unusual or categorically dangerous – Gasoline after all contains BTEX and inherent risks, and there is little doubt about consequences of using it improperly. Yet most of us encounter the handling and burning of gasoline in our workaday travels. This is because the use of gasoline – and risks related to spills or dumping – are tightly controlled.

With fracking, the regulatory controls are much weaker, due largely to the failure of state and federal governments to keep pace with the rapid advancement of the domestic shale gas industry along with its monumental stakes on public welfare.

NY fracking policy review expected “in a couple of weeks” DEC Chief’s 11th hour testimony puts onus on health dept.

The last piece to New York’s four and a half year policy review of fracking will be completed in “a couple of weeks,” the state’s top regulator told lawmakers this week. And then what?

Martens at hearing

DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens gave a few clues but no clear answers as he responded to questions in a legislative budget hearing Monday in Albany after delivering a 14-minute summary of the Department of Environmental Conseravation’s notable activities in 2012. Speaking in front of legislators and a gallery filled with hundreds of anti-fracking activists who drew repeated admonishments from finance committee Chair John DeFrancisco to pipe down or face a prolonged recess, Martens read a prepared statement covering issues ranging from restoring coastal frontage after hurricane Sandy to land acquisition and outdoor recreation. Remarkably, his statement lacked any reference to the most controversial environmental issue facing the state: whether, when, or how to allow shale gas development to proceed. Martens left it to lawmakers to bring that subject up during the question and answer period. Although Martens answers tended to be vague, nearly two hours of questioning yielded these informational nuggets:

• The Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), the exhaustive policy overhaul aimed at regulating high volume hydraulic fracturing, cost “several million” dollars.

• Before finalizing the SGEIS, officials are awaiting an amendment from the Department of Health Commissioner Nirav Shah that assesses whether the DEC’s policy sufficiently covers health impacts. More information will be available after that piece is completed in “a couple of weeks,” Martens said.

• Martens said he has no idea what the Health Department amendment says, to what degree it will influence the final outcome of the DEC’s policy proposal, or whether the state will even proceed with the plan it has been working on for nearly five years.

• There are no funds in Cuomo's proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts in April to deal with fracking or the increased regulatory burden of permitting and overseeing shale gas wells.

• There has been broad anticipation that the state will release the SGEIS next week to meet a Feb. 27 deadline to finalize a set of regulations that are being developed concurrently with the SGEIS. Martens did not know whether the state would meet the deadline.

Protesters at hearing

This is where the sequence of events gets unwieldy. The regs cannot be finalized without the SGEIS. And the SGEIS cannot be complete without the health department’s assessment of the risks. The health review -- added to the overall process late last year on an ad-hoc basis in an attempt to satisfy criticism -- now takes on critical importance and political complexity.

If anything was clear in Martens testimony, it was the importance of the Department of Health in deciding the fate of New York’s fracking policy. Responding to questions about why nothing had been budgeted this year to oversee fracking, Martens again referred to the pending health department amendment: “It is really up in the air,” he said. “It was premature to include funds when we weren’t at the end of the process.” Other answers to other questions repeatedly lead him back to the health review “… It all depends on what the health review says. If it recommends additional measures, it will be difficult to get the regs finalized … We’ll have it in a few weeks and then decide where we’ll go from there ... I have to get the health report before we make any decisions about whether we move forward or not…”

But what exactly is the health review? It lacks a public scoping component, procedural outline, and any clear definition of its objective that has been publically vetted. This is a sore spot for activists. An hour and 45 minutes into the hearing, Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton complained that the scope and contents of the health study were being kept secret, and she inquired whether it would be open to public hearings before it was finalized with the SGEIS.

Lifton: .. Is the public going to have an opportunity for public comment and review..?

Martens: (smiling and repeating an earlier quip): I’m sure the public will comment on this...

Lifton: ... I’m asking you a serious question … Is there going to be legal, formal public comment on this document ..?

Martens: “I don’t know at this stage. I haven’t seen the report yet. The report could include a whole range of things. From one end of the spectrum, -- no we’re not convinced you’ve done enough [to mitigate health risks]. They could be convinced that you’ve done enough and conclude it shouldn’t happen in New York. That’s one possibility. Until I’ve seen that I’m not drawing any conclusions. There may be no need for public comment, depending on what Dr. Shah says.“

An audio file of this exchange, edited by Matt Richmond of WSKG Radio, is below.



Martens vagueness – along with his remarkable claim that he has no idea what the report might say after earlier testifying he has been working with the Department of Health on these questions for years – reflects a more general opaqueness from the Cuomo administration about the fate of fracking in New York. It is an approach that has frustrated and angered people on both sides of the issue, but anti-fracking activist have reacted most visibly.

That anger reached a boiling point just prior to Martens’ testimony. As hundreds of activists filed into the assembly hall, and officials, law makers, staffers, and media milled around the floor, Sandra Steingraber, an Ithaca College biologist, environmental health specialist, and high-profile leader of the anti-fracking movement, sought out Martens and began pressing him for information. Martens turned away and one of his staff stepped in, prompting Steingraber to raise her voice to an oratory pitch echoing through the auditorium. “We are going to open this process up because secrecy cannot protect public health. I have tried to have a conversation with you, but you don’t answer any letters, so I’m using my voice, in front of the people of New York to say we are not standing for a secret health study…” Steingraber’s continued her impromptu stumping for a full minute with no signs of stopping before she was cut short by a burly official who demanded she take a seat or be arrested. Steingraber stood her ground, continuing her castigation long enough to illustrate the organization, gumption, and leadership of a grass roots network that will surely be challenging the DEC if fracking is allowed. (Video, posted by Colleen Boland on You Tube, is embeded below)



Beyond that, anybody trying to pull any definitive information about fracking from this scene or the ensuing hearings had slim pickings. Where does this leave residents evenly divided for and against fracking (according to a recent poll), and the 20 percent who haven’t made up their mind?

First, it’s important to remember that the decision to proceed with fracking, or not, extends well beyond the bureaucratic mechanism of the review process. Ultimately, it will be made above Martens and Shah and probably by Cuomo himself, given the governor’s political stake in the game. I have written before about Cuomo’s ambivalence about fracking, and Monday’s hearing once again shows, if anything, his contimued lack of commitment.

Missing the Feb. 13 deadlines suggests the DEC will not be issuing the regs by the end of the month and the agency will have to reopen that process while enduring the groundswell of protests that go along with each hearing. But it’s critical to remember that the permitting process can begin once the SGEIS is finished, even without the regs finalized.

This gives Cuomo a lot of options. Depending on which way the political winds blow (and the status of natural gas prices) New York could release the SGEIS before or after Wednesday’s deadline. Because permitting can begin without regulations, the release of the SGEIS, whenever it comes, would technically open the path of shale gas development in New York, although it would be a rocky, narrow path along the northern Marcellus frontier. This path will be fraught with strident anti-drilling resistance, protests, legal challenges, and a bottleneck of applications handled by an understaffed agency. For established operators, it certainly would be a much less attractive route than the permitting boulevard that has accelerated drilling and fracking in Pennsylvania. But it very well could appeal to a certain breed of prospectors, speculators, innovators, and exploration companies working with relatively large swaths of unleased land and willing to take the chances to stake out and prove up new territory.

Cuomo can also hold off, given the low prices of natural gas, the lack of the political push from the pro-gassers to offset the uprising from the antis, split poles, etc. With the SGEIS pieces pretty much in place, his lack of commitment is hard to read. Certainly, as a politician, he is inclined to weigh monumental political issues against other monumental political issues, and looking at the state’s energy needs goes beyond fracking. In action and rhetoric, the governor has supported closing Indian Point and discouraging coal-burning plants. Can he place himself to the left of President Obama on energy and still maintain mainstream presidential aspirations?

At the end of Martens’ testimony Monday, the protesters stood and chanted "Not one well!" before heading to the Capitol for a rally with Steingraber and celebrities that included actor Mark Rufalo and film-maker Josh Fox. They were also joined by Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, who sign a "pledge of resistance" to fracking and is training protesters in civil disobedience if shale gas development is permitted.

That story is taking shape and we will soon know whether or how it will unfold.

Activists attack fracking plan with DEC’s own red tape 200K comments on final day puts pressure on NY agency

With one deadline past and another imminent, staffers at New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation attempting to resolve New York’s fracking conundrum find themselves in a familiar position: under pressure.

On the final day for public comment on draft regulations for development of shale gas reserves under upstate New York, members of a well-organized anti-fracking campaign delivered more than 200,000 written comments. Activists carted boxes into the agency’s headquarters in Albany hours before the 5 p.m. deadline. DEC staffers now have 50 days to process and respond to this latest deluge of criticism before they can finalize a plan.

Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono join response at DEC headquarters

Following the direction of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens, officials have been attempting to complete policy for shale gas development in New York. The focus is on high volume hydraulic fracturing, known commonly as fracking – a process to shatter subterranean mantels of bedrock with pressurized chemical solution to release oil and gas. Advances in fracking technology are enabling exploitation of reserves that were previously inaccessible, and also raising concerns about social and environmental impacts from a new era of mineral extraction on a scale previously unseen. Until New York’s policy is complete, permits to develop the Utica and Marcellus shales extending under upstate New York are on hold.

As of Monday, the DEC had received 1,373 comments, said Emily DeSantis, a spokeswoman for the agency. Today’s special delivery capped off a week of protests that served as a political show of force by both grass roots and institutional fracking opponents, lead by activists well versed in the procedural, political, and scientific aspects of the hotly debated issue. On Monday, Climate Change headliner Bill McKibben spoke on the hazards of fossil fuel extraction and consumption and global warming in front of a sold-out crowd in The Egg, a 1,500-seat performing arts venue in Rockefeller Plaza. On Wednesday, more than 1,500 chanting protesters with signs and banners crammed a quarter-mile stretch of the plaza’s underground concourse, which connects the state Capitol and Legislative Office Building to the convention center where governor Cuomo delivered his State of the State address. The demonstration included an appearance and performance by 93-year-old folk legend Pete Seeger.

Today, the comments were delivered to the DEC with a delegation that included Sandra Steingraber, a biologist, activist and author who has been tutoring followers on the technical aspects of the regulations and encouraging them to respond, and Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon, who are among celebrities who have served as figureheads for the movement.

Sean Lennon at DEC headquarters

While there is bound to be a percentage of comments that are redundant or irrelevant, the agency will still have to read them, sort them, and respond appropriately by Feb. 27. That means that staffers will have to read and sort some 4,000 comments a day. That’s 400 an hour, more than six a minute, or one every 10 seconds. That's assuming 70-hour workweeks with no breaks to answer the phone, eat, or go to the bathroom. Of course, one person will not be processing all the requests. But it’s a daunting challenge even for a qualified team of officials, and it raises the questions of what kind of resources the DEC will be able to summon to meet the deadline. Within this mass of paperworks will be comments that require extra thoughtful analysis and perhaps, if taken in good faith, warrant change to the draft document. In addition to the boxes of comments, the agency will have to respond to “some very detailed technical comments” from environmental groups, including the National Resource Defense Council, Earthjustice, Riverkeeper, Catskill Mountainkeeper, and Sierra Club being submitted this afternoon, said Deborah Goldberg, an attorney with Earth Justice.

“Failure to comply with these requirements is grounds for legal challenge,” Goldberg said.

The sheer volume of responses will pose a significant logistical problem for the agency, which has to respond to all of them before finalizing regulations. The agency issued the draft regulations on Nov. 29 to qualify for a 90-day extension to keep the rule making process from expiring. By law, the agency also had to allow a 30-day period -- from Dec. 12 until today -- for public comment. If the regulations are not finalized by Feb. 27, the agency will have to restart the rule making process and reopen it for public comment.

The regulations, however, are just one piece of New York’s monumental and unprecedented policy overhaul to try to come to terms with shale gas development. The regulations represent the battle of today. A larger and more critical piece, and surely to become the battle of tomorrow, is a review of environmental and health impacts on which the regulations are based. That review, called the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), has been in draft form since 2008 and there is no deadline for its completion. In theory, the state could begin issuing permits for shale development after the final version of the SGEIS is released, even if the regulations are not finalized.

That also would provoke an all out effort, including law suits, by the coalition of groups leading the anti-fracking campaign who have faulted the process every step of the way. A salient complaint is that the regulations were issued prior to the final SGEIS on which they were based, forcing the public to evaluate regulations without access to the SGEIS and relevant health and environmental considerations.

In response to a request from leaders of environmental groups, and in anticipation of law suits, Martens announced last fall that the state was hiring outside consultants to review the work of the DEC to ensure that it had sufficiently accounted for public health impacts of fracking. Like the final SGEIS, the scope and results of that review have not been made public.

Even as the regulations are being developed, Cuomo’s administration has indicated through prepared statements that it is undecided on whether it will allow shale gas development. It is a subject that Cuomo rarely addresses publically. He did not mention it in this week’s State of the State address, even though fracking represents the biggest environmental policy fight in the state’s recent history.

Update: John Campbell, Gannett’s Albany reporter, reported today that if DEC officials intend to finalize the regulations by Feb. 27, administrative law requires them to release the final SGEIS (which includes a summary of the health assessment) at least 10 days prior. A mid-February release of the SGEIS would be a clear sign that the agency intends to push forward against the resistance with its plan to open New York of shale gas development. That would be a victory for those who have been supporting development for economic reasons. If the agency lets that window pass, it would signal the opposite.

‘30-days of fracking regs’ deconstructs New York policy NY, Pa differ in assessing blame when things go wrong

For those reflecting on the prospects of shale gas development in New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo and his staff have this holiday message for you:

See: High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing Proposed Regulations 6 NYCRR, Parts 52, 190, 550-556, 560, and 750.

Happy New Year!

Last week, a 30-day countdown began toward the Jan. 11 deadline for public-comment on New York’s draft regulations to oversee shale gas development. The timing of the process drew complaints from activists that the Cuomo administration is railroading the regs under cover of holiday bustle and without meaningful context. Still missing is a full accounting of environmental and health considerations in a document yet to be released in final form. This document, called the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), is designed to provide the foundation on which the regulations are based.

The regulatory package in question is intended to provide rules to settle key questions. How close can a well bore be drilled to a water supply or dwelling, and how is accountability assessed when things go wrong?

Steingraber

Anti-fracking activist Sandra Steingraber has offered to help those finding it difficult to squeeze in this extra fracking homework amid the holiday rush. She has produced “30-days of fracking regs,” an exercise she described as a “fun-yet-deadly-serious approach to commenting” on New York’s policy prior to the Jan. 11 deadline. Steingraber – an author and ecology professor at Ithaca College – uses this Advent-calendar approach in an attempt to demystifying issues such as set-backs, well construction specifications, spacing requirements, and abandonment policy. As an example, I have opened Steingraber’s Dec. 13th advent box: NYCRR Subchapter B, Part 560, Operations Associated with High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing, Section 560.4, Setbacks. In the interest of balancing Steingraber’s informed but one-sided analysis, I have also asked experts in the pro-fracking camp to comment. In this post, Terry Engelder, a geologist at Penn State University who specializes in shale formations, provides a counterweight.

Here is Steingraber’s Dec. 13th assessment:

Today, day 2 of the regs comment calendar, falls in the second week of Advent. In the Christian calendar, Advent is a season of waiting, alertness, and reflection on the myriad injustices of the Roman occupation. In that spirit, and continuing yesterday's focus on setbacks, let's reflect on the proposed allowable distances between fracking wells and our drinking water. Take a close look at Section 560.4(a)(1 and 3-5):

Section 560, subdivision 560.4 -- Setbacks

(a) No well pad or portion of a well pad may be located:
(1) within 500 feet from a residential water well, domestic supply spring or water well or spring used as a water supply for livestock or crops;
(2) within 500 feet from an inhabited dwelling or place of assembly;
(3) within a primary aquifer and a 500-foot buffer from the boundary of a primary aquifer
(4) within a 100-year floodplain; and
(5) within 2,000 feet of any public water supply municipal or otherwise, or the boundaries of any public water supply reservoir, natural lake or man-made impoundment (except engineered impoundments constructed for fresh water storage associated with fracturing operations).

Primary aquifers are underground pools of water that supply drinking water to major municipalities. There are 18 of them in our state. Principal aquifers, by contrast, provide drinking water to smaller communities and to families with private wells. Note that setback protections for principal aquifers do not exist at all. Thus, people living in large municipalities are afforded more protection than citizens in rural communities. Also, setbacks apply only to the well pads on the surface, not to the underground wellbores: horizontal drilling underneath both kinds of aquifers is allowed. Drilling under lakes and rivers is also allowed. No consideration is given to natural faults in the bedrock, which can act as pathways for the migration of methane and other chemicals.

One peer-reviewed study found elevated levels of methane in drinking water wells that were located up to a kilometer away from a gas well. The regs do not require monitoring wells. (Mandated for other industries, a monitoring well is used to obtain samples of groundwater to periodically test for the presence of pollutants.) Thus, New Yorkers who rely on groundwater - and there are nearly five million of us - would only know we have a problem when we develop rashes after showering or discover that our tap water is flammable. In essence, under these regulations, the kitchen faucets of homeowners would serve as monitoring wells for the gas industry. And last: as recent weather patterns show us, the 100-year-floods that define 100-year floodplains are now arriving with much greater frequency than once per century.

Engelder offers a response to the question of setbacks in the context of Pennsylvania laws developed with recommendations by an advisory committee set up by Governor Tom Corbett:

The Commission recognized that there will always be some inherent risk to gas drilling regardless of the setback distance. Because setbacks are arbitrary, the Commission felt that a greatly expanded radius of liability was appropriate when it came to exploitation of Marcellus gas. [‘Radius of liability’ is the area within a given distance of a gas well where drillers must accept accountability for problems unless they can prove otherwise.]

Engelder

Engelder explained that Corbett’ administration passed laws that increased the minimum setback from a private water well from 200 feet to 500 feet, and from a public water supply (water well, surface water intake or reservoir) to 1,000 feet, unless waived in writing by the water works administrator. Moreover, the laws also expanded an operator’s “presumed liability” for water pollution to within 2,500 feet of a gas well. Previously, the distance was 1,000 feet. In other words, when water wells suddenly go bad within 2,500 feet of an oil and gas drilling or fracking operation, the burden falls to operators to prove that drilling did not cause the problem, rather than to the homeowner to prove that drillers did it. The time frame for “presumed liability” on drilling companies was increased from 6 months to 12 months of completion or alteration of the well. He expains:

Even in rural portions of Pennsylvania, the Commission recognized that increasing setback distances beyond, say, 500 feet could potentially limit resource recovery. Because the true risk can never be known ahead of time, any setback distance is arbitrary. So, rather than greatly limit or even stop resource recovery because of some perceived risk, the Commission greatly expanded the explicit presumption of liability.

Now, the State presumes operator liability if anything goes wrong with, for example, private water wells within an area that covers the better fraction of a square mile centered on a well pad. Assuming that the full development of the Marcellus requires about one well pad per square mile, this means that presumed liability may extend over virtually all surface area under which the Marcellus is to be extracted in Pennsylvania. In other words, the Commission resolved the contentious issue of expanding setbacks because of some perceived risk in favor of placing the onus of liability on industry through an expanded radius of presumed liability should something unpredictable happen that adversely affected public health and safety.

The Commission recognized that problems were greatest in the top 500-1000 feet penetrated by the vertical portion of Marcellus well. This is the zone of fresh drinking water. The Commission also recognized the geological factors reduced the risk from horizontal portions of wells to near zero, with the exception of encountering abandoned wells. Because the risk of encountering abandoned wells is not zero, the operators are developing protocols for dealing with this situation in a way that assures public safety. The expanded radius of presumed liability covers situations in which unknown, abandoned wells are caused to flow by stimulation of horizontal wells.

Tied to the issue of presumed liability is baseline testing. That is, testing to assess ground water conditions before, during, and after drilling. Shifting the burden of proof onto operators in Pennsylvania encourages them to thoroughly document water quality data throughout the process as a defense against claims.

The New York regulations do not by default hold gas drillers responsible for problems within set distances to wells. But they would require baseline testing of aquifers within 1,000 feet. If there are no private water wells within 1,000 feet, they require baseline testing up to 2,000 feet. The thinking here is that data sets collected under the state’s protocol will provide proof of guilt or innocence of charges of water pollution.

The regulations regarding set backs and testing involve just a few pages of a regulatory process that takes up volumes in New York alone. They deal with questions about air pollution, public land use, record keeping protocol, spacing, waste management, disclosure requirements, and many other issues. I have asked other stakeholders to highlight points that they see as critical, and I hope to return to the issue in future posts.

In the meantime, Happy Holidays, and happy reading.

Reading the regs: missing pieces confound NY gas policy Some happier than others with signals from Albany

Steingraber at press conference with anti-fracking activists in Albany
PHOTO PROVIDED

With a keystone policy document still under wraps, stakeholders are having a hard time assessing merits and drawbacks of New York’s fracking regulations issued in draft form last week.

The missing piece is a compilation of environmental and health considerations that will be a primary tool for issuing permits under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration. Those considerations are the focus of a 1,500-plus page document called the Generic Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), which has been a work in progress since 2008. The document addresses health and environmental impacts of developing the Marcellus and Utica shale reserves as determined by the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Health, and offers a plan to manage them. In response to concerns by activist late last year, the DEC commissioned an independent panel of health experts to review the DEC’s work in the SGEIS. With that review pending, the Cuomo administration has said it is still leaving the door open to shelve the entire process.

After two drafts, the final SGEIS is expected to be made public within a three month deadline the state now faces to finalize its regulatory package. The deadline to get rules in place, originally Nov. 29, was extended after the DEC issued a draft of the regulations last week, minus the pivotal environmental and health reviews in the SGEIS. In the meantime, as fracking critics continue to pore over the draft regulations issued last week, they are finding little to like. Industry proponents, on the other hand, see encouraging signs.

Anti-frackers lodged complaints regarding form, content and timing of the draft regulations, which they see as a reflection of haphazardness common to the entire process. A collection of elected officials, public health advocates, and environmental activists gathered in Albany Monday to call for transparency in developing policy. In particular, the group is concerned over the lack of explanation regarding how the state is assessing health risks. Joined by assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan, and ecologist and anti-fracking activist Sandra Steingraber, they called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to make public the scope of the health review and schedule a public comment period and hearing to air testimony specifically dealing with health-related concerns.

In talking with representatives of some of the agencies in a position to legally challenge the DEC’s regulatory approach, I found this salient charge: The process is characterized by confusion, lack of transparency, and inaccessibility, and critics cite as a prime example the release of the regulations before the health and environmental assessment. While fracking opponents gathered for the Albany press conference, Deborah Goldberg, an attorney for EarthJustice, studied the draft regulations in her office in New York City. (Note Goldberg's first name has been corrected from the original version of this post.) She found problems from the start with organizational flaws that make the technically dense documents inscrutable. Because changes are not redlined, reviewers have to flip back and forth between existing regulations developed decades ago for conventional gas development, early drafts of proposed amendments for shale gas, and the current documents. Moreover, the changes could not be considered in context of the broader health and environmental reviews that remain unfinished. This has made the process unnecessarily cumbersome for professional and citizen reviewers who face a 30-day deadline to comment.

“It’s extremely unhelpful to issue these to the public with no references or context and with a compressed public comment period over the holidays,” Goldberg said. “You would think you would make this as easy as possible, but they’re asking us to critique the regs without key components made public, and rushing the entire process.”

The regulations deal with the how of shale gas development, from spacing units to containment measures to setbacks. They inform, for example, that pads and discharges are not allowed within 500 feet of a primary aquifer or within 2000 feet of primary municipal water supplies. But they don’t address the qualitative issues – purportedly addressed in the SGEIS -- that have been at the center of the fracking debate. What will the cumulative impacts be? What rights do local governments have? How can this affect public health” And who will bare the cost of enforcement?

Some representatives of environmental agencies told me they were disappointed that the new regs apparently did little to sanction environmental safeguards expressed by DEC staff members during meetings earlier this year. The safeguards include green completion -- a process to minimize pressurized releases of methane and other pollution by banning development of wells before infrastructure is in place to capture, contain and transport gas; and wells to monitor ground water conditions around gas operations. It was unclear whether these types of safeguards would be detailed in the SGEIS and stipulated under permitting conditions.

“It’s bizarre that we are being asked to comment on something without seeing the compendium of its meaning,” said Roger Downs, executive director of the Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Not everybody was unhappy about the regs, however. Drilling proponents were encouraged that the DEC met the deadline to allow the process to move forward rather than expire. Gas drilling proponents have pointed to the four-and-a-half year review process, with multiple comment periods and hearings reflected in previous drafts of the SGEIS, as a sufficient effort to publically air concerns and develop policy. Proponents feel that, by meeting the deadline last week, the agency continues a good faith effort to allow the review to proceed.

“They kept the regulations alive, which was a surprise,” said Tom West, an industry lawyer. “It’s a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s good to see we are nearing the end.” West added that drilling proponents had reservations of a different sort. Specifically, he found rules that ban drilling in watersheds that feed New York City, Syracuse and other major aquifers to be too restrictive. “It raises questions about access to the resource,” he said.

If regulations are completed in three months, West estimated that it may take a half a year or more after that for permits to work their way through the new regulatory system.

Assuming the other pieces fall in place before the 90-day extension for the draft regs expires, and assuming the governor then gives a green light to permitting, there are several wild cards that cannot be accounted for, including possible legislative initiatives and legal challenges that could still delay or derail the process.

If push comes to shove, anti-frackers pledge not to budge

If fracking comes to New York, opposition groups are pledging to take the fight beyond traditional political channels and employ tactics used in the 1960s Civil Right’s movement. This would include passive “civil disobedience” such as human block-aides and sit-ins, to call attention to their cause and show their resolve to fight for it.

There is bitterness and vitriol on both sides of the debate over the risks and merits of high volume hydraulic fracturing – a controversial method of extracting gas from rock that has enabled a new era of on-shore drilling. Proponents see on shore drilling as a positive step to increase domestic energy supplies and national independence while phasing out coal. Critics see it as a reckless and unregulated corporate land grab that comes at the risk of the environment and public health. And there is plenty of visible protesting, street theater, and campaigning that illustrate the deepening entrenchment of positions over shale gas in New York state. Too much, in fact, for one journalist to cover, much less assign relevance to.

So why am I writing about a particular series of events that took place in upstate New York yesterday? Signers – 5,000 to date -- of the “Pledge of Resistance” represent a commitment that seems to extend beyond an ill-defined crowd that can be written off as reactionaries, hellions, ideologues, and band-wagon riders. Alliances within the group cut across demographics, with heavy representation from baby-boomers, some with a history in the Civil Rights movement that defined 1960s-era activism. As with pro-drilling groups, anti-fracking campaigners are represented by credentialed leadership including politicians, academics, and professionals with family and jobs. And they appear ready to push their comfort zone.

Three protesters were arrested earlier this month for blocking the entrance to an Inergy LLC facility near Watkins Glen, New York. Inergy plans to build a $40 million storage and transfer station for natural gas and liquid petroleum in underground salt caverns on the western side of Seneca Lake. The project is part of a build-out of infrastructure that would increase New York’s role in shale gas development. Those arrested included Gary Judson, a 72-year-old retired Methodist Minister.

The pledge of resistance is purportedly signed by people willing to go down that same path. They include political figures such as Binghamton Matt Ryan, and non-political figures such as Sue Rapp, a psychotherapist with a private practice in Vestal, New York. Rapp, a first-time demonstration speaker, considers herself an “accidental activist,” compelled to protest because of the prospects of shale gas development in her hometown, which sits over a lucrative part of the Marcellus Shale

Protestor Susan Walker is charged with trespass Watkins Glenn
PHOTO WILLIAM HOUSTON/ SHALE SHOCK MEDIA

A principal in the upstate New York movement is biologist and author Sandra Steingraber, distinguished scholar in residence at Ithaca College, and a mother of two children, ages 13 and 11. At rallies yesterday in Horseheads, Binghamton, and the Onondaga Nation, Steingraber promised more resistance to come. “I will be in the streets with you, and if the day comes that I will be a better parent in jail than out of jail, then I will be that parent,” she told a crowd of cheering followers at a rally in Otsiningo Park. “We stand ready to fill the streets in peaceful non-violent protests.”

A threat, of course, is different from action. And if push comes to shove, it remains to be seen whether the signatories will live up to their commitment in show-stopping numbers, or whether the effort will become an underwhelming side show in the ongoing national debate.

And so the story continues.

New York state watersheds central to fracking debate... Why does ban apply to some, but not others?

 Sandra Steingraber with Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan

If the debate over fracking were a political campaign – and in many ways it is -- New York might be considered a pivotal battle ground state.

Like Pennsylvania, New York sits over two of the world’s largest shale gas reserves – the Marcellus and the Utica. But while Pennsylvania has allowed the industry access to these pay zones with relatively few regulatory restrictions, New York has suspended permits for shale gas pending a review of its environmental impacts.

As recounted in my book, Under the Surface, the movement to prevent shale gas development in New York started in June, 2008 with unanswered questions raised by local residents, planners and elected officials at town hall meetings about the state’s ability to safely regulate the industry in areas traditionally untouched by mineral extraction. In the four years since, skepticism over the government’s ability to control Big Energy – fueled by a growing list of problems and lack of transparency in Pennsylvania and other drilling states -- has become a lynch pin of the national anti-fracking campaign. That campaign features upstate residents and activists such Walter Hang and Sandra Steingraber, backed by a growing cast of celebrities such as Mark Ruffalo, Alec Baldwin, and Josh Fox, and by a collection of scholars and politicians. They warn of an unhealthy and unsustainable future dependent on a shale gas economy. They are taking on an industry with deep PR, lobbying, legal, and technical wherewithal and landowners of large rural tracts pitching shale gas development as the means to an economic renaissance and a preferable alternative to coal.

Within the last month, anti-fracking activists have featured rallies in Albany and Syracuse, and this week they were in Binghamton. Their efforts are aimed at Governor Andrew Cuomo and a review by his New York Department of Environmental Conservation evaluating the impacts from shale gas development. As those following the story know well by now, fracking, short for high volume hydraulic fracturing, involves mixing toxic chemicals with water and injecting them into the ground under pressure to stimulate gas flow. Each shale gas well requires 4 million or more gallons of this proprietary chemical mix, and produce like amounts of flowback consisting of spent fracking fluid, brine, heavy metals, and other elements buried in the earth’s crust for 600 million years. Six more wells may be allowed per square mile of a shale gas reserve, which span multiple states.

The latest draft of the DEC’s environmental review of the process, called the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), would, ban fracking in watersheds that supply New York City and Syracuse due to risks of opening an exposure pathway to these hazards through water pollution. This only underscores the inherent problem with fracking in the minds of critics. If the risks of water pollution are unacceptable in these watersheds, they argue, why are they acceptable in others? “We see it as a matter of environmental justice,” said Steingraber, an ecologist and award winning author. “A child who drinks water from an unfiltered well in an aquifer in Broome County has the same rights as a child in Manhattan who drinks from an unfiltered water-supply that begins high in the Catskills.” Steingraber won the Heinz Foundation prize for her latest book, Raising Elijah, and donated most of the $100,000 honorarium to help found New Yorkers Against Fracking, an umbrella group that has organized localized grass roots endeavors statewide.

Steingraber delivered her remarks about environmental justice on Tuesday outside Binghamton City Hall with Mayor Matthew Ryan and other politicians and representatives of environmental groups. The greater Binghamton area, which sits over a prime part of the Marcellus Shale, is a strategically important place in the debate. While the city’s residents are represented by Ryan and others who generally oppose fracking, much of the outlying area comes under the jurisdiction of landowners and drilling proponents who support state Senator Tom Libous. As a drilling advocate and deputy majority leader of the Republican controlled Senate, Libous is positioned to block any bills that would further delay or ban fracking in New York state. Several of those bills have gained traction in the Democrat controlled Assembly.

Broome County legislator Julie Lewis, vice president of the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York Inc., hopes to add her pro-drilling voice to the Assembly next year. Lewis is challenging incumbent Donna Lupardo for the 126th district seat. Lupardo, a senior Democrat and member of the Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee, has advocated more study of issues related to fracking, while Lewis is pressing for an end to delays. Lewis sees the DEC’s decision to ban drilling in certain watersheds as a conciliatory tactic to ease pressure from anti-drllling forces in politically influential parts of the state. “They did it to appease these groups,” Lewis said. “These problems (related to water pollution and drilling) are very minor, isolated and correctable.“

Steingraber and Co. disagree. They are pressing their message that fracking threatens profound and lasting damage to the water table at a strategically important time. There is a sense that a showdown is imminent later this year, when the state DEC is expected to finalize the SGEIS. With that piece in place, permitting could begin, barring no legislative or judicial stays. The SGIES,, which has been sent back to the drawing board twice after more than 60,000 written comments, mostly from critics, continues to draw relentless fire from drilling opposition who now site the exclusion of certain water sheds due to safety concerns, but not others, as another fatal flaw.

But not all environmental groups are together on this. In reviewing the SGEIS, officials from the National Resources Defense Council have suggested allowing permitting on a trial basis in communities over the most promising shale gas zones, in places like Broome County that are generally receptive to the industry. Robert Kennedy Jr., a senior attorney for the NRDC, also sits on a panel advising DEC Commissioner Joe Martens and other state officials on managing shale gas. Steingraber and the New Yorkers Against Fracking activists characterize the zones where drilling would be allowed, while others are spared for political expediency, as “sacrifice zones.”

The picture will likely get more complicated after the political cards are shuffled with this year’s election. Will voters give anti-fracking Democrats or pro-fracking Republicans control over both chambers of New York’s legislature and critical influence in deciding once and for all whether New York will become a drilling state? There is also a possibility that Cuomo’s office will release the final SGEIS after the elections and before the new legislature convenes, at a time in which political factors could be effectively neutralized. (Cuomo advocated moving the SGEIS forward soon after he took office, but has since deferred to the DEC.)

The state’s fracking drama plays out in the backdrop of a national election year that will also shape the future of shale gas development. A Romney EPA would not likely stand in the way of a push for on-shore shale gas development from the drill-baby-drill contingent. Obama, meanwhile, has given public backing to shale gas production as a necessary part of his “all of the above” energy vision. His EPA, lead by Lisa Jackson, is reviewing the safety of hydraulic fracturing in a report that is also due at the end of this year. That report will send a critical message as to whether an Obama EPA is ready to get more involved in regulating the industry and eliminating federal exemptions to the Safe Drinking Water Act (the infamous ‘Haliburton Loophole’) that allows the industry to put what it wants into the ground without disclosure. But don’t expect that report before election time, either.