EPA worried about shale-gas drilling near N.Y. water supply

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has expressed concern about the prospect of energy companies drilling for shale-based natural gas around New York City’s key water supply.

EPA “has serious reservations about whether gas drilling in the New York City watershed is consistent with the vision of long-term maintenance of a high-quality unfiltered water supply,” a letter dated Dec. 30 from the EPA to New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation says.

The EPA said it has “concerns regarding
potential impacts to human health and the environment that we believe
warrant further scientific and regulatory analysis.”

The DEC was seeking comments as it reviews whether to permit development of the section of the so-called Marcellus Shale formation, which the state agency says contains potentially enormous quantities of natural gas.

In September, Reuters reported, the DEC recommended that energy companies be permitted to drill in the Marcellus Shale. New York City has urged the state not to allow natural-gas drilling within the watershed.

The New York Times reported that Chesapeake Energy Corp., (CHK) the Oklahoma City energy explorer, owns the lease to drill in the New York City watershed area in the Catskill Mountains.
The company has determined not to drill there specifically but
opponents say that decision could be reversed, the Times reported.

To access gas in such rock formations, the industry
uses a process called hydraulic fracturing, in which it pumps a mixture
of water and chemicals under high pressure into the formations,
cracking them and releasing the gas. Opponents are concerned that the
fluids could contaminate the water supply.

The “watershed supplies drinking water to over 9 million people, and the avoidance of filtration saves New York
taxpayers billions of dollars that would be needed to construct and
operate a water-filtration plant should the watershed be compromised,”
the letter says.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation says the Marcellus Shale extends from Ohio and West Virginia northeast into Pennsylvania and southern New York.

“Geologists estimate that the entire Marcellus Shale
formation contains between 168 trillion to 516 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas,” the agency’s Web site says. As context, the agency says
that New York State uses about 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas a year.

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