Jan, No, I have not expressed any misconceptions. I base my comments on training and in-person investigation and research. And my point, by the way, was addressing the "...one thing is sure: in the next few years residents will see a dramatic transformation of the local area to a more industrial landscape." comment. George Frantz
--- On Wed, 9/2/09, Jan Quarles <[email protected]> wrote: From: Jan Quarles <[email protected]> Subject: [SustainableTompkins] gas leases - newwebsite To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2009, 1:51 PM Hi George, You have expressed one of the most common misconceptions about the new gas drilling. I live in Ovid, and the existing gas wells along Rte 96 to which you are referring are not at all comparable to what we can expect from the new "hydrofracking" process developed by Halliburton. In fact, we (at Back To Democracy) named the meeting we organized in March "Not Your Grandparents' Gas Well" in order to try to dispel this misunderstanding. The old gas wells went down only a few hundred feet, so leaks did not threaten the aquifers. The new drilling techinque ("hydrofracking") is far more invasive. It goes down thousands of feet to the Devonian levels, dredges up radiation, uses carcinogens in the process, and employs horizontal drilling, which greatly increases risk of contamination of aquifers. Moreover, each new gas well produces millions of gallons of toxic wastewater. (Where should we dispose of all this?) Judging from landowners' experiences of hydrofracking in other states like TX, PA, and WY, where drinking wells have been contaminated and communities disrupted, the new drilling and disposing of its wastewater will clearly cause severe adverse impacts on our water, air, soil, roads, traffic and quality of life here in the NY state --- like we've never seen before. Multinational corporations based outside the U.S., like Fortuna and Cabot, are the companies who stand to profit from drilling in the Marcellus Shale. We will have little control over holding them accountable when things go wrong. If you trust them to keep legal agreements, please read personal testimonies of how they've broken them many times. You can find these at nywellwatch-forum, shaleshock and other related web sites. How many of us have a $20K retainer to pay a lawyer to sue them? Despite their assurances, things have not always gone according to plan in other states, so we can predict that things will go wrong at some point. And with this type of invasive drilling, when they go wrong, they go very wrong. Poisoning of aquifers will affect many drinking wells. Runoff from wastewater will contaminate our lakes. Quality of life and property values will go down. Is poisoning of the environment reversible, and if so, how many centuries would it take? Short-term profit seems to have gotten the upper hand over ecological stewardship, on which our longterm well-being and quality of life depends. - Jan Quarles Ovid, NY ----- Original Message ----- From: "George Frantz" <[email protected]> To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, September 02, 2009 8:53 AM Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Map of Tompkins County gas leases - newwebsite On Mon, 8/31/09, Andy Goodell <[email protected]> wrote: "I'm curious if there's any data on local gas resources versus those from far away. Whenever I talk with someone about the gas drilling, I have to wonder if it is more sustainable to drill for gas locally, or to get our resources from places like the Middle East." I think Andy has a very good point. According to estimates available from the US Census Bureau just under 60% of homes in Broome, Chemung, Cortland, Steuben, Tioga and Tompkins County are heated with natural gas. The county breakdowns are: Broome: 66% Chemung: 76% Cortland: 48% Steuben: 54% Tioga: 28% Tompkins: 54% Within Tompkins County 75% of homesin the city of Ithaca proper are heated with natural gas; 72% of homes within the town of Ithaca are heated with natural gas. In addition to home heating regional economic engines such as Corning suck up huge amounts of natural gas. For far too long we've stood by as oil companies have raped the environment throughout the world to supply our energy desires. Today more and more of the offshore areas of the Gulf of Mexico are under siege from natural gas expoitation, and pressure continues to open up the Artic National Wildlife Refuge to exploitation. Most of the destruction of the wetland complexes of the Mississippi River delta that once protected New Orleans from hurricane tidal surges has been the result of natural gas production. As for the tripe on anti-drilling websistes such as "...one thing is sure: in the next few years residents will see a dramatic transformation of the local area to a more industrial landscape." There are some three dozen natural gas production wells within sight of Rte. 96 between Ovid and Geneva that tens of thousands of tourists and Ithaca-style environmentalists have driven by over the past two decades or so, without even noticing them. Sixty miles to our south there are over 300 wells either drilled or in the process of being drill in Bradford County, PA. The biggest challenge in assessing their visual impact is finding the drilling pads due to terrain and vegetation, particularly the cornfields. George Frantz _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
