Hooray for Walter! That's great that he got that national exposure of this issue.
On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 3:25 PM, Elan Shapiro < [email protected]> wrote: > See Amy Goodman's interview below with Walter Hang, President of < > http://www.toxicstargeting.com/>Toxics Targeting, an environmental > database firm in Ithaca, New York. > Hang states the water that emerges from horizontal drilling wells contains > radon and uranium (both radioactive elements) and he mentions that the > Cayuga Heights took the waste water -- I don't know if the treatment plant > is still taking the contaminated water, but I do not believe that the plant > has any mechanism for removing radioactive elements. Pat Dutt > > Walter Hang, President of <http://www.toxicstargeting.com/>Toxics > Targeting, an environmental database firm in Ithaca, New York. > > < > http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/3/fracking_and_the_environment_natural_gas>Fracking > and the Environment: Natural Gas Drilling, Hydraulic Fracturing and Water > Contamination (9/3/2009) > < > http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/6/environmental_battle_brews_in_new_york>Environmental > Battle Brews in New York over Natural Gas Drilling (10/6/2009) > > AMY GOODMAN: We begin today with the latest developments on gas drilling in > the Marcellus Shale watershed, potentially the largest natural gas reserve > in the country and the source of drinking water for 15 million people, > including nine million New Yorkers. On Monday, an environmental research > group released government data revealing New York state regulation of > natural gas wells has been, quote, "woefully insufficient for decades." > > The upstate New York-based Toxics Targeting went through the Department of > Environmental Conservation's own database of hazardous substances spills > over the last thirty years. They found 270 cases documenting fires, > explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination and ecological damage > related to gas drilling. Many of the cases remain unresolved. > > The findings are contrary to repeated government assurances that existing > natural gas well regulations are sufficient to safeguard the environment and > public health. > > Well, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation didn't respond > to our requests for comment. They told the Ithaca Journal, however, that > spills from the oil and gas industry constituted a very small proportion of > the total number of spills recorded in the past three decades, adding that > such accidents are rare. > > For more on this, I'm joined here in our firehouse studio by Walter Hang, > the president of Toxics Targeting. > > Welcome to Democracy Now! > > WALTER HANG: Thank you for inviting me. > > AMY GOODMAN: Now, for a national audience, let alone a New York audience, I > think most people have never heard of what Marcellus Shale is. > > WALTER HANG: That's right. It's this giant rock formation, very deep > underground. It's about a mile deep, and it stretches from just north of > Syracuse, New York, all the way to Tennessee. This is very thick impermeable > rock, but it's got gas inside these tiny little pores. > > So, up until now, there really hasn't been any effective way to get the gas > out of the rock, because it's so deep and because it's so impermeable. But > now there's a new technology. It's called "slick water hydrofracking," and > it involves horizontal drilling. So they drill down, and then they drill > through the rock layer, and then they force incredibly highly pressurized > water that's got a lot of additives, and this fractures the rock. This then > lets the gas out, and then they retrieve it. > > Unfortunately, it requires tremendous amounts of water, and it's incredibly > polluting. So the water that comes out of the ground has toxic chemicals, > petroleum compounds, and it's actually radioactive. So up until- > > AMY GOODMAN: Wait, wait, wait, wait. "It's actually radioactive." What do > you mean? > > WALTER HANG: Believe it or not, when the water gets drawn out of this deep > rock formation, there's radon, there's uranium, so the water that comes out > is radioactive, as well as toxic-contaminated. So, one of the key problems > is, what do you do with all this wastewater? And that's the issue that we > investigated. > > So, New York has had natural gas drilling for almost 200 years, and > everyone at the state government and industry level has said, "We've never > had a problem. We've been drilling. It's reliable technology. No problems." > When we looked at the State of New York's own data, however, we found, > again, fires, explosions, huge uncontrolled releases of wastewater that went > into people's drinking water, went into wetlands, streams. Many of these > problems haven't been cleaned up, even after decades. > > Arguably the worst case was in Freedom, New York. Someone named Dale Fox > was drilling a vertical well, and he hit a gas pocket. The natural gas was > incredibly pressurized. It came blasting out of this 2,000-foot-deep hole. > It picked up petroleum on the way up. It shot out of the hole. The wind blew > this incredibly flammable explosive mixture onto the drill rig. They had to > shut off the drill rig. Then they couldn't kill the well. They couldn't stop > the gas from exploding out of the well. It got in a rock fracture, and in a > matter of minutes it went 8,000 feet. It contaminated twelve homes, that > were evacuated. It polluted drinking water wells. It polluted drainage > ditches, ponds. And it came up in this farmer's barn, where his dairy herd > was. Believe it or not, more than ten years after that release, the water is > still undrinkable. > > And in the New York City reservoir system, the only protection would be > that you can't drill a well within 300 feet, compared to this problem which > went 8,000 feet. So these regulations that have been proposed by the > Governor, David Paterson, are totally inadequate. And again, they're based > on this false assumption that the existing regulations are adequate. And > that's how come I've written to him to say, "Withdraw this proposal, look at > the problems that your own Department of Environmental Conservation has > documented, and come back when you have something that's actually going to > assure that this drilling can be done safely and without harming public > health." > > AMY GOODMAN: I have seen images that you've posted on your < > http://www.toxicstargeting.com/>website of water lighting up, being > flammable, light-water catching fire. > > WALTER HANG: This is just incredible. About a year ago-actually, a little > bit more than a year ago, basically, a Vietnam vet living in Candor, New > York had discovered that, even though he had lived in the same house since > 1962, his water started to release gas, and he discovered that you could > light it. And he was immediately east of an area where they had begun > drilling. So, last January, he complained to the Department of Environmental > Conservation. He said, "Hey, my water is flammable. I can light it." > > AMY GOODMAN: Instead of the flame going out, it lights up. > > WALTER HANG: It lights up. I mean, you will literally turn on the water, > the water will start coming out of the faucet, and then it will like burp > gas. And if you hold a match to it, it literally ignites. > > So the incredibly shameful thing is that the Department of Environmental > Conservation did not even come to look at this situation. They simply told > this disabled vet, Mr. Mayer, "Don't drink the water." And that was it. And > the key thing is, they said this reported problem was administratively > closed out, and it met the applicable cleanup standards. They didn't do > anything, but they said it met the cleanup standards. There are hundreds of > similar kinds of problems where the Division of Mineral Resources in the > state of New York has said, "Yep, that problem is taken care of," even > though it appears that they did inadequate cleanup. And some of these > problems, again, have been going on for decades. > > AMY GOODMAN: When you describe, for example, the herd of cows, when you > describe all the houses that had to be evacuated, what happens to these > families? What happened to the cows? What happened to the water? You said > that it was permanently polluted? > > WALTER HANG: The day of the gas release, I asked one of the people whose > wells got contaminated-I said, "How did you know that your water got > polluted?" He said, "It turned black." In other words, when the gas went > through this rock fracture and came up this person's well, it just blasted > out the pollution in the water. You could see it was oily. It had all kinds > of contamination. And he has never been able to drink it. > > So, eventually the gas petered out. They hit the gas pocket. The gas was > released. It came up in the ground. It was just jetting out all over this > area through this fractured rock. Eventually, the gas was released, but the > residual pollution has never been cleaned up. > > And that's the problem all over New York. There are these problems where > oil has been spilled, gas is released in uncontrolled fashion, and the state > Department of Environmental Conservation has simply failed to clean up these > problems. And that's how come we should not go forward with Marcellus gas > horizontal, high-volume fracking, until we have an adequate regulatory > program. > > AMY GOODMAN: Who benefits from it? > > WALTER HANG: The benefit, if we do it well, is that the natural resources > will be protected, communities will be protected, people's drinking water > won't be impacted-notably, the people in the City of New York, who drink > water from the Catskills. There are these huge reservoirs that are above the > Marcellus Shale. > > If we don't do it well, then many of the biggest companies in the planet > are going to save money-Chesapeake, Fortuna, Talisman, Hess. These are giant > corporations. They are chomping at the bit to come to New York and to drill > for this giant reserve of gas. > > AMY GOODMAN: The largest possibly in the country? > > WALTER HANG: That's right. The problem is it is very difficult to get out > of this deep rock formation. Usually if you drill into a gas pocket, the gas > just comes right back up. But this requires this incredibly polluting > hydrofracking, where they pump this liquid under tremendous pressure into > the rock, and it just explodes out, maybe as far as 3,000 feet, shattering > the rock. And then sand gets injected into the little fractures, and they > draw the gas out. > > AMY GOODMAN: What happens to the water, for example, in New York, where > there are millions of people, obviously, who rely on the reservoirs upstate? > > WALTER HANG: Well, right now there are almost no natural gas wells in the > Catskills region. Literally, a handful. But that area does have Marcellus > Shale. So if they begin to drill in that area, and if they cause the same > kinds of uncontrolled pollution problems that other areas of New York have > experienced-notably, western New York-then the drinking water could be > impacted. And once these problems develop, they're very difficult to clean > up. > > AMY GOODMAN: And you have states all over this country, of course, that are > in dire economic shape, and so they are going to turn to any way they can > make money. Is New York in that situation? And what are you doing right now? > > WALTER HANG: New York, unfortunately, in the Southern Tier, in the Finger > Lakes region in western New York, is in dire economic straits. These > communities are just desperate for jobs. And so, it sounds so good: we're > going to get this gas out, we're going to make tons of money, communities > are going to benefit, the state of New York is going to benefit. Governor > David Paterson has basically made this Marcellus Shale effort the linchpin > of his economic development plan. > > The problem is he hasn't answered those key questions. What happens when > hundreds and hundreds of these hundred thousand ton trucks start pounding > these structurally deficient bridges that have been neglected for decades > into pieces? Who's going to pay for that? What about the roadways that are > going to get destroyed? What are we going to do with all of this toxic > wastewater? > > Believe it or not, they were actually dumping this natural gas drilling > wastewater from a vertical well in little Cayuga Heights, New York, and it > was passing through this sanitary wastewater treatment plant that was not > designed, constructed or maintained in any way to take out the toxics. And > it was passing through into southern Cayuga Lake, which is a nationally > recognized impaired water body. It's already been polluted for decades. And > this added to the problems. And 30,000 people drink water from that area. > > So we're looking at an impending disaster, and that's how come we're going > to now try to organize all these communities to say this has to be done > properly. > > AMY GOODMAN: There's one public hearing today? > > WALTER HANG: That's right, in the City of New York. They're going to talk > about the threat to the reservoirs. And so, that's how come I'm here in New > York. I'm going to talk to the Department of Environmental Conservation > about these concerns. > > And I've posted at <http://www.toxicstargeting.com/>toxicstargeting.comthe > 270 profiles. People can look at them and see, are there any major > problems in my community in the Marcellus Shale region of New York? > > But then we're going to have a coalition letter that people can sign onto > and basically say, "Governor Paterson, we're just not ready to go forward > with Marcellus Shale drilling, until we get these regulations. Don't do it. > Withdraw this proposed supplemental generic environmental impact statement." > > AMY GOODMAN: We only have thirty seconds, but the significance of the New > York watershed, freshwater, how it comes into the city, how unusual it is in > this country? > > WALTER HANG: It's absolutely unique. You have these upland reservoirs, > hundreds of miles away from the city, and the water flows completely under > gravity through these giant tunnels. It's so pure it doesn't even need to be > filtered. And so, this is a jewel. Any city in the world would give anything > to have this water. That's why it has to be safeguarded. It has to be > protected. Once it's polluted, then the city would have to treat that water > at gargantuan cost. So Mayor Bloomberg and all the other city leaders have > to unite with all the other New Yorkers who could be impacted by Marcellus > Shale. > > AMY GOODMAN: Walter Hang, thank you so much for being with us, president of > Toxics Targeting, an environmental database firm in Ithaca, New York. The > one hearing today is taking place at Stuyvesant High School? > > WALTER HANG: Yes. > > AMY GOODMAN: Today at 5:00? > > WALTER HANG: 6:30, actually. > > AMY GOODMAN: 6:30 in the evening. And we'll let people know what comes of > that. > > > -- > Elan Shapiro > Sustainable Living Associates > Frog's Way B&B > 211 Rachel Carson Way > Ithaca, NY 14850 > 607-275-0249 607-592-8402 Cell > > "Be the change we want to see in the world" > Mohandas Gandhi > _______________________________________________ > 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 > -- ---------------------------------------------------- Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. President Sustainable Tompkins 109 S. Albany St. Ithaca, NY 14850 www.sustainabletompkins.org 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-220-8991 (cell) 607-216-1552 (ST office) 607-216-1553 (ST fax) [email protected] _______________________________________________ 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
