the [green] capitol insider
May 14, 2012
Where in the World is NY’s Fracking Waste?
On May 4, Environmental Advocates of New York released a groundbreaking report that shines a bright light on how the state fails to track or treat industrial gas drilling waste from hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” and how this failure endangers public health and the environment.
Click here to read Out of Sight, Out of Mind: New York’s Failure to Track or Treat Fracking Waste Endangers Public Health & the Environment.
Here’s what you need to know:
Based on our review of state records, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) cannot say how much drilling waste is being produced and where it’s going. Only the gas companies know, and they’re not talking.
As of 2009, New York was home to more than 6,628 gas wells. About 90 percent of these wells use low-volume hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract the gas. Low-volume fracking uses less water than the high-volume fracking being contemplated by Governor Cuomo and other state leaders, but fracking is fracking.
Our report looks at how wastes from existing gas drilling operations are disposed in an effort to shed light on how public health and our environment may be affected by the anticipated influx of waste from gas drilling by means of high-volume fracking.
What we learned is disturbing. According to Katherine Nadeau, our Water & Natural Resources Program Director, following the fracking waste stream from gas well to ultimate disposal is nearly impossible. And because fracking wastes are often laden with toxic chemicals, salts, and sometimes radiation, New Yorkers deserve to know where they’re going and how they’re being treated.
Both low- and high-volume fracking wastes are exempt from treatment as hazardous wastes, although if produced by any other industry, Marcellus Shale fracking wastes would likely be classified and treated as hazardous based on barium levels alone.
Governor Cuomo and the DEC have proposed requiring the gas industry to submit drilling waste disposal plans for high-volume fracking, but these requirements fall short of the publicly available cradle-to-the-grave tracking, handling, and disposal measures required for other hazardous wastes. The state’s proposals would create a two-tier regulatory system, even though all fracking waste poses a threat to the safety of New York’s waters and communities.
Last week, our colleagues at Natural Resources Defense Council released a report, In Fracking's Wake, which reveals how regulations at the both the state and federal level haved failed to keep pace with the explosion of industrial gas drilling by means of fracking in the Marcellus region, despite the fact that our communities and water supplies are threatened by the millions of gallons of polluted and sometimes toxic wastewater that results from fracking.
Click here to read more.
And here.
And here, too.
Fracking Fraud, WY Style
Looking for Wyoming Governor Matt Mead? According to several reports, you can find him in the pocket of the oil and gas industry.
Last week, news broke that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prepared a report that found industrial gas drilling by means of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” operations in Pavillion, WY, had polluted nearby drinking water wells with benzene levels 50 times above federal limits—but the EPA delayed the release of the report, at Governor Mead’s request.
According to the Associated Press, Governor Mead’s administration used the delay to orchestrate a public relations campaign against the EPA’s findings, in an effort to protect the state’s $7.7 billion-a-year industry.
When elected state officials put corporate interests ahead of public health, we feel dazed and confused.
But we’re glad Governor Andrew Cuomo has pledged to “let the science and the facts make the determination, not emotion and not politics” about whether to move forward with fracking in New York—because it signals that the EPA’s study is an important piece of science to incorporate into, not shut out of, the fracking debate.
What’s in store for New York’s fracking future? Stay tuned! The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) continues to wade through the more than 60,000 comments it received on the state’s fracking proposals, shattering the agency’s previous record of 13,000. The DEC will read every comment, and every comment will play a role in the state’s final decision on when, how, where, and even if fracking will occur in New York State.
Click here to read more.
Join the Stroller Brigade!
Calling all parents, teachers, nurses, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and everyone concerned about children's health! Join the JustGreen Partnership's Stroller Brigade for Safer Chemicals on Wednesday, May 23 in Albany!
We’ll gather near the New York State Capitol with Betty the Be Safe Duck, a 25-foot inflatable rubber ducky, to call on state senators to pass legislation that gets toxic chemicals out of children's products.
And then we’ll stroll, parents and kids in the lead, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos' office to ask him to bring a bill to the floor this session!
The State Assembly has already passed the Child Safe Products Act (A.3141-a) by an overwhelming (and bipartisan!) margin as part of the lower house’s Earth Day package. Now, we're asking the Senate to make parenting a little easier by getting toxic chemicals out of products they buy for their children.
On Tap: Save Our Beer in Troy & Kingston!
On April 30, we hosted our first-ever Save Our Beer event at the Brooklyn Brewery, where more than 150 New Yorkers came out to help save our beer from the dangers of industrial gas drilling called fracking.
Check out the photos from the event here!
Now that we’ve taken the first step to stand up for our water and our beer, there’s no stopping us. We’re taking our show on the road, with events on tap for Troy and Kingston in the weeks and months to come. Events in Syracuse, Buffalo, and Westchester are in the works, too!
Share these events with friends and family across the state!
Save Our Beer: Troy
Brown’s Brewing/Revolution Hall
Wednesday, May 23
7:30–9:30 p.m.
RSVP
Join the event on Facebook and help spread the word!
Save Our Beer: Kingston
Keegan Ales
Sunday, June 24
4:00–7:00 p.m.
RSVP
Environmental Advocates and our New York Water Rangers partners are working to protect our communities from fracking and to keep toxic fracking chemicals out of the water that makes our beer.
You can help. Join us in Troy and Kingston to learn how you can get involved!
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