My name is Joan Tubridy. I live in the town of Meredith, Delaware County. I am writing to submit comments to the Draft Scope for Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DSGEIS) on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program.
I am in full support of the option outlined in the draft scope of work: “7.0 Alternative Actions” which calls for, “the prohibition of development of Marcellus Shale and other low permeability reservoirs by horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing”.
Secondly, I am calling for an entirely new GEIS to be completed by the DEC. The 1988 Draft and 1992 FGEIS are outdated and irrelevant to the type of gas drilling proposed in the Marcellus Shale. The new GEIS should include impacts of: gas drilling over time, gas pipelines, and greenhouse gas emissions. None of these were included in the scope of work.
I was a farmer for many years, raising in succession dairy, beef, whitetail deer, fingerling potatoes, and market garden vegetables. Since returning to college in 1992, I have been an elementary/middle school teacher.
When we farmed, we made a conscious decision to become organically certified. We did this with the belief that any meat or produce that we raised should be raised with the same care and attention that we gave to the food on our family’s dining table. We took very seriously our stewardship of the land, protecting both the health and viability of the soil, as well as the two creeks that ran through our farm.
In my role as a Social Studies teacher I learned, along with my students, that the world is experiencing a water crisis. Though water covers about 2/3 of the Earth, it is mostly too salty for consumption. The 2 1/2 % that is not salty is not all available; some is locked up in icecaps and glaciers, some too remote, and some arrives too suddenly as in monsoons and floods. What remains available to humans is 0.08% of the Earth’s water, and by 2020 our demand for water will increase by about 40%.
Five months ago, I first encountered the realities of natural gas drilling when citizens from Wyoming and Colorado came to our county to warn us by way of their own experiences over the past 8 years. My deep concern about the mad rush to drill for natural gas grew as I felt compelled to spend these past months reading everything I could find about this topic. Through this research I have found numerous instances of water well and aquifer contamination as a result of gas drilling. Though these contamination claims have been documented by courts, as well as state and local governments, they are largely denied by the gas drilling companies. Even the 2004 EPA report on hydraulic fracturing stated that fluids migrated unpredictably and to great distances through different rock layers in about half the cases studied in the U.S. Surprisingly, this kind of evidence was buried in the 424-page EPA report and largely ignored in its conclusion. While much of the negative impacts on water have been documented in the West, gas drilling activity in the Northeast has also resulted in a number of examples of water contamination in Pennsylvania and New York.
Given the irrefutable evidence linking drilling for natural gas to contamination of water wells and aquifers, I would like to know how the DEC will protect our most valuable resource – water?
What steps will be taken to pre- and post-test our water resources so that there is a baseline by which to measure contamination from gas drilling?
Who will be responsible for funding this water testing?
Without knowing the types of “proprietary chemicals” used by gas drilling companies, how will we know what to test our water for?
Once contamination is found in our water systems, who will be responsible for providing us with clean, potable water?
Given the possibility that fracturing fluids may migrate over time, how long will responsibility for water contamination endure?
What comparable studies will the DEC research to come to their conclusions about how to deal with this real threat to our water?
The 1999 United Nations Programme Report stated, “The environment remains largely outside the mainstream of everyday human consciousness, and is still considered an add-on to the fabric of life.” I fear that though water is the very essence of life, we are willing to put money above this irreplaceable resource. I hope that we never have to explain to our children, our grandchildren, and countless generations beyond why we were so shortsighted as to burn down the house to stay warm for one night.
Thank you for considering my grave concerns as you move forward in this critical work.
Sincerely,
Joan Tubridy
Delhi, NY
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