Public Hearing on the dSGEIS to be held in Oneonta,
Foothills Performing Arts Center, Atrium
Monday, November 9, 7:00 to 9:30 pm
Doors open at 6:00 pm
Local hearing for public comment on DEC’s Draft of the SGEIS
October 30, 2009, Oneonta, NY. The City of Oneonta and Otsego County together are holding a public hearing for citizens to voice concerns about the proposed regulations governing gas drilling in New York State. Through the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining (SGEIS), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) defines the safeguards drilling companies must take to preserve the quality of our groundwater, and how the DEC will monitor compliance.
DEC is holding hearings in other parts of the state, but officials in Oneonta and Otsego County feel it is important to hold a more locally accessible meeting. This is an urgent need as many property owners throughout the county have signed leases and drilling has begun on two wells. Recent drilling accidents in Pennsylvania have caused concern among local citizens. The quality of the SGEIS will have a major impact on the quality and quantity of the water in our lakes, rivers, aquifers and wells.
Governor Paterson requested that the DEC develop a supplemental GEIS because the process of drilling that is coming to New York State is dramatically different from traditional gas drilling. Hydrofracturing horizontally drilled wells involves highly toxic chemicals that even in very small quantities can poison our water. This makes it vital that the laws governing the process be rigorous. The comment period, ending November 30, is the final opportunity for input on the document. It is imperative that we provide the most comprehensive feedback possible to make the regulations rigorous.
Experts, environmental organizations, and landowners have expressed concerns not only on many specific items in the draft, but also on the insufficient consideration of the cumulative impacts. The DEC is required to consider all substantive comments before issuing the final SGEIS. Comments at this meeting should be in one of the categories the DEC considers substantive. This includes: definition of the project; definition of each issue & conclusions about its impact; methods of mitigation; implementation. For example, substantive comments would include topics such as whether the DEC: looks only at individual well sites without assessing impact of a significant number of wells statewide; adequately addresses the impact of this scale of water withdrawals; proposes sufficient baseline water testing; requires the rate of drilling of new wells be done in phases.
Read the parts of the 804 page document that are of most concern to you. It is available on the DEC website at www.dec.ny.gov/energy/58440.html , or you can see a printout at the Huntington Library.
Good Day All,
NYS DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis would like to invite you to attend a summit on Environmental Justice, Climate Change and Air Quality in New York State.
Location: US EPA Office located at 290 Broadway, 27th Floor,
Conf. Rm. A, New York, NY 10007
Date: October 7, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
The following individuals are scheduled to speak:
* Alan Belensz – Acting Director, Office of Climate Change; NYSDEC; Co- Chair Governor’s Climate Council
* Cecil Corbin-Mark – Deputy Director/Director of Policy Initiative; WEACT
* Robin Schlaff – Special Counsel for Regional Affairs; NYSDEC; Chair of Sea Level Rise Task Force
* Jared Snyder – Assistant Commissioner, Air Resources, Climate Change and Energy; NYS DEC
* Rob Sliwinski – Director, Bureau of Air Quality Planning; NYSDEC
* Elizabeth Yeampierre – Executive Director; UPROSE
Also invited:
-City of New York
-U.S. EPA
Topics to be discussed include:
Climate Justice
Climate Policy and Addressing Climate Impacts in NYS
Air regulations in NYS
Governor Paterson’s Executive Order 24
NYS’s Sea Level Rise Task Force
Community Resilience, Adaptation and Mitigation
Refreshments will be served.
Please RSVP to Keisha Wilkerson at kjwilker@gw.dec.state.ny.us or call at (518) 402-8556
An agenda will follow shortly.
Thank you!
Lisa F. Garcia, Esq.
Chief Advocate for Environmental Justice and Equity
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
47-40 21st Street
Long Island City, NY 11101-5401
Tel: (518) 402-8556
(718) 482-4009
Fax: (718) 482-4962
“Environmental justice is not an issue we can afford to relegate to the margins. It has to be part of our thinking in every decision we make.” ~ Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator
ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Thursday
October 15, 2009
9:00 a.m.
Assembly Parlor
New York State Capitol – Room 306
Persons wishing to present pertinent testimony to the Committee at the above hearing should complete and return the enclosed reply form as soon as possible. It is important that the reply form be fully completed and returned so that persons may be notified in the event of emergency postponement or cancellation. Oral testimony will be limited to ten minutes’ duration. Ten copies of any prepared testimony should be submitted at the hearing registration desk. The Committee would appreciate advance receipt of prepared statements.
In order to meet the needs of those who may have a disability, the Assembly, in accordance with its policy of non-discrimination on the basis of disability, as well as the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has made its facilities and services available to all individuals with disabilities. For individuals with disabilities, accommodations will be provided, upon reasonable request, to afford such individuals access and admission to Assembly facilities and activities.
Member of Assembly
Chairman
Committee on Environmental Conservation
From http://www.citizenscampaign.org/
=======================================
CITIZENS CAMPAIGN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
ACTION ALERT!
TELL ALBANY TO LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE AND PROTECT WATER
The public needs 120 days to review massive new draft oil and gas drilling regulations
On September 30, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) finally released the long-awaited Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DSGEIS) for Oil & Gas Drilling in New York. The document is over 800 pages long, and Albany is only giving the people 60 days to review it. Tell Albany it cannot ignore the people! New Yorkers must be able to understand and weigh in on this issue. Meaningful input from the public is essential for a healthy democracy.
Tell Albany to give New Yorkers 120 days to comment on this massive program that will affect our environment for decades.
The huge oil and gas industry is pressuring Albany to open up for drilling in the state. New Yorkers cannot afford to rush through a process that will affect the health of our precious water resources for decades to come. Unconventional drilling from high volume hydraulic fracturing uses millions of gallons of water. Only a few days ago, Cabot Oil & Gas in Pennsylvania was shut down for chemical spills. New York’s elected officials need to proceed with caution and take extraordinary steps to ensure the protection of New York’s most valuable natural resource, freshwater. Albany must hold at least 7 public hearings in the affected regions of the state and allow adequate time for the people to comment.
Information from the NYS DEC on the DSGEIS can be found here:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/47554.html.
What You Can Do!
Call Governor Paterson, DEC Commissioner Grannis, and your state Assembly member and senator to demand that Albany does not rush to accommodate the oil & gas industry, and allows the people of New York to weigh in on their future!
Phone call tips:
Tell them:
- Your name and your town/city.
- The DEC must extend the oil and gas drilling comment period to 120 days.
- The DEC must hold at least 7 public hearings in affected regions, including New York City.
Please call:
- Governor Paterson: 518-474-8390
- DEC Commissioner Grannis: 518-402-8545
- Your NYS Assembly member: to find out who your Assembly member is and their phone number, visit: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/
- Your NYS Senator: To find out who your Senator is and their phone number, visit:
http://www.nysenate.gov/senators
Thank you for taking action. Together we make a difference!
=========================================
800 pages / 60 days = 13.49 pages per day.
DEC says it intends to schedule “Public Information Sessions” - not hearings.
.
.
Dr Bill Pammer, then of the Sullivan County Planning Department, spoke at an event in Ithaca, NY on May 6, 2009. While discussing what local governments could do to protect their assets before intensive gas extraction begins, he said:
“The DEC is driving this process.
Regulators become part of the sectors they regulate.”
.
.
Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica:
New York State Paves Way
for Gas Drilling With
Release of Environmental Review
Nornew knew it all along; do the citizens of New York State?
See also the New York Times:
State Issues Rules on Upstate Natural Gas Drilling Near City’s Water
The DEC could not allow a ban on horizontal drilling / high-volume hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the Catskill/Delaware Watershed (also known as the NYC watershed) without admitting that HD/HVHF for natural gas is fundamentally unsafe – everywhere else in the state too.
New York City, if you want to protect your water,
you’re going to have to join
the fight to ban HD/HVHF statewide.
.
>> Come together, New York <<
.
http://www.un-naturalgas.org/hydraulic_fracturing_a-z.htm#NYCs%20water
.
Tags: DEC, NYC, NYS, ProPublica, SGEIS, watershed
The next step in the process of creating
“regulations clearing the way
for shale development”
(see http://www.cik.no/norse/081111/081111_norse.php, minute 23:41)
is upon us.
==============================================
From NYS DEC website:
Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental ImpactStatement On The Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program
Well Permit Issuance for Horizontal Drilling And High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing to Develop the Marcellus Shale and Other Low-Permeability Gas Reservoirs
The draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) for potential natural gas drilling activities in the Marcellus Shale formation is now available for public review and comment. The draft SGEIS supplements the existing Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) and analyzes the range of potential impacts of shale gas development using horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing. The draft SGEIS outlines safety measures, protection standards and mitigation strategies that operators would have to follow to obtain permits.
Comments – The public comment period will be open until November 30, 2009. The Department is offering three ways in which to submit comments. We have created an on line submission system which will allow you to write comments and tag them to your areas of concern. Attachments can also be included. You may submit e-mail comments; please include your name, e-mail or return mail address to ensure notice of the Final SGEIS when it is available. Finally, written comments should be sent to: Attn: dSGEIS Comments, Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral Resources, 625 Broadway, Third Floor, Albany, NY 12233-6500.
Document Availability – At this time the document is offered as a PDF document that can be accessed by chapter below. The entire draft SGEIS document is also available as a single PDF file. It can be downloaded and searched.
-end of quote from DEC dSGEIS download page at http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/58440.html
=====================================
To send an e-mail to Governor Paterson telling him New Yorkers
must have a longer comment period, visit
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/90marcellusshale_2009?rk=J1NNvIKaKB48E
According to the press release linked below, DEC plans to announce scheduled “Public Information Sessions” as another option, besides those mentioned at its site as quoted above, for submitting comments on the draft SGEIS.
The PressConnects.com article quoted here inadvertently reveals one way the extraction and devastation industry manufactures astroturf: “New York landowners will receive $500 per acre when the lease is signed, and the other $5,000 per acre when the moratorium is lifted.”
Fortuna Energy agrees to pay $165 million for gas rights; 600 members of coalition to receive $5,500 per acre, plus royalties
By George Basler
September 12, 2009
“CHOCONUT, Pa. — A Horseheads-based company is willing to pay a collective $165 million for the rights to drill for natural gas in about 30,000 acres of the Marcellus Shale.
“Fortuna Energy Inc. has closed a deal with … a coalition of about 600 property owners, to lease all of the group’s acreage in Susquehanna and Bradford counties in Pennsylvania, as well as its land in Broome County, officials with the coalition said Saturday.
“Under the agreement, Fortuna Energy will pay all of the property owners in the coalition $5,500 an acre for a five-year lease on their property, with a company option to extend the lease for another three years. The company will also pay 20 percent royalties for producing wells.
. . . . . 
“Under the agreement, Pennsylvania landowners will receive the $5,500 per acre within 40 to 90 days of signing the lease agreement, Fortuna officials said.
“The deal will be structured differently for coalition landowners in New York, who are clustered in the towns of Binghamton and Vestal. That’s because New York currently has a moratorium on drilling [said a person who helped negotiate the lease]… New York landowners will receive $500 per acre when the lease is signed, and the other $5,000 per acre when the moratorium is lifted. The company will not be able to do any work on their land until New York begins issuing permits to drill.”
—————————————————–
At least two sentences in the last paragraph are untrue. There is not currently a moratorium on gas drilling in NYS, or even on horizontally-drilled, high-volume hydraulically-fractured wells in tight shales (HD/HVHF), the new extraction technique currently under review by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (or as we like to say, Department of Energy Corporations). At any time, companies could be drilling and completing such wells, under one condition: they would have to complete a site-specific Environmental Impact Statement EIS at their own expense for each well. Sounds reasonable enough, even like a good idea, doesn’t it, considering the mammoth scale and environmental impact of an HD/HVHF well? Instead, these companies prefer to pretend that they can’t drill until the DEC completes a statewide Generic EIS for them. That’s right: the gas drilling industry doesn’t want to pay its own way for each well it drills. Instead, it wants you, the New York State taxpayer, to pay for the Generic (that is, one size fits all) EIS that will open the way for it to exploit our resources – and us. The gas drilling industry is a bully.
Binghamton and Vestal landowners, show some New York smarts – don’t be the blind led by the blind – and New York moxie. New Yorkers know better than to give in to bullies.
The way to get maximum protection through any gas lease is by not signing it. Don’t sign. You’ll be glad you didn’t.
—————————————————–
Complete PressConnects story here
—————————————————–
Tags: astroturfing, coalition, DEC, EIS, Fortuna, GEIS, lease, moratorium, Talisman
. Must-see video: “If I had done to my grazing permit what oil and gas has done, I would have been pulled off of it. If I had created the surface disturbance, the erosion, the pollution of the water, the noxious weeds … I would not have a grazing permit.” – Tweeti Blancett http://www.sierraclub.org/scp/chronicles/episode4.aspx
Tags: cattle, chemicals, DEC, farming, hydraulic fracturing, livestock, natural gas drilling, toxic, wildlife
Dear Mr Cyr,
As a former farmer, I am appalled by these pictures. Is there any definite evidence that the tumors on these animals was caused by hydrofracking by-products? Is anyone doing any research on these incidents? If so, and there are definite links to the hydrofracking compounds, then they should be presented to the DEC immediately!
Where were these pictures taken? NY? Pennsylvania?
I would appreciate any further information you can provide on these incidents. Thank you.
——————–
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2009/05/cow_killers.aspx
Tags: cattle, chemicals, DEC, farming, hydraulic fracturing, livestock, natural gas drilling, toxic, wildlife
Consider the effect that toxic chemicals used in Halliburton’s unconventional gas drilling hydrofracture process have on animals just one step down in the food chain:
________________________________________________________________________
Ulcers in cattle raised near gas drilling operation.
________________________________________________________________________
Aggressive cancer in deer grazing near gas well.
If you leased your property to corporations that will use hydrofracture to extract the last remnants of gas trapped too tightly in stone, you have allowed them to site toxic waste production facilities on your property.
Chemicals added to the enormous quantities of fresh water to be taken from our rivers and streams will forever remove that water from the natural water cycle. All the water used in hydrofracture becomes toxic waste, which New York State is allowing the polluters to run through municipal sewage treatment plants that have no ability to remove the chemicals from the water. The corrupt state government is deviously permitting the toxics to run straight on through municipal treatment plants, to then be dumped into our lakes, rivers, and streams.
Unconventional gas drilling also produces tremendous amounts of air pollution: Ozone that destroys crops and trees; and fugitive gases that increase global warming. The net effect of unconventional (low permeability stone deposit) gas drilling is more — not less — pollution.
If Albany’s facilitation of this global corporate invasion and occupation is not stopped, then over the next few decades there will be hundreds of thousands of high volume high pressure hydrfracture drilling operations sited throughout the farming country of the Catskill, Central, and Southern Tier regions of New York State. Each of those drilling sites will several times remove millions of gallons of fresh water and convert it into toxic waste. The cumulative environmental impact over time will be devastating. Our water, ground and air will be polluted. Twenty years from now the only people who might remain living, in the then gas extraction industrial zones that were traditionally farming areas, will be those too poor to move.
Got neighbors?
Got children?
Got a conscience?
Tags: cattle, chemicals, DEC, farming, hydraulic fracturing, livestock, natural gas drilling, toxic, wildlife
An e-mail from one citizen & taxpayer to Barbara Fiala:
I am writing in regard to Broome County’s decision to hire a lobbyist
to urge Albany not to get “bogged down” in its environmental review of
drilling in the Marcellus Shale.
The shale gas drilling techniques that have come into use over the
last decade were developed in an atmosphere of very poor regulatory
control. A May 19 press release on hydrofracturing from Congressman
Maurice Hinchey
(see http://www.house.gov/list/press/ny22_hinchey/morenews/051909HydraulicFracturing.html)
states:
“More than 1,000 cases of contamination have been documented by
courts and state and local governments in New Mexico, Alabama, Ohio,
Texas, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. In one case, a house exploded after
hydraulic fracturing created underground passageways and methane
seeped into the residential water supply.
A 2004 EPA study, which was haphazardly conducted with a bias
toward a desired outcome, concluded that fracturing did not pose a
risk to drinking water. However, Hinchey noted that the more than
1,000 reported contamination incidents have cast significant doubt on
the report’s findings and the report’s own body contains damaging
information that wasn’t mentioned in the conclusion. In fact, the
study foreshadowed many of the problems now being reported across the
country. ”
We have recently seen drilling-related methane contamination of water
wells in nearby Dimock, PA. Questions still remain as to exactly how
the water in Dimock became contaminated. Once an aquifer is
contaminated, it may be extremely difficult or even impossible to
clean it up. Fortunately, so far, no one has been killed by the
drilling-related explosions that have occurred in water wells, and, in
one case, in a home. But there is certainly no guarantee that we will
continue to be that lucky.
It is often said that New York’s environmental regulations regarding
drilling are superior to those of other states, but a review of the NY
regulations does not bear out that claim. For example, NY’s setbacks
from residences and bodies of water are much smaller than those in
many other areas. Water is becoming increasingly precious as shortages
occur around the world and in other parts of our own country. Areas
possessing clean water are likely to be increasingly desirable in the
future. Our water is our area’s most valuable natural resource and we
should not endanger it.
Last summer and fall, the NYSDEC demonstrated that it did NOT have a
good grasp of the multiple issues involved in shale gas drilling.
Rather, it was members of the public and of local environmental groups
who researched the damage that has occurred from this type of gas
drilling in other areas and then made the NYSDEC aware of that damage
through the informational meetings and draft scope SGEIS hearings held
by the NYSDEC. The NYSDEC received thousands of comments on its draft
scope. Many, many of those comments were NOT in support of drilling.
I do not believe that the NYSDEC is getting bogged down in
bureaucracy. They are understaffed and do not have the resources
needed to deal with this issue in a truly thorough manner. Even if
they had sufficient resources, the environmental review would still
require a great deal of care and time. This is an extremely complex
and technical issue; the drilling’s impacts will be long-lasting and
wide-ranging and are likely to negatively affect not only our water,
but our air, the health of our forests and farmlands, the nature and
desirability of our communities, and the health of our people.
Many Broome County residents are not in favor of this drilling. While
the pro-drilling landowners’ groups may be well organized, it is
important to recognize that most of the residents of this county do
not own large tracts of land, will see little or no financial gain
from the drilling, and may suffer serious personal and financial
losses if their quality of life, their health, and/or the value of
their homes are negatively impacted by the drilling.
I would also like to point out that the current price of natural gas
is quite low, that some experts expect it to remain low for some time,
and that the first few years of production are usually the highest for
any given shale gas well. It is therefore quite likely that if Broome
County’s land is drilled in the near future, the county will be
selling a large fraction of its recoverable gas at bargain-basement
prices.
We have all seen the results of the TCE contamination in Endicott. Our
area does not need more of the same. Frankly, given the track record
of the gas industry and the high well density needed to recover
appreciable amounts of gas from the Marcellus Shale, it seems
extremely likely that Broome County will end up with a number of
seriously contaminated drilling sites, several areas in which homes
have no reliable water supply, poor air quality, a loss of green
space, lowered residential property values in areas where drilling
occurs, a loss of residents who prefer not to live in an
industrialized area, difficulty attracting new and highly skilled
residents to the area, additional costly health problems among its
residents, and probably a whole host of unforeseen problems as well.
We should not rush into this. The gas is not going anywhere. And I
would add that, in any case, the gas industry is well able to afford
its own lobbyists.
For all of the reasons explained above, I do not think it is in Broome
County’s best interest to spend taxpayer dollars to hire a lobbyist to
push for gas drilling.
Tags: county government, DEC, EPA, fracking, gas drilling, lobbyist, Marcellus, regulation, SGEIS
All last summer, while groups and individuals were raising questions about impacts of the new gas drilling, DEC kept telling everyone who would listen that they had everything under control. But did they?
*After* ProPublica and WNYC started asking pointed questions that DEC couldn’t answer, DEC wrote the following letter to oil & gas operators in NYS.
Read the letter and see if you think DEC was rigorously investigating before granting permits or carefully supervising operations, as they claimed in public.
In fact, read and see if you think DEC was investigating permits or supervising operations at all, let alone rigorously or carefully.
Or if in fact, they were out to lunch the whole time – and lying about it.
————————
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Division of Mineral Resources
Bureau of Oil and Gas Regulation, 3rd Floor
625 Broadway, Albany, New York 12233-6500
Phone: (518) 402-8056 • FAX: (518) 402-8060
Website: www.dec.ny.gov
July 11, 2008
[Operator]
Re: Hydraulic Fracturing of Shale Formations for Gas Production
Dear [Operator]:
As you aware, there has been much focus in the press and at public forums recently on potential environmental impacts associated with anticipated hydraulic fracturing of horizontal shale wells expected to commence drilling in the coming months. Frac fluid volumes may exceed descriptions in the Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program, which found that the action of drilling an individual well, including stimulation, does not usually have a significant environmental impact. To address concerns regarding larger frac jobs, Department staff seek to compile factual data regarding the use and handling of fluids and materials associated with hydraulic fracturing of shale formations in New York.
The Department’s records indicate that you have recently permitted and/or drilled the vertical shale wells listed below. Please add any additional shale wells you have permitted or drilled in New York which you intend to hydrofracture or have hydrofractured, and provide the information listed below for each well by August 15, 2008. For any listed well which has not been or will not be hydrofractured, please so indicate. We are aware that vertical wells would not require the same volumes of frac fluid as would horizontal wells, but our understanding is that frac fluid composition will be similar. Please describe any anticipated differences, with respect to both fluid composition and fluid handling, between vertical and horizontal shale well hydrofracturing.
API Number Well Name Target Formation
[List of wells] [List of well names] [Formation name]
Staff’s intent is to summarize and reference this information in an evaluation of the effectiveness of current regulatory processes to address the concerns that have been raised. Should any of the responses indicate a need to strengthen controls on any aspects of use and handling of frac fluids, the Department will take appropriate steps to implement such improved controls.
1. Volume and source of fresh water which was or will be used to complete/stimulate these wells.
2. Name, address and contact information for the service provider who designed the frac fluid mix, if not done in-house, and the same information for the service provider who actually performed the frac work, if different.
3. For any instances where water wells did or will provide the source of fresh water, describe construction of these wells, water volumes that were or will be pumped and frequency of pumping. For wells which have already been hydraulically fractured, provide information regarding any baseline water analysis you performed on nearby residential water wells, the distance to such wells and any known impact. For wells which have not yet been hydraulically fractured, provide location and depth information from your files, if any, for residential water wells within 2,000 feet of the wellsite, and the results of any known water analysis or description of any baseline water testing you intend to perform.
4. Description of how each component of the frac fluid was or will be transported, contained and stored on the site, and of any mixing that did or will occur on site.
5. Composition, volume and form of each component of the frac fluid (excluding fresh water) as it arrived or will arrive on the site, prior to any on-site mixing, with concentrations of the fluid constituents expressed in ?g/liter. Please also state any BTX concentrations in parts per billion as well, and specifically state whether diesel fuel was or will be included in the frac fluid.
6. Composition and volume of frac fluid as it was or will be injected, after any mixing, with concentrations expressed in ?g/liter.
7. For wells which have already been hydraulically fractured, flowback volume and results of any analysis that was done on the returned fluids with concentrations expressed in ?g/liter. Please combine the response to this and the previous item in tabular or spreadsheet format.
8. Results of radioactivity testing at the wellsite if any was done.
9. Material and safety data sheets for all frac fluid additives. If you have already provided MSDS sheets to the Department, a notation to that effect will suffice.
10. Sizes and liner specifications of any pits that were or will be used for frac and/or flowback fluid storage on site. Pit liner specifications include trade name of the liner product used, material, thickness, tensile properties, low temperature cold crack, seam strength, and tearing strength. As applicable, describe the method to seal pit liner seams or indicate that the pit liner consisted of one continuous sheet. Describe equipment and procedures that were or will be used to ensure pit liner integrity, including any diverters or baffles. State the length of time that frac and/or return fluids were or will be stored in on-site pits. If tanks were or will be used instead of pits for any
step of the process, please so indicate and provide details.
11. Description of how returned fluids were or will be removed from the site and their ultimate disposition. Specifically identify and provide the location of any ultimate disposal site.
12. Actual or estimated duration of each phase of operations including site construction, drilling, water hauling, hydrofracturing, flowback, disposal of spent frac fluids, and pit reclamation.
13. Actual or estimated duration of well testing and description of actual or estimated impacts to adjacent residents, particularly potential for noise impacts during an extended test.
14. For wells where hydraulic fracturing has already occurred, detail any complaints received from nearby residents, the public, or local governments, the results of your investigation of such complaints, and how they were resolved.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding this request. I look forward to your full response by August 15, 2008. Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation.
Sincerely,
[Chief, Permits Section
—————–
For the newspaper article that broke the story of the DEC’s incompetence and inattention – the interviews for which apparently spurred DEC to finally ask their industry pals what they’d been up to lately, click: http://www.propublica.org/feature/new-yorks-gas-rush-poses-environmental-threat-722
Tags: DEC
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