ITHACA — The Tompkins County Legislature unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday that asks the state Department of Environmental Conservation to consider several aspects of a document that would help regulate new processes for natural gas drilling.
The resolution addresses ground- and formation-water quality concerns, noise issues and increased truck traffic impacts.
The New York state DEC is currently working on a scoping document that would outline a new environmental impact statement for gas drillers using horizontal hydraulic-fracture drilling — also known as hydro-fracking — to reach natural gas deposits below the Marcellus Shale formation. The formation runs through parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia and contains between 168 trillion and 516 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the DEC Web site.
“It was important, I thought, to comment on the scoping document because ... if something doesn't get into the scoping document, (DEC) doesn't write regulations about it. If we didn't have anything about traffic in there they wouldn't even go there,” Martha Robertson, D-Dryden, said.
The resolution underwent a series of revisions with legislators Robertson, Carol Chock, D-City and Town of Ithaca, and Dooley Kiefer, D-Villages of Lansing and Cayuga Heights, credited for the bulk of the work.
Much of the information used to create the suggestions for the DEC came from a meeting last week where Rick Kessy, manager of operations and engineering for Fortuna Energy Inc., and representatives from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Cornell Water Resources Institute presented to several county advisory boards.
The DEC is asking energy companies to disclose the specific chemicals used during the hydro-fracking process, and the county Legislature took it a step further asking that the chemicals used be made public.
The chemicals used are widely considered industry secrets, but Kessy said more than 99 percent of the water is fresh water, and the mixture contains a friction reducer, bactericide and a micro emulsion. Kessy was not specific about the chemicals, and when such a large amount of water is used, including small percentages of chemicals can still mean thousands of gallons of chemicals are introduced to the ground water.
The Legislature included a series of water-quality concerns, and among them were the amount of water used, which is estimated to be as much as 3 million gallons per well, and the way water produced by the drilling is disposed of. The resolution asks the DEC to consider the amount of produced water being sent to water treatment plants. The Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Plant was recently approached about taking on the water produced.
The resolution asks that energy companies be required to test water wells within a reasonable distance of drilling sites.
The Legislature would also like to see a process for water withdrawal review because energy companies get water from regional basins such as the Great Lakes or the Susquehanna River Basin — governed by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, which evaluates the amount of water used.
The resolution that passed also includes a supporting statement for a bill sponsored by Congressman Maurice Hinchey, D-22nd Dist., which would repeal the exemption for hydro-fracking in the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Legislator Nathan Shinagawa, D-City of Ithaca, said the resolution will help protect landowners from companies seeking gas-drilling leases.
“I'm glad we're making a statement here and the state's doing something, because when so many individuals are having to deal with these gas companies and being put in tough situations and not having all of the knowledge on how to proceed forward I think it's important to have regulations like these in place,” he said.
Sales tax
The Legislature unanimously passed a resolution that will expand the county 1 percent sales tax well through 2009. The sales tax was set to expire Nov. 30, 2009, but the vote Tuesday will extend the sales tax well past that date.
The 1 percent sales tax is a $9.8 million revenue source for the county.
