With Big City DEC Drilling Regulations, Rural Advocates Seek Their Own Protections
Maziarz calls Assembly Democrats’ new moves a harmful delay tactic
Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:00:00
Environmental advocates in New York City and Syracuse heralded the Department of Environmental Conservation’s April announcement of strict new regulations to govern drilling in the parts of the Marcellus Shale that sit in those cities’ watersheds. This move protected water supplies, which, due to federal exemptions, are not filtered.
But around the rest of the state, legislators and advocates were left wondering, “What about us?”
“I just think it’s unacceptable to use state law in different ways for different parts of the state,” said Assembly Member Barbara Lifton, who believes the new rules overlook an entire constituency of people in rural areas who get their drinking water from untreated wells. Even for areas that have filtration plants, she added, “That doesn’t mean that there are no concerns about the chemicals that go into the water.”
Many environmental advocates upstate saw this decision by the DEC as an effort to peel away the loudest drilling opponents in New York City from their drilling initiatives.
“Our upstate members that are threatened by natural gas development feel very slighted by this,” said Roger Downs, conservation director for New York’s Sierra Club chapter. “They feel like second-class citizens.”
To address this perceived slight, Assembly Member Kevin Cahill, an Ulster County Democrat and chairman of the Energy Committee, and Lifton, who represents Central New York, announced they were preparing legislation that would set in place a uniformly tough standard for the whole Marcellus Shale region.
The state’s gas industry, which maintains that hydrofracking is not dangerous and that the new DEC regulations in New York City and Syracuse are overkill, is lining up to oppose Cahill and Lifton’s efforts to expand regulations across the state.
The industry also argues that the advanced filtration systems in the rest of the state mean that hyrdrofrack run-off water will not be dangerous.
“To say that the other watersheds are not as protected as the New York City and Syracuse watersheds is simply not true,” said Jim Smith, a representative of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York. “Their filtration plants all adhere to environmental guidelines.”
But drilling proponents say that the Assembly Democrats are using the slighted feelings of their rural members to push for an outright ban.
To George Maziarz, the Republican chair of the Senate Energy Committee, Assembly Democrats are taking advantage of rural anger to force drilling delays.
“They want to slow things down with review after review after review, and that’s not productive at all,” said Maziarz, who claims that the Senate leadership, on both sides of the aisle, is waiting for the DEC’s final regulations and will go forward once those come in.
The new DEC regulations—expected to be finally unveiled in the fall—will include special rules for New York City and Syracuse that would force drillers to go through a costly process where they must prove on a case-by-case basis that drilling near these watersheds would not be harmful to the water supply. Drillers in other parts of the Marcellus Shale, though, would be subject to a set of much less rigorous rules and would not have to undergo the same type of extensive reviews.
“What’s most important is that the DEC come up with a system where we can get going, where we can start giving permits to allow for drilling,” said Maziarz.
But around the rest of the state, legislators and advocates were left wondering, “What about us?”
“I just think it’s unacceptable to use state law in different ways for different parts of the state,” said Assembly Member Barbara Lifton, who believes the new rules overlook an entire constituency of people in rural areas who get their drinking water from untreated wells. Even for areas that have filtration plants, she added, “That doesn’t mean that there are no concerns about the chemicals that go into the water.”
Many environmental advocates upstate saw this decision by the DEC as an effort to peel away the loudest drilling opponents in New York City from their drilling initiatives.
“Our upstate members that are threatened by natural gas development feel very slighted by this,” said Roger Downs, conservation director for New York’s Sierra Club chapter. “They feel like second-class citizens.”
To address this perceived slight, Assembly Member Kevin Cahill, an Ulster County Democrat and chairman of the Energy Committee, and Lifton, who represents Central New York, announced they were preparing legislation that would set in place a uniformly tough standard for the whole Marcellus Shale region.
The state’s gas industry, which maintains that hydrofracking is not dangerous and that the new DEC regulations in New York City and Syracuse are overkill, is lining up to oppose Cahill and Lifton’s efforts to expand regulations across the state.
The industry also argues that the advanced filtration systems in the rest of the state mean that hyrdrofrack run-off water will not be dangerous.
“To say that the other watersheds are not as protected as the New York City and Syracuse watersheds is simply not true,” said Jim Smith, a representative of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York. “Their filtration plants all adhere to environmental guidelines.”
But drilling proponents say that the Assembly Democrats are using the slighted feelings of their rural members to push for an outright ban.
To George Maziarz, the Republican chair of the Senate Energy Committee, Assembly Democrats are taking advantage of rural anger to force drilling delays.
“They want to slow things down with review after review after review, and that’s not productive at all,” said Maziarz, who claims that the Senate leadership, on both sides of the aisle, is waiting for the DEC’s final regulations and will go forward once those come in.
The new DEC regulations—expected to be finally unveiled in the fall—will include special rules for New York City and Syracuse that would force drillers to go through a costly process where they must prove on a case-by-case basis that drilling near these watersheds would not be harmful to the water supply. Drillers in other parts of the Marcellus Shale, though, would be subject to a set of much less rigorous rules and would not have to undergo the same type of extensive reviews.
“What’s most important is that the DEC come up with a system where we can get going, where we can start giving permits to allow for drilling,” said Maziarz.
