NORWICH – If she had been better informed, a local woman says she wouldn’t have leased her property to a natural gas company.
That’s what a Plymouth landowner (whose chose not to be identified for this article) told a group of about 20 who watched a documentary Tuesday evening in Norwich about the environmental hazards of horizontal-drilling and hydraulic fracturing gas recovery techniques.
A short film titled “Rural Impact! What to Expect from the Gas Industry and How to Address It,” was presented to viewers at the Norwich branch campus of Morrisville State College. The event was sponsored locally by CDO Gas, a group addressing the environmental concerns of natural gas drilling in Chenango, Delaware and Otsego counties.
“I thought it was not doing any good for me to whine about our country’s dependence on foreign oil and not do anything about it,” said the landowner who signed two years ago. “I didn’t want to be a NIMBY (Not In My Backyard). If people had gotten up in arms two years ago, I would have been more informed. I feel like a sell out.”
Produced by Aurielle Andhara & Bill Sitkin in 2007, Rural Impact! consists of interviews of county officials, scientists and residents from the San Luis Valley in Colorado where natural gas development has been in full production during the Bush/Cheney administration. It was modified for New York viewers to purport whether municipalities were ready for hydrofracking, the potential damage to the watershed and burdens placed on infrastructure.
CDOG member Stacey Edick told the group she found the film “upsetting, and very scary.”
“These are possibilities that we need to be aware of when we are weighing and deciding about the natural gas industry in New York. This film is about what happened in Colorado where many of the landowners did not own the mineral rights under their land and never had the opportunity to question. Thank God for New York State, we do have the opportunity.”
According to those interviewed in the film, the gas and oil in industry resulted in a population surge coupled with the need for expensive infrastructure to support it. Local fire departments and emergency squads felt unprepared to respond to emergencies such as explosions, and highway departments were left struggling to repair the damages caused by extensive truck traffic.
The city of Rifle, which had a population of about 7,000, soared to more than 9,000 after two year’s of oil and gas exploration in the early 2000s, and officials have predicted the population there to be 40,000 in 2030.
“While we are experiencing more sale tax collected, it’s still not enough to pay for needed infrastructure. ... Taxpayers are left to pay,” the mayor said.
In addition, a farmer warned communities to beware of hidden costs, saying the industry “sucked up the labor pool” from existing businesses.
An endocrine system expert contributed to the film as well. Dr. Theo Colborn, president of The Endocrine Distribution Exchange, said even very low concentrations of some of the chemicals used in fraking fluids could attack the endocrine system and have an affect on babies in enutero, developing children and the elderly whose immune systems may already be compromised. Dangerous contaminents may be present in the wastewater generated and stored temporarily in open pits at the site, airborne or remain in the soil.
Colborn has testified extensively on the chemicals used in fraking fluids and their affect on the developing endocrine, immune, metabolic and nervous systems. Of the 54 chemicals used in fraking, as identified by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 21 are airborne and 34 can move into surface and underground water, she said.
“They are releasing volatile chemicals. It is violating your personal area. I don’t know how we solve that problem,” she said.
Chenango Greens President Mike Bernhard warned county residents to look through the “little, tiny wells surrounded by neat, green grass” that he said governments and companies would have people visualize a natural gas well.
“Are they operating safely? These are enormous wells that take an enormous amount of water. There are 1,200 planned for Chenango and Madison counties. The DEC says they have got a handle on it, but they’ve never faced anything like this before,” he said.
The Plymouth landowner said her land had not been drilled, and she hoped she could get out of her 5-year lease before they do or before another well in her spacing unit is permitted. She had planned to will the land to her daughter, but her daughter said she no longer wants it.
“This breaks up families. ... I wish I knew then what I know now,” she said.