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Printable Posters are Here
Map to the Presentation at Cornell University is Here
UPDATE - 10.26.2013: How much Shale Gas could be Produced in NY State?
Video - Chip Northrup interviewed on Capital Tonight
Join panelists, Rita Yelda, Sarah Buckley, David Kowalski,
and Robert Cieselski, who will present talks and
answer questions about diverse issues surrounding shale gas extraction and high volume hydrofracking.
- WHEN: March 21, 2013, 7:00pm-9:00pm
- WHERE: Prendergast Library, 509 Cherry St., Jamestown [Map]
Becky Nystrom – Moderator
Sarah Buckley – Fracking Basics (the process of fracking, from wellpad to pipeline)
David Kowalski – Environmental and Health Issues (an analysis of industry-made arguments vs. other studies and evidence)
Robert Cieselski – Leasing and Legal Issues
(signing considerations, Compulsory Integration, landowner rights,
flipping, impacts on mortgages, insurance) and Renewable Alternatives to Shale Gas
Rita Yelda – Fracking in New York State (what has occurred the last four years and where we are at now)
For speaker bio's and links to articles about fracking, click here.
SPEAKERS: Joseph Heath, Esq. and Michael Bosetti
WHEN: Monday, November 26, 6:00 PM
WHERE: Little Valley Memorial Library, 110 Rock City St., Little Valley, NY
Considering signing a gas lease?
Concerned about hydrofracking?
Want to learn more about your current gas lease?
Interested in terminating your gas lease?
Sometimes gas companies make drilling in a community sound benign and risk-free, but unfortunately, that is not always the case. New gas leases can be vastly different from our grandpa’s gas lease, and even old leases signed years ago could permit dangerous shale drilling techniques. New drilling techniques in to deep Marcellus and Utica shale layers involve toxic chemical injection into the land under homes, woods, farms, and water wells. As can be seen in Pennsylvania, this has made gas leasing very risky, creating the potential for air, water, and land pollution, and transformation of peaceful residential and agricultural areas in to industrial zones.
This Gas Lease Public Forum is free and opened to all, and will feature presentations from Joseph Heath, Esq. and Michael Bosetti. Joseph Heath is a long-time environmental attorney and general counsel for the Onondaga Nation who has taught communities all over New York about terminating gas leases and managing the questionable ways gas companies seek to extend old leases. Michael Bosetti will share his account of going against the gas company and successfully fighting a pre-existing lease on his property. Join us for this educational program on the pitfalls of gas leases and the process of lease termination!
Sponsored by: Concerned Citizens of Cattaraugus County, WNY Drilling Defense, and Food & Water Watch.
For more information, contact Rita at 716-507-2077 or ryelda@fwwatch.org
First scientific study of its kind -- Gas industry refuses to share data
The gas industry justifies the benefits of extracting shale gas by drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in terms of providing energy, economic stimulation and jobs. Also, some landowners have benefited by earning income from gas leases and royalties.
However, other landowners claim that, subsequent to nearby drilling and fracking, their drinking-well water became contaminated by flammable gas. Gas industry representatives dismiss the claim that fracking might make drinking water flammable.
Lighting water on fire "is a parlor trick that really has nothing to do with hydraulic fracturing," said Jim Smith, a spokesman for the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York State in a Wall Street Journal report. Instead, he said, it's caused by naturally-occurring methane that gets into some water supplies regardless of whether there's nearby drilling.
Despite such gas industry claims, there was no scientific evidence as to whether or not contamination of drinking water with natural gas is linked to nearby drilling and fracking. But there is now.
Scientists at Duke University measured the dissolved gas levels in 60 drinking water wells in the Marcellus and Utica shale drilling areas in northeastern Pennsylvania and southern NY state. In a paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they reported that water samples taken closest to the gas wells had an average of 17 times higher than the methane levels detected in water samples taken further from active drilling. The maximum level was 58 times higher (see graph, below). Methane is the major component of natural gas. The average methane level detected was in the range of "action levels for hazard mitigation" recommended by the U.S. Office of the Interior (graph, large gray rectangle), and many water wells had levels far above that range.
Methane in well water is both a safety and health hazard. The gas escapes from water at the tap, the shower head, the washing machine and into the air of homes, where it can become flammable and even explosive. Methane can also cause headaches, nausea, brain damage and, at very high levels, death by suffocation. Potentially dangerous levels of methane were found in well water near drilling sites in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Some Pennsylvania homeowners whose wells became contaminated after nearby drilling and fracking had demonstrated earlier that their well water contains flammable gas.
At recent presentations on shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing sponsored by the Geology Department at the University at Buffalo, some of which are now available online, several speakers representing the gas drilling industry stated emphatically that the ability to light well water on fire is due to biogenic methane, i.e., methane produced on the surface of the ground by bacteria (e.g. gas from swamps, bogs, rotting plants).
Industry representatives also claimed that flammable water is not due to thermogenic methane, i.e., methane produced deep underground in the shale millions of years ago from decomposition of buried organic matter at high temperature and pressure.
But neither of these gas industry claims are backed by scientific studies on the water wells in Pennsylvania. So which type of methane is responsible for the high concentrations in drinking-well water? Is it biogenic methane present at the surface, or thermogenic methane present deep underground in the shale?
Hundreds of New Yorkers to Rally at State Capitol Monday, January 25th
The Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE) released a report entitled "Protecting New York's Air, Land, Water and People—What's the Hydro-Fracking Rush?" The report outlines the problems of the controversial “hydro-fracking” plan being proposed in the Marcellus and Utica shale and provides key policy recommendations for elected officials. Hydro-fracking, or high volume hydraulic fracturing, is a potentially dangerous method of natural gas drilling that threatens to contaminate NY’s water, land, and air.
On Monday, January 25th, at the west side of the State Capitol Building, hundreds of members of the public, from across NYS, will call on Governor Paterson and the NYS Legislature to delay the rush to drill and stand up for the protection of our water, land, and air.
“While gas is valuable, clean air to breathe and safe water to drink are priceless,” said Dereth Glance, CCE Executive Program Director. “Until hydro-fracking is proven safe and the true costs are exposed ; we need to STOP New York’s rush to drill.”
For more Information on Monday’s Rally and a link to the CCE report, click here. For a Fact Sheet on hydro-fracking, click here.
On the same day, advocates for national gas exploration will also hold a rally in Albany in support of Marcellus drilling. See a news release here.
