NY Public Comment Starts Today

[mike rossi]

The issues with hydrofracking are not only its environmental impacts and its impacts on human health. It is a quality of life issue with other negatives.

It has been pitched to Americans as energy independence and an economic silver bullet. However, there has been no plan for automobile conversion to methane, and to be frank, even if there was, driving a methane automobile sounds a little bit dangerous to me.

Residents of Pennsylvania were made big promises by the gas industry and many, if not most, have found their properties polluted to the extent they want to move but cannot find a buyer. Most stay and no longer have a convenience we take for granted, that is the ability to turn a faucet for water. They now have installed water storage tanks and are dependent on water delivery. Sounds more like a third-world country than independence to me.

The ethics of the gas companies are akin to the mafia. They tell homeowners “if you do not lease your land to us we will take your gas anyway”. No whistleblowing policy with the gas companies – report an environmental violation or marijuana use by coworkers and you are fired. Do the gas companies even permit drug use by the workers who build the oft discussed “casings” – which have failed on a number of occasions?

Even without environmental and health impacts – the noise pollution, stench, and eyesores which go with the territory are sufficient reason to reject this industry. Residents in frack country complain about large volumes of traffic involving extremely heavy trucks causing unsafe driving conditions, traffic snarls, noise, road rage, and damage to roads. I guess road repair as well as installing water tanks and delivering water will be reconciled as additional “job creation”.

The gas industry already has enormous power. Allowing them to expand will only increase their power and influence to the point they will (totally) run the country.

Personally, I believe that hydrofracking is a major environmental impact; however that most important issue seems to be well documented, yet trivialized, so I won’t delve there.

There is also a proposal to follow what PA is doing with frack brine they have no place to dump. That is use it to melt roadways and spread the rest on fields throughout the state. There was some maps of the exact roadways online (yesterday) but they took them down. If they are put up I will post the link. Here is another less detailed link:

http://blog.shaleshockmedia.org/2012/12/10/pa-now-allows-dumping-fracking-fluids-onto-roads-and-fields-ny-wants-to-follow/

Edited December 12, 2012 by mike rossi

[mike rossi]

Moderaters: Please make that link more visible.

[Jennifer]

I've done a lot of personal research into this, and have read deeply in to documents produced by all "sides" of this issue. It's not black and white, but overall I'm really concerned about it.

My conclusions:

It can sometimes be done with a great deal of safety to land, ecosystem, and public-- but rarely is done with these levels of thoughtfulness.

Any local money it brings will not be all that much, and will be very short-term. I know how hard it is to be unemployed but this is just way too short-sighted.

Most of the money and product will not remain domestic, but the futures are already sold to other countries (China is a big one).

The US as a whole actually already has a glut of natural gas-- we have "too much" right now, already extracted. This will do little to help our energy independence.

There is simply not enough manpower from our state to properly regulate, test, and enforce SAFE fracking. Our DEC is already drawn way too thin. If fracking is to happen, it needs to be carefully monitored for the safety of people, aquifers, and ecosystems. As conservationists and hunters all, we should really be thinking about that carefully!

Drilling companies are under no obligation to disclose what chemicals and by-products they use, and are both intentionally and accidentally releasing into our state. They are also exempt from many federal regulations regarding clean water acts, and such. It does not instil confidence in me.

I've written my comments in.

[mike rossi]

Interesting point about the DEC being understaffed to police it when the industry successfully fought tooth and nail to take almost all of the federal EPAs regulatory authority from them. Makes no sense except to the people who profit from it. We have a federal environmental protection agency - they just arent allowed to protect the environment. Guess who is deliverying water to the people in Pa -the EPA! The EPA is the water boy.

Another point: some people may say the greedy fools who enter gas lease agreements deserve what they got. However their neighbors for some distance also have their properties ruined.

[mike rossi]

Here is another way to submit your comments:

30 Days of Fracking Regs

today's topic is Compulsory Integration/Forced Pooling.

http://www.thirtydaysoffrackingregs.com/jan05reg.php

[mike rossi]

Farm Bill and other conservation easements pay more than gas leases and improve your property instead of ruin it. Hunting leases alone or with conservation leases also pay more and only fools think hunting is an impact. Watch this youtube video.

[boo711]

I think everyone who has even thought about fracking should watch stuff like this. Can't believe anyone would want this done to there land. I really hope it is not allowed in NY state. People don't know what they are getting in too

[boo711]

Think about the area you hunt? Would you want it to look like that. I don't want any part of our state to look like that. Especially wouldn't want to hunt an area near there. Wouldn't want to eat an animal that has been drinking from those pools of "storage" water they have around the sites. Really hope people voice a strong NO on this to the state!!

[mike rossi]

Think about the area you hunt? Would you want it to look like that. I don't want any part of our state to look like that. Especially wouldn't want to hunt an area near there. Wouldn't want to eat an animal that has been drinking from those pools of "storage" water they have around the sites. Really hope people voice a strong NO on this to the state!!

PA signed hydrofracking gas leases on their state game lands. NY regulations will not allow drilling on lands , but they can drill horizontally under WMAs and other state lands.

That storage water you speak of is going to be trucked to New Jersey for processing to remove the 600 mystery chemicals ( the Bush Administration said requiring them to disclose what they use violates their trade secrets); then the fluid will supposedly be mostly brine which will be used instead of salt for ice melt on our roads. In the summer it will be "spread on fields". Already doing this in PA and this is APPROVED in NY. Go figure...

[boo711]

My brother got his masters in environmental policy from suny esf. He has done a lot of research on this subject. Said if they frack where we hunt in the finger lakes he will never hunt there again. My brother in law asked him why. He told him he would would never want to eat an animal that could have drank any of that water. I can't believe more people haven't said anything about this today

[mike rossi]

Nobody working for any goverment agencies is speaking out because President Obama wants this and it is trickling down to the governer's of states with methane deposits in shale. Even conservation organizations have kept out of it because they are aware of how the goverment has empowered these gas companies. There is much grass-roots oposition as well as university and college based opposistion, but most of the major conservation orgs are staying out of it. This is partialy because methane was promoted as clean energy and even though that has been shown to be very much not the case many conservation groups are not up to date.

Obama thinks he will be remembered as the first black president but he will be equally remembered as the jackass who (permanaently) destroyed the nations water supply from West Virginia to Upstate New York for (a ten year supply) of natural gas.

Ironically it was the Bush Admin. which got this thing rolling. Vice Pres. Dick Cheney had a night job as CEO of Haliburton. Good Ole Dick crafted a piece of law which exempted gas companies from complying with the clean water act. Environmentalists refer to this law as the Haliburton Loophole which is named very accuratly. The justification for the law was to protect the "trade secrets" of the gas companies so that other gas companies wont learn what chemicals each of them use to extract methane. The law pretty much tells the EPA to let the gas industry do whatever the hell they want. No Obama didnt repeal this - he "invested" trillions of dollars in clean energy - read: he gave private gas companies tax payers money while touting him self as an environmentalist.

The horrors and injustices are too numerous to list but I suggest everyone explore with google searches, facebook and youtube searches. You will hear a wide range of disturbing things from people getting arrested, handcuffed, and detained, on their own wooded property, for carrying a single shot.22 rifle, to possible links to cancer and everything between.

[HuntOrBeHunted]

It seems like a lot of people in this state could care less about what happens. The reason I say this state is because I have some family in texas and there ready for war down there were all stuck up north bent over like a lot lizard ready to give up anything.

Sad days ahead of us. Im lucky stuff starts going to wrond and ill be in texas inb 24 hours hunting some real bucks lol...

[boo711]

Fyi