As New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u2019s administration finalizes a ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing, New Yorkers will watch their southern neighbor continue its experiment with shale gas.<\/p>\n
New York has been under a fracking moratorium since 2008, and people on both sides of the shale gas debate see the state\u2019s Dec. 17 announcement as a milestone in Pennsylvania\u2019s experience with the gas drilling industry. It could have implications for the Delaware River Basin Commission, a multi-state river compact that has held back gas development in Wayne and Pike counties since 2010.<\/p>\n
Local residents and activists brought the scientific, political and media spotlight to the industry\u2019s operations in Susquehanna, Bradford and Wyoming counties. New York health officials cited studies conducted in Pennsylvania when they made their case for a ban.<\/p>\n
The news prompted Susquehanna County resident Victoria Switzer \u2014 caught up in a well-publicized water contamination case in Dimock Township in 2008, later becoming a prominent advocate for stronger oversight of the gas industry – to revisit some of her memories of what she now calls the \u201cGas Wars.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the announcement came, it was a physical feeling,\u201d Switzer said. \u201cIt made it so real.\u201d<\/p>\n
She remembered in 2010, when Democratic New York State Senator Antoine Thompson from Buffalo first visited Dimock, returning again within months. Later that year, Thompson sponsored a bill that placed a nine-month moratorium on the technique.<\/p>\n
\u201cElected officials wouldn\u2019t give us the time of day back then,\u201d Switzer said. \u201cI remember thinking, \u2018Oh my god,\u2019 we\u2019re not crazy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Also in 2010 came the release of \u201cGasLand,\u201d the controversial documentary film by Josh Fox that introduced Dimock to the world.<\/p>\n
Around that time, politicians, activists and journalists, many from New York, poured into the township to see drilling in a familiar landscape of steep, knobby hills, clear streams, farm fields and dense forests. Strangers knocked on Switzer\u2019s door, asking to be shown around.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the poster child of what not to do,\u201d Switzer said.<\/p>\n
Susquehanna County resident Vera Scroggins began offering free citizen tours of the gas fields, earning her fame and notoriety.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s an encouraging thing and shows that citizen power can make things happen,\u201d Scroggins said of New York\u2019s ban.<\/p>\n
She has not stopped her tours.<\/p>\n
Reached by phone recently, she said she had finished showing around officials from Delaware County, New York. Among their concerns are living next to pipelines and compressor stations, which will continue to proliferate in their state despite the fracking ban.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really helped them see firsthand what it means to have it in your neighborhoods,\u201d Scroggins said.<\/p>\n
Switzer thinks New York\u2019s ban could prove to be a crucial moment for Pennsylvania. Faced with uncertainty over fracking\u2019s risks to public health, New York places the burden of proof on the industry, while Pennsylvania places it on the public, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf an entire state recognizes that this is an unproven experiment, what does that say to Pennsylvania?\u201d she asked. \u201cHow is the worth of a Pennsylvania child different than a New York child?\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of those who support the gas industry see Governor Cuomo\u2019s motivations as less than noble.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a crass political move, it obviously was,\u201d said Tom Shepstone, a Wayne County consultant who publishes and writes for the popular pro-industry blog NaturalGasNow.org. He thinks Cuomo wants to secure the support of the left wing of the Democratic Party, maybe in the hopes of a presidential bid.<\/p>\n
Shepstone doesn\u2019t doubt the role Northeast Pennsylvania activists played in New York\u2019s ban.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no question that this decision was basically encouraged and to some extent enabled by the radicals who are interested in stopping fracking everywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The decision could make drilling more unlikely for the Pennsylvania portions of the Delaware River basin, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though it\u2019s a New York state issue, it\u2019s a particular problem for anyone in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, who wants to see drilling,\u201d Shepstone said.<\/p>\n
Despite New York\u2019s strong anti-fracking contingent, the latest poll by Siena College in Loudonville, New York shows mixed feelings. In a telephone poll of 639 registered New York voters, 38 percent opposed fracking and 35 supported it, with an almost four percent margin of error.<\/p>\n
The official reason the Cuomo administration gave the fracking ban is concern for public health in the face of scientific uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked myself, \u2018Would I let my family live in a community with fracking?\u2019\u201d Acting Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, M.D., J.D., said in a cabinet meeting in Albany. \u201cThe answer is no. I therefore cannot recommend anyone else\u2019s family to live in such a community either.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 20 New York Department of Health scientists reviewed studies on the industry\u2019s potential to contaminate air, soil and water and the side effects of living near gas sites, according to their report.<\/p>\n
It cites a series of studies conducted in Pennsylvania\u2019s gas fields.<\/p>\n
One was a 2012 working paper revised in 2013, in which then-Cornell University researcher Elaine Hill examined birth outcomes from Pennsylvania mothers living near gas wells from 2003 to 2010.<\/p>\n
She found those born to mothers near wells were significantly more likely to have low birth weight, small size for gestational age and low scores on a newborn health exam.<\/p>\n
A 2012 report by Earthworks\u2019 Oil and Gas Accountability Project, not published in a peer-reviewed journal, reported survey results from 108 people from 55 Pennsylvania households spanning 14 counties, plus air and water test results from some of them.<\/p>\n
Those within a half-mile of a well site reported health problems more frequently than those living farther than a half-mile.<\/p>\n
The report also cites a slideshow presentation from the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project\u2018s website describing 27 cases of health effects plausibly related to nearby gas extraction, such as skin irritation, nausea, abdominal pain, trouble breathing, cough and nosebleeds. These people self-reported their symptoms to the clinic.<\/p>\n
Another study by scientists from Yale University, the University of Washington and Colorado State University involved a health survey of 492 people in 180 randomly selected households in Washington County, in southwestern Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Adjusting for a variety social and health factors, they found people living close to wells were more likely to report skin conditions and upper respiratory symptoms, although other symptoms showed no correlation. The study is meant to help generate questions for further research, the authors wrote.<\/p>\n
A study published in October relied on air sampling by trained volunteers in Wyoming, Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It found air pollutants, most commonly benzene, formaldehyde and hydrogen sulfide, in all five states at levels exceeding some federal health standards. Susquehanna County residents Rebecca Roter and Frank Finan, were among the volunteers. Both are core members of Breathe Easy Susquehanna County, a group advocating for real-time monitoring of air conditions near gas sites.<\/p>\n
They and other Pennsylvania volunteers recorded five measurements of formaldehyde near compressor stations in Susquehanna County that exceeded at least one health standard, as did one measurement of benzene near a pipeline pig launcher in Washington County.<\/p>\n
They chose those compressor stations because nearby residents reported nosebleeds, Roter said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thrilled that Governor Cuomo put the health of his constituents first and did not rush to join the bandwagon next door,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause I think that what is definitely emerging is that there are real health risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a variety of reasons \u2014 such as small sample sizes, reliance on self-reporting and choosing inappropriate health standards to compare to \u2014 New York\u2019s report acknowledged that these studies cannot definitively prove whether or not shale gas extraction causes health problem. But there remain enough \u201csignificant uncertainties\u201d to justify a ban on the technique, Dr. Zucker told officials.<\/p>\n
Conventional or low-volume hydraulic fracturing is still permitted under the current regulations and will continue to be after the ban, New York Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Peter Constantakes said in an email.<\/p>\n
The agency considers 80,000 gallons of water per well the threshold for \u201chigh-volume,\u201d he said. Shale gas wells in Pennsylvania typically require 7 million to 13 million gallons per well.<\/p>\n
Doctors who work in public health are not at all settled on what risks fracking poses to the public.<\/p>\n
Theodore Them, M.D., a specialist in occupational medicine who also holds a master\u2019s in public health, works in Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre. Guthrie, the medical provider that owns the hospital, services the Twin Tiers region, including Bradford County, the most heavily drilled and fracked county in the state.<\/p>\n
Dr. Them said he has never seen any evidence that shale gas has sickened a nearby resident, even after using open record laws to acquire such information from New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. He speaks for himself, not Guthrie, Dr. Them said in a recent radio interview with members of the pro-drilling Joint Landowners Coalition of New York.<\/p>\n
In his own practice, he\u2019s seen \u201cmore of the same\u201d occupational injuries, he said \u2014 more back strain, muscle strain, fractures, cuts, burns, chemical exposures and chemical burns than he\u2019s seen before from industrial workers. But that\u2019s because the number of workers in the area drastically increased, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be more concerned having my children grow up in New York City being exposed to the pollutants there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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