Hydraulic Fracturing & Policy Actions in New York - Research Paper Example

?THE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AND POLICY ACTION IN NEW YORK The Hydraulic Fracturing and Policy Action in New York An Environmental Study of the Hydraulic Fracturing in the State of New York alongside the State of Pennsylvania and the Pathway of Writing Policies to regulate its Operations. Your Name Your School’s Name THE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AND POLICY ACTION IN NEW YORK 2 Abstract of the Study Possessing an internally-produced natural gas deposit and domestically processed petroleum products are great advantages for a certain country particularly the United States which has one of the highest energy and oil consumptions in the world. The country has several potential sites for oil deposits which recently have been explored by oil-drilling companies. The latest innovation on oil drilling techniques has opened opportunities for the United States to become oil dependent, opening abundant supply of natural gases which the US didn’t have several years ago. One of the newest techniques being used for extracting high volume oil is called “Hydraulic Fracturing”. Even though this new technique would open up a big opportunity for the United States to become self-sufficient on oil, there is still manifold repudiation on the ratification of the proposal on several states as bunch of claims were raised that this type of gas extraction might come at the expense of the health of the public as well as the environment. Many government agencies proposed policies in order to regulate the natural gas explorations in various states in the country. This particular study focuses on the pathway of the states of New York alongside Pennsylvania in the writing of parametric policies that will regulate the oil-drilling operations and at the same time to protect the public safety by ensuring prevention of contaminating the water supplies and precluding some other side effects of Hydraulic Fracturing from taking place. THE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AND POLICY ACTION IN NEW YORK 3 What is Hydraulic Fracturing? “Hydraulic Fracturing is the propagation of fractures in a rock layer caused by the presence of a pressurized fluid. Hydraulic fractures may form naturally, as in the case of veins or dikes, or may be man-made in order to release petroleum, natural gas, coal seam gas, or other substances for extraction, where the technique is often called frackin or hydrofracking.” Since there are solid rock formations underneath the soil, hydraulic fracturing also uses chemicals and other substances in a form of highly-pressurized fluid that will fracture the rock formation paving the way towards the recovery of fossil fuels which are later to be converted into various petroleum products. In the United States, Hydraulic Fracturing is defined as “…is the process of utilizing pressurized water, chemical additives, and physical proppants to fracture rock layers and release petroleum, natural gas, or other substances so that they can be extracted.” Proppants are substances in forms of sand or fine coarse to prevent drilled holes from closing when operations are tentatively ceased. Hydraulic Fracturing is also common outside the United States. In Canada, though they have started the drilling operations by fracking in the 1990s, complaints about its safety as verbalized by the concerned and affected residents arose only after eleven years. In Australia, hydraulic fracturing is also very common; however, there were reported breakage or leaks on the pipes used for extraction which as per the report has contaminated the water supply in some parts of Australia. This has triggered the national and local governments in Australia to regulate the oil-drilling operations by potently prohibiting the inclusion of chemicals in the drilling process. Some other countries which use hydraulic fracturing are New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Further, France had also used the technique but was eventually sent to closure after manifold public complaints. THE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AND POLICY ACTION IN NEW YORK 4 The environmental and side effects of Hydraulic Fracturing in New York and Pennsylvania Although hydraulic fracturing will produce tons of oil for US consumption, several issues were raised questioning the safety and the reliability of this kind of drilling technique to the environment, especially on drinking water which is one of the most important commodities of human beings. Hydraulic fracturing in New York took place as dated back in the 1950s. Nevertheless, its economic effects did not much impress the people to leave its health and environmental effects behind because of some concealed misrepresentation of data regarding the real production rate and the amount of recoverable natural gas deposits. One of the most popular sites of drilling operations in the United States is the Marcellus Shale. It is a vast rock formation that extends vertically underground which is said to have millions of tons of oil deposits, which reportedly, could produce a considerable amount of convertible natural gas that could supply the oil needs of the United States for a span of 14 years. Its area of coverage spans from Ohio and the Northeast of Virginia to the states of Pennsylvania and New York. What much added to the issue was that the recoverable natural gases can only be extracted in the state of New York. Although hydraulic fracturing is legal in the state of New York, there are several attempts differing to the idea of its operations. There are a lot of claims concerning the contamination of water basins and other bodies of water like the Allegheny River that is one of the main sources of water supply for around 9 million residents of New York. There were also reports that high concentration of methane and benzene are present and are considered “alarming” and “hazardous”. Since the rock formation in the Marcellus Shale is tight and is very difficult to drill, the only known solution of extracting those natural gases is through THE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AND POLICY ACTION IN NEW YORK 5 hydraulic fracturing. Many scientists and environmental organizations like the EPA or the Environmental Protection Agency released a report predicating that hydraulic fracturing are absolutely safe since there are no traces or evidences that would prove the migration of petroleum products through the rock formations. They also stated through a distinct phrase "no unequivocal evidence” implicating that there are no considerable evidences that would support several claims of non-governmental and independent organizations, together with the concerned citizens, that it brings bad effects on health. However, the agency continues to affirm that fluids that were being used in the drilling operations were safe and in complementary with the standards and are tolerable in amount. Nevertheless, despite this potent assertion of the EPA, they also admitted that they did not include the external effects brought about by hydraulic fracturing operation just like combustion or explosion of water wells which is believed to have released large amount of different radioactive materials that are carcinogenic and are potential causes of cancer. Meanwhile, the Allegheny River which runs through the states of New York and Pennsylvania and is the drainage point of its lone valley, the Allegheny Valley, which is considered to be the best source of fossil fuels in the history of the United States, is one of the largest water reserves of the surrounding states. Moreover, the Democrats in Congress found out on a recent study that "oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from 2005 to 2009," and this is according to the New York Times. It has also been discovered that radioactive materials and benzene – which according to the American Cancer Society is a colorless, flammable liquid with sweet odor and is a natural substance of crude oil, gasoline and even cigarette smoke - have THE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AND POLICY ACTION IN NEW YORK 6 already invaded the water shed, specifically the Allegheny River, which according to the New York Times contains Benzene with folded concentration up to 28 times the amount of tolerable levels. One alarming fact about Benzene, according to the American Cancer Society, states “Benzene is known to cause cancer, based on evidence from studies in both people and laboratory animals. The link between benzene and cancer has largely focused on leukemia and cancers of other blood cells”. In addition, it has also been discovered that the highest percentage of leukemia cases are coming from those people who were directly exposed to Benzene, particularly those who have worked on factories and oil companies wherein Benzene is very prevalent and excessive in amount. There were also studies conducted in the states of Pennsylvania and New York that have found out some extremely alarming facts about the real safety conditions of the area. It has been concluded that there were “extremely high concentrations of methane: 64 milligrams of methane per liter of drinking water, compared with a normal level of one milligram or lower”. The said level of concentration is believed to be detrimental to humans and households following some feasibility study that concludes possible explosion and combustion because of high amount of combustible gases in the water. On a parallel study conducted by 4 scientists from Duke University found out that “…the type of gas detected at high levels in the water was the same type of gas that energy companies were extracting from thousands of feet underground, strongly implying that the gas may be seeping underground through natural or manmade faults and fractures, or coming from cracks in the well structure itself.” There were reports released about homes went off “after gas seeped into their basements or water supplies.” There was even an explosion incident that killed a husband and wife and their lone grandchild while investigative THE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AND POLICY ACTION IN NEW YORK 7 results concluded that the reason for the explosion was due to the high concentration of flammable gases in the home’s water supply. The Economic Effects of Hydraulic Fracturing Basically, hydraulic fracturing does not give remarkable or immense economic effects on the states where the operations take place and the probability of its sustainment in the industry is indefinite. Albeit, there may be households or landowners who will receive certain amount of money if their properties are included in the drilling area, there may be more jobs that will be generated, and there may be an increment on the number of business establishments in the area but this does not necessarily guarantee an economic boom. The works in hydraulic fracturing requires specialization and most of the time companies that needs specialized workforce do not necessarily found their prospective workers on the area where they are having the operations. In a nutshell, still it would not benefit the residents and the state that much because of the aforementioned reasons. The Pathway for Writing Policies in the State of New York alongside Pennsylvania Because of the extremely detrimental and bad effects of hydraulic fracturing to the environment and its people, there were several policies ruled to regulate the frequency and to set parameters that would protect the welfare of the people and the state as well as the natural resources. In this particular study, I would cite three main agencies concerned in the preservation and protection of the environment: The EPA or the Environmental Protection Agency, Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Agency and the New York State Department of Conservation. THE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AND POLICY ACTION IN NEW YORK 8 The United States Environmental Protection Agency has ruled several policies to set some parameters in conducting hydraulic fracturing like the SDWA - UIC or the safe drinking water act and underground injection control that required hydraulic fracturing companies to ensure accurate siting, proper disposal of waste and minimizing the risk of leakage that may contaminate the water. Further, prior to giving them permit to operate, they should meet all the requirements of EPA like “construction, operating, monitoring and testing, reporting, and closure requirements for well owners or operators.” Meanwhile, the New York State Department of Environmental Protection or DEC released a tentative regulatory provision called SPDES or State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System that requires permittees to develop a “comprehensive Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan” that will ensure the implementation of regulatory measures to subdue, if not to eradicate, the possible contamination of water resources. However, as of the meantime, these remains tentative since DEC has recently defer the ruling because of several claims from affected residents regarding the adverse effects of hydraulic fracturing. Further, it has provided a moratorium that would “freeze on hydraulic fracturing” while the agency would momentarily focus yet on the comments of the people and the environmental safety. The ruling body will provide days of comment before they will finalize the regulatory provisions. Lastly, the Pennsylvania, DEP secretary defended their ability to generate regulations pertaining to hydraulic fracturing, however, he stressed that in Pennsylvania, there are no reports that hydraulic fracturing have contaminated the water supply of the state and according to him, this is after 6o years of fracking operations in the state. He added that this is one of the largest job-generating operations that they have in their state. THE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AND POLICY ACTION IN NEW YORK 9 For localities and other small communities, regulations are being imposed by prohibiting hydraulic fracturing in the municipal boundaries. Civil Lawsuits Pertaining to Hydraulic Fracturing In cases where the rights of an individual are violated because of an unscrupulous business practices that may result to physical injury, harm or death can be admitted as a lawsuit. For example, a lawsuit was brought in New York about an allegedly contamination of water that affected some nine (9) families in Horseheads, New York. The lawsuit was delivered by Napoli Bern Ripka and Associates. According to the source, “the lawsuit was captioned Baker, et. Al. v. Anschutz Exploration Corporation, et. Al. The litigant complained that the source of their drinking water was contaminated because of the drilling operations by the defendant, Anschutz Exploration Corporation, predicating that they were exposed to flammable substances, toxic materials and poisonous outputs that are wastes of the drilling operations. They are asking $150M for various damages and for future medical monitoring to check whether they were inflicted with cancer. THE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING AND POLICY ACTION IN NEW YORK 10 References: Hydraulic Fracturing in the United States. (n.d.). In Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http: //en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Hydraulic fracturing in the United States#cite note-17 J Cooperman. (2011, March 14). Well-known Plaintiff’s Firm Files Lawsuit against Gas Exploration Company in Upstate New York. Retrieved from http://www.frackinginsider.com/litigation/ New York State Department of Environmental Protection. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dec.ny.gov Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. (2011) DEP Secretary Defends States’ Ability to Regulate Hydraulic Fracturing. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/ United States Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/class2/index.cfm American Cancer Society. (n.d.) Benzene: What is Benzene? Does Benzene Cause Cancer? Retrieved from: http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/OtherCarcinogens/IntheWorkplace/benzene Read More