While doing some research on hydrofracking, I turned up this great article from ProPublica. As it turns out, the site has an entire section devoted to the environmental impacts of gas drilling.
More recently, Yale's Environment 360 published an enlightening piece on hydrofracking in the NYC watershed and the Philadelphia City Council requested that the Delaware River Basin Commission deny a permit to drill until an environmental impact statement can be completed.
Showing posts with label NYC watershed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NYC watershed. Show all posts
Monday, March 29, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
EPA will study hydrofracking again
Today, EPA confirmed that its Office of Research and Development will investigate hydrofracking again.
I was asked yesterday to be involved in the study design effort, so I'm researching to get up to speed. Here's some of the background material I've unearthed thus far:
EPA conducted a study in 2004 on the impact that hydrofracking coalbed methane (CBM) wells has on underground sources of drinking water (USDW) and found that "the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids into CBM wells poses little or no threat to USDWs." That report can be found here. EPA also entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with BJ Services Company, Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., and Schlumberger Technology Corporation regarding the elimination of the use of diesel fuel in hydrofracking fluids. The MOA can be found here.
Recently, there has been interest in using hydrofracking to get to gas buried beneath other types of geology. For example, there is considerable interest in hydrofracking gas wells to crack the the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and southwestern New York State. (Check out the NY Times archive if you're curious.) The NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation released a draft supplemental generic environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding proposed hydrofracking in the Marcellus on September 30, 2009. EPA submitted comments on the EIS on December 30, 2009.
More to come...
I was asked yesterday to be involved in the study design effort, so I'm researching to get up to speed. Here's some of the background material I've unearthed thus far:
EPA conducted a study in 2004 on the impact that hydrofracking coalbed methane (CBM) wells has on underground sources of drinking water (USDW) and found that "the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids into CBM wells poses little or no threat to USDWs." That report can be found here. EPA also entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with BJ Services Company, Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., and Schlumberger Technology Corporation regarding the elimination of the use of diesel fuel in hydrofracking fluids. The MOA can be found here.
Recently, there has been interest in using hydrofracking to get to gas buried beneath other types of geology. For example, there is considerable interest in hydrofracking gas wells to crack the the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and southwestern New York State. (Check out the NY Times archive if you're curious.) The NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation released a draft supplemental generic environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding proposed hydrofracking in the Marcellus on September 30, 2009. EPA submitted comments on the EIS on December 30, 2009.
More to come...
Monday, May 18, 2009
Hydrofracing the NYC watershed
I got a note over the weekend from Earthjustice plugging a screening of Rage of Nature, a documentary examining the impacts of natural gas drilling. It's happening tonight at Solar One in New York City.
I haven't seen the film, but based on the bits and pieces below, it looks both interesting and terrifying.
Rage of Nature: Trailer from JOSHFOX on Vimeo.
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