US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. FILE PHOTO
Diane Hope started tracking news stories about the Marcellus Shale two years ago. At first, she says, the stories were focused on energy and profit.
The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, for example, played up natural gas's potential as a cleaner fuel and as an economic benefit to struggling Appalachian communities. But after a few months, Hope, a communications professor at RIT, says she noticed a shift.
The news stories began to reflect the public's growing environmental and public health concerns. They also started to get into detail about the proposed drilling method, which uses a slurry forced at high pressure down a deep horizontal well to break open the rock and free up the gas.
"They started really explaining what the technology was," says Hope, who was part of a panel during a forum on the Marcellus Shale in Brighton last week. The shift happened in local papers, she says, as well as giants like the New York Times.
Environmental and public health concerns deal largely with water issues - the potential for both heavy consumption and contamination. Those same issues have cropped up in relation to the DEC's proposed regulations for drilling in the Marcellus and Utica Shales.
Some of the groups who've helped reshape media coverage are now pushing for the DEC to extend the review period for the regulations. And they're being joined by politicians, including US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
"New York has an abundant supply of fresh, clean water and we must learn from the accidents that other states have already experienced to avoid damage to our own precious natural resources," Gillibrand said in a recent statement.
Wes Gillingham, the founder and director of the Catskill Mountainkeeper environmental group, says that drilling could have a profound impact on water quality, even across state lines.
The energy companies have their sights centered on the Town of Hancock in Delaware County, Gillingham said during last week's forum. The shale there has high potential as a natural gas resource, but it's also located in the Delaware River watershed, which provides water to New York City and parts of other states.
Comments for "ENVIRONMENT: Shale drilling concerns evolve " (4)
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Christine Sevilla said on Oct. 28, 2009 at 12:55pm
This is an important issue, one that deserves attention. So many issues attend the fracking of shale for natural gas, paramount among them are the level and purity of our water supply. I am moved to write to urge more coverage of this issue. Clearly, the enormous number of people who signed up for last week's Federation of Monroe County Environmentalist Forum,"Natural Gas Production, At what cost to New York State?" indicate that this is a concern to many. There was no mention in the article that people were standing in the room and outside of the room, listening to the panel, who included Diane Hope, Wes Gillingham, Ron Bishop and Ashur Terwilliger. Because of the response, the Federation held a second event on the following Monday night to accommodate people who had been wait-listed or had to stand outside the room. The level of public concern evident in the response to the event didn't make it to the report. So, let's see more reporting on this issue. Our water supply is at stake.
Mr. Majik said on Oct. 28, 2009 at 1:28pm
Tracking news and editorial commentary is not a good way to gauge PUBLIC opinion. It only gauges the trends of the MEDIA and those who manage to get pieces published.
Further, the last paragraph in Mr. Moule's article is quite misleading. The Town of Hancock in Delaware County is the ONLY township in the county that is NOT within the boundaries of the NYC watershed. Drilling in the Town of Hancock CANNOT effect NYC drinking water. See link below for a map of townships within the NYC watershed.
http://www.cwconline.org/maps/woh_towns.html
Chris Pryor said on Oct. 28, 2009 at 1:37pm
I've been fielding the telephone calls about last week's forum and I'm still getting them. People are now asking when we will have another forum! The interest is high, the concern is real and well-founded. We need more articles about what this new technology will do to our most important economic asset, fresh water. If we look at Pennsylvania's experience wth these oil and natural gas companies, we will quickly learn that caution is advised.
City editors said on Oct. 28, 2009 at 3:42pm
Mr. Majik is correct. Hancock is not in New York City's Catskills/Delaware watershed. It is in the Delaware River watershed. Thanks for keeping us honest.
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