GEORGE M. WALSH, Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A revised set of proposed regulations
for hydraulic fracturing natural gas has been released by New York
environmental officials who will begin taking public comment on them soon.
The voluminous technical document was made public by the
Department of Environmental Conservation on its website Nov. 29, a
day before the deadline for adopting rules for the controversial
drilling known as "fracking" or making changes and allowing more
comment. It has been a year since the last public hearings on the
original proposal. New York has not yet approved the technology, which
drillers want to use to tap gas in the Marcellus Shale formation.
The
first round of hearings on regulations proposed in 2011 generated
80,000 comments, which DEC officials said slowed their review and
revision of the proposal. It said the latest changes include a number
responding to the original comments. The agency said Thursday the
changes allow it to extend the review process and take into account a
pending analysis by the state health department.
Calls by
opponents for an independent study of potential health threats from the
drilling were rejected by the Cuomo administration, which instead asked
state Health Commissioner Nirav Shah to oversee an assessment of health
issues.
"DEC will not take any final action until after Dr. Shah's
health review is completed," agency spokeswoman Emily DeSantis said.
"This action merely extends the rule-making period to enable DEC to take
into account Dr. Shah's review."
The DEC said it will take written comments on the latest revisions from Dec. 12 until Jan. 11.
Hydraulic
fracturing injects millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and
chemicals into wells to crack the shale and free the gas. It has divided
environmental and business interests at odds over potential harm to
water and other resources and the potential for tapping an abundant
supply of gas and creating jobs.
One of the major objections
raised by environmental groups was that the regulations didn't spell out
how drillers should dispose of the enormous volume of wastewater
produced from fracked wells. The revised regulations leave it up to
drillers to say how they'll dispose of the wastewater while complying
with various pollution rules. The regulations say the driller "must have
an approvable plan identifying the ultimate disposition" of wastewater,
and must also submit an acceptable contingency plan to be used if the
primary plan turns out to be unworkable.
According to the DEC
documents, among the other revisions are removing a $2 million cap on
financial security that drillers must put up based on anticipated costs
of plugging and abandonment of a well, potentially requiring them to put
up more; stronger requirements for plugging and abandonment of wells;
stricter disclosure requirements for fracking chemicals; a 15-day public
comment period on permit applications; and provisions for collection of
fees.
Regarding the industry's costs for complying with the
regulations, the documents say the Independent Oil and Gas Association
of New York estimated costs would range from $400,000 to $1.7 million
for the first well drilled on a well pad. The DEC said its own cost
assessment found the industry estimate to be excessive.
The
documents also say enforcing the regulations and overseeing shale gas
development will create additional cost for the DEC and the state
departments of health and transportation, but that those costs can't be
calculated accurately at this point.
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