Last week’s column was the second part of an extended interview with Fred Sinclair, Allegany County legislator and Manager of the Soil and Water conservation district for Allegany county for 35 years. This week’s column concludes the interview. To read our previous conversations just scroll down to the previous posts. At the bottom of this weeks column are links to primary source materials that Fred Sinclair provided.
Previously, Fred talked at
length about the geology of aquifers and the threat that hydrofracking poses to
our water resources. Last week he commented on the dangers inherent from the
radioactivity contained within the Marcellus Shale itself.
GM: Fred, what about the quality of life issues in
communities that have allowed hydrofracking?
FS: Everyone is focused on
the important issues of water and health, but what people aren’t talking so
much about is the impact on the social structure of a boom. Local governments
need to be prepared for and take pro-active action against the effects of this
level of activity hitting you all at once. Your jails are going to get filled
up, policeman will be overtaxed, emergency responders are going to be burnt
out, hospitals are going to be hit with everything from chemical spill
emergencies to workers with severe infections and sexually transmitted diseases
that they have brought with them from other areas. This is what they’re seeing
at the Guthrie Clinic.
GM: I’ve read about many of the things you are
mentioning in the report from Guthrie, like how emergency vehicles are slowed because
of the high volume of truck traffic. [Click here to read the Guthrie Report]
FS: This is a killer on your
community. The whole tempo is changed. There are subtle impacts and not so
subtle. Out of state workers with a lot of money, workers with children and how
that impacts the schools, many workers the first few months working for these
companies don’t have health insurance so there can be a big impact on Medicaid
roles. DWI’s go up. And there are housing issues. There aren’t enough places to
rent in an area being developed in this way – the gas workers take everything
and they pay twice as much as it is worth, and students can’t find accommodations.
Hotels and motels fill up. We are required by State law to house the homeless,
the indigent, and people coming out of jail, and what will happen – if we
cannot put them up in a motel because they are all full – we have to shift them
to shelter in a county up north at twice the cost. We have been looking at these
issues because cumulatively there is a huge social impact.
GM: I think what you are saying is important. I often
hear, “oh, my grandfather had a gas well and everything was fine.” Many people don’t
understand that fracking will mean the transformation of the countryside into
an industrial zone and all the ramifications that come along with extreme
energy extraction in the 21st century.
FS: And it will stay this way
for awhile and then collapse and you are left with pipes in the ground which
have changed hands, the wells are sold to some secondary producer who doesn’t
care or have the resources to do a proper cleanup and closure. This is a bubble
that the industry is creating. It’s just like the tech bubble and there will be
a huge impact when it pops. These are artificial bubbles created by people who
want to make a lot of money – and a lot of this is foreign money – the wells
are often owned by foreign investors.
GM: Given the dangers to our communal resources the
economics are complex. What would you say to someone who sees leasing as their
economic salvation?
FS: There is an old saying, “
Water will get you through times without money, better than money gets you
through times without water.” That’s kind of flip but the bottom line is that a
few people will get very rich and the environment will suffer, our way of life
will suffer. We are putting in road protection on a countywide level and towns
should do the same. Our tourism industry
will be hit; the wildlife will be driven away from the wellheads and the huge
industrial activity. All of the things that bring people here and that people
enjoy immensely, birding, fishing or hunting – all of that will be impacted and
we will end up losing money. Tourism is a big thing for us and we are learning
how to nurture it – it’s a pleasant economic adventure – people coming to enjoy
your area and spending their money locally. People will not come here to sit in
a traffic jam, to sit behind trucks hauling poisonous chemicals or lines of water
tankers. That will be the perception and there is a danger in that.
The socio-economic planning
by the DEC in the SGEIS is very weak. They studied communities across the
Southern Tier where drilling will have an impact and Steuben and Allegany
Counties are conspicuously absent. They left us out of the discussion
completely and I don’t know why. That is a travesty worth noting.
I am impressed by the large
spectrum of people, economists, scientists, doctors, and just regular citizens
that are stepping up to speak with their town boards. How many bans and
moratoriums are there now?
GM: If you include all the bans, moratoriums, pending
legislation and DEC protected communities in the NYC and Syracuse watersheds
there are 209.
Fred, thank you for sitting down with me and sharing
your expertise. Any parting thoughts about hydrofracking?
FS: It should not be allowed
in my opinion. It is just not worth it. The first oil minister for Saudi Arabia
upon his retirement said, “I wish we had discovered water.” When you look at
the structure there, there are a small number of people who are extremely
wealthy and everyone else is poor. I don’t believe that people here will
benefit and we will lose why we are here- that’s sad. I am very proud of Alfred’s
moratorium. Many people with the “drill baby, drill” mentality will be the
first ones to say, “Oh, I didn’t know that was going to happen."
________________________________________________
This column concludes my extended
conversation with Fred Sinclair. Many of the points that Fred has discussed in
this series are contained in the Guthrie Report referenced above and the DEC Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS). The entire SGEIS is a very large file but worth spending time
with. Please note: if you download the whole file, Chapter 11 is the index and
will help you navigate the document.
Another
source to go to: James “Chip” Northrup, who was a planning manager at Atlantic
Richfield and an independent oil and gas producer for onshore and offshore
drilling rigs. He has 30 years of experience in the industry. Go to his blog: www.scribd.com/northrup49 Because of his insider knowledge
of the industry his writings are particularly interesting. Many of the concerns that Fred Sinclair has talked about can also be found in the writings and public lectures of James Northrup.
Fred Sinclair has provided me with many of his primary sources for the issues discussed in our three part interview. Below are the links to those documents:
Water:
USGS: Response to DEC SGEIS. This document covers many of the points Fred Sinclair made on water issues
Chemical and Biological Risk Assessment for Natural Gas Extraction in New York - a paper by Ronald E. Bishop, PH.D. , CHO, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, State University of New York, College at Oneonta
Water:
USGS: Response to DEC SGEIS. This document covers many of the points Fred Sinclair made on water issues
This document is a less technical summary of the USGS: Response to the DEC SGEIS
The Economic Consequences of Marcellus Shale Gas Extraction: Key Issues -A research project sponsored by the Cornell University Department of City and Regional Planning
Hello,
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I are at odds over fracking, he would sell his soul to the devil I'm afraid if it meant the almighty dollar. I am TOTALLY against fracking, my husband says he wants it, because of money. I thought after watching Gasland that he would NEVER want it; however, now I have learned that he still is in favor.
He now tells me to give him phone numbers of people that have had leases themselves so that he can call them and talk to them first hand to learn how bad they are.
Do you have anyone, especially here in New York State, that have had leases and he could talk to them personally over the phone to hear just how bad it is himself????
Thank You,
Jeanne White
healthywannabe@frontiernet.net