Of Gas and Water
Jan 16th, 2009 by Jervey
As they are prone to do, Gotham Gazette has a well-written, comprehensively reported, illuminating piece on a serious and timely environmental issue. This month, Dara Miles tackles the proposed gas drilling of the Marcellus Shale formation that buts up a little too close for comfort to the watershed that provides our city’s drinking water (and that of many counties upstate). It’s well worth a full read, but if we must excerpt a bit to tease and entice you into clicking through, here’s the set-up:
Now, some New York City officials worry that anticipated gas drilling will jeopardize the water supply of more than 9 million people in the city and several upstate counties. Gas producers want to drill into the Marcellus Shale formation, part of which lies upstate. They would then inject millions of gallons of water treated with chemicals in order to extract what experts believe could be trillions of cubic feet of natural gas….
City Councilmember Jim Gennaro, who chairs the Environmental Protection Committee, has sounded the alarm about the potential cost of filtering the city’s water. Gennaro has cautioned fellow committee members — and anyone else who will listen — that a filtration system could boast a price tag in the billions.
“What the people of the City of New York, I fear, are looking at is a $20 billion consequence to this ‘drill baby drill’ policy,” Gennaro said.
But, again, you really should just read the whole thing. Huge issue, that’s not getting nearly the ink (nor pixels) that it deserves. Great reporting, GG!