One of the four primary stakeholder groups are the upstate stakeholders. According to E.C. Vintinner’s case study, “Thirsty Metropolis: A Case Study of New York City’s Drinking Water”, these upstate stakeholders include the Coalition of Watershed Towns and representatives of eight upstate counties. Although there are some residents who advocate for watershed land acquisition, there are just as many who oppose it. Aware that any action would immediately and directly affect those who reside in nearby counties, these anti-development upstate stakeholders believe the impact would be detrimental environmentally.
Land acquisition for watersheds will ultimately involve the process of hydraulic fracturing, also known as “hydrofracking”. Hydrofracking uses a mixture of water, sand and chemicals to extract natural gas from shale rock. Although the extraction of the country’s own natural gas seems ideal, it is not. The industry has not regulated drilling processes. The mixture goes well into millions of gallons, which means that the chemical portion is also great. Most of these chemicals are known carcinogens, such as benzene (known to cause cancer). Not only will these harmful toxins pollute the environment and harm wildlife, they will also adversely affect the health of many residents.
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, “Experts’ Review of NY Fracking Soon to be Complete”, “unregulated drilling processes numbering in the hundreds of thousands have impacts on air quality including global warming, drinking water and other waters, soils, air quality, and nearby populations.” Drinking water quality would decline. Some may even see their water supply change in color or become flammable. In addition, workers in the industry will first be exposed to these adverse effects. Serious worker exposures may cause many deadly diseases such as silicosis. In a health impact assessment for hydraulic fracturing study done in Colorado, several health threats were identified. Hence, anti-development upstate stakeholders will not allow such a process to take place in their counties. They will certainly not allow it because the drilling process is unregulated.
Supporters of hydraulic fracturing insist that drilling for natural gas would have more pros than cons. They believe that with better regulation, hydrofracking would boost the economy for the long run. They also believe that the adverse health effects would be monitored to be little to none. But despite EPA’s strengthening of the right-to-know provision for chemicals used by drilling companies, there is still company censorship of toxins released into the environment. This makes anti-development upstate stakeholders further doubt any good land acquisition for watersheds would do.
Source:
Wall Street Journal. “Experts’ review of NY fracking soon to be complete – WSJ.com.” Business News & Financial News – The Wall Street Journal – Wsj.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. <http://online.wsj.com/article/AP0708f481ec2844cca10389aca8a10053.html>.
