From the viewpoint of an environmentalist:
New York City’s water supply is primarily comprised of surface water, 19 reservoirs and 3 controlled lakes, from a 2,000 square mile watershed in 8 upstate counties. The supply serves half of the population of New York State, 9 million people, and is regulated by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection.
The Marcellus Shale covers approximately 95,000 square miles, or 500tcf of gas reserves. The shale formation underlies the NYC WOH watershed in its entirety. New developments in natural gas mean tapping into these gas reservoirs locked within the Marcellus Shale beneath the NYC water supply. The process of hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, requires the injection of more than a million gallons of water, sand, and chemicals at a very high pressure down, across, and into a horizontally drilled well. This well may be as deep as 10,000 feet below the surface. The pressurized, toxic mixture causes the Marcellus Shale to crack. The fissures in the rock are held open by the sand particles, so as to allow the natural gas to flow up the well for harvesting. The chemicals within the mixture are said to represent only 1% of the hydrofrack fluid. The US Geological Survey, on the other hand, found that a typical 3 million gallon tap project produces 15,000 gallons of chemical waste—waste that threatens our water supply.
Back in January of 2009, the NYC Water Board hired a joint venture group to assess the possible impacts of gas drilling on the NYC water supply. The group measured the impacts to water quality, water quantity, and water supply infrastructure. The environment impacts found in association with hydrofracking include water consumption, wastewater disposal, toxic chemical use, air pollution, noise pollution, substantial truck traffic, and round-the-clock operations. Other impacts include potential groundwater and well water contamination, deforestation, spills, roadbuilding and surface water runoff from the large industrial sites. The overall impact of the project would be the complete transformation of once-rural communities into “fractured communities,” and most importantly the contamination and disruption of the NYC/NYS water supply. The water supply can be directly affected by any on-site spills, subsurface migration of contaminants, water withdrawals (which also impacts local aquatic habitats and biota), flowback water, and/or improper disposal and dilution of hydrofluid. Ultimately, there are far too many ways for natural gas drilling developments to negatively effect the NYC and NYS water supplies, the possible benefits may not necessarily outweigh the potential risks.
Garcia, Kathryn. “Natural Gas Development and the NYC Water Supply.” American Academy of Environmental Engineers. AAEE, 14 May 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://aaee.net/>.
“Natural Gas Drilling in Marcellus Shale – Overview.” Natural Gas Drilling in Marcellus Shale – Overview. The City of New York, 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.nyc.gov/>.
