Will Drilling Contaminate Westchester's Water Supply?

Fears for the safety of Westchester County's drinking water prompted the Sierra Club to host a presentation in Greenburgh on Wednesday night to explain a controversial practice of drilling for natural gas that many fear could soon happen in the Catskill Mountains.

The Catskills are home to reservoirs in which both Westchester and New York City get their drinking water.

"It's not just important to save Westchester and New York City's water because it's half the state's population," said Susan Leifer, who has worked on the state Sierra Club's gas task force for two years. "It's important to save everybody's water."

Many environmentalists and hydrologists have voiced concerns about hydrofracking, a way of collecting natural gas buried in Marcellus Shale, about a mile underground. New technologies allow energy companies to drill down and then horizontal to access gas deposits not previously available.

Part of the harvesting process involves pumping millions of gallons of water, plus chemicals and sand into the Marcellus Shale in order to push natural gas toward wells. The Sierra Club and others have voiced concern that contaminated water would filter into reservoirs that supply homes with water.

"Your baby's in it, you wash in it, you water your plants with it," Leifer said.

Chris W. Burger, a resource management consultant and college professor, will be the featured speaker at the presentation. Burger is chairman of the Broome County Energy Commission in Binghamton, N.Y., which he says is "ground zero" for potential hydrofracking in the Catskills.

"I think it's the biggest environmental issue New York is facing right now," he said.

Ominously, the State Department of Environmental Conservation, which would have to approve any applications to drill for natural gas in Westchester and New York's watershed, is not commenting on the subject right now, a spokesman said.

In December, acting New York City Department of Environmental Protection commissioner Steven W. Lawitts released a statement condemning natural gas exploration in the Catskills.

"The known and unknown impacts associated with drilling simply cannot be justified," he said.

Dan Arthur, president of All Consulting, a Tulsa, O.K.-based company that deals with energy and environmental issues, said that any wells drilled in the Catskills would need to meet New York State's stringent rules.

"You've got a big process to go through to make sure environmental impacts are mitigated," he said.

He added that that Catskill Mountains are subjected to a host of other environmental blights from rusting gas stations to septic tanks.

"People seem to be so fixated on natural gas but the number of problems are pretty minimal," he said.

He added that he has heard from some experts who believe that the Marcellus Shale beneath New York is full of natural gas, and from others who believe that it is not.

The Marcellus Shale beneath New York stretches under a massive amount of the northeast from New York and Pennsylvania down to West Virginia.

Hydrofracking has wrought massive environmental damage in neighboring Pennsylvania. Arthur, the energy consultant, says New York has stricter laws.

The New York DEC website states that there are more than 13,000 natural gas and oil wells statewide, none of which have caused major water pollution.

The Web site also shows a statement from September 2008 saying that the department had received only "a handful" of applications to horizontally drill into the Marcellus Shale in New York State.

None of those areas are in the New York City Watershed, the statement said.

Leifer, of the Sierra Club, remains unconvinced. "This threatens not only our drinking water, but dairy ranches, fishing, vineyards and hiking in our region," she said. "The negatives outweigh the benefits 18 to one."

The meeting is at 7:30 p.m. in the Greenburgh Nature Center at 99 Dromore Rd. in Scarsdale, N.Y.

Admission is free. Call 914-723-3470 for more information.