The Westchester County (NY) Board of Legislators has called for a ban on proposed natural gas drilling in the Catskill-Delaware watershed region of the Marcellus Shale play. The board also called on New York’s governor and Department of Environmental Conservation to place a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing throughout the state.

The legislators’ resolution, which was unanimously approved, encourages the banning of hydraulic fracturing within the areas of the Marcellus that coincide with the Catskill and Delaware watersheds, where New York City and Westchester get 80-90% of their drinking water, the legislators said. The ban should be in place until there is a “further comprehensive and independent review of the [hydraulic fracturing] technology,” according to the resolution.

“There are just too many unanswered questions about the safety of this technology, the chemicals used in the process, the amounts of water used and contaminated, as well as other risks to the environment,” said Peter Harckham (D-Katonah), who chairs the board’s energy and environment committee and sponsored the resolution.

Water from the Catskill and Delaware watersheds is unfiltered due to a “filtration avoidance determination” from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Lawmakers fear that hydraulic fracturing permit conditions could allow operations to proceed without providing adequate safeguards for Westchester and New York City drinking water supplies.

If water quality was sufficiently compromised, the EPA could lift its determination, requiring New York City to build a water filtration plant estimated to cost at least $10 billion to construct and hundreds of millions of dollars to operate annually (see Daily GPI, April 27). Those costs would get passed onto Westchester residents as Westchester purchases its water from the city, the legislators said.

The board also said it opposes the state’s preemptory power over local governments regulating the gas and mining industries. “Aside from the issues of toxic chemicals threatening the water supplies of millions of people and other potential environmental degradation,” said Harckham, the New York state “Environmental Conservation Law supersedes local regulation of oil and gas, preventing localities from controling gas and oil well drilling operations in their own neighborhoods — and we have a serious problem with this breach of home rule.”

Westchester joins other New York state counties, such as Tompkins, Cortland and Onondaga, in calling for a hold on drilling until more information on hydraulic fracturing is made available.

Pennsylvania state lawmakers also have sought a hold on drilling in their state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale (see Daily GPI, June 23). The backlash to gas shale drilling — and hydraulic fracturing specifically — is occurring while the anti-hydraulic fracturing film Gasland is airing on Home Box Office.

While the film won a special jury prize in the documentary category at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, the gas industry is not impressed. The Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York said, “Outrageous inaccuracies are prominently featured in this new anti-drilling documentary.

“Independent filmmaker Josh Fox misleads his audience and takes enormous liberties with history and fact in his new, sensationalized ‘documentary,’ in which he chronicles his cross-country trip to find incidences of pollution by oil and gas operators. Energy In Depth, a respected industry trade group, broke down the movie minute-by-minute to counter the false claims, assumptions and ridiculous conclusions Fox made during his journey.”

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