New York City officials want to ban natural-gas drilling within a mile of six major upstate reservoirs for fear that the city's drinking water could become contaminated. Extracting gas from the Marcellus Shale rock layer, as some state regulators and lawmakers are pushing to do, would require shooting millions of gallons of water and unidentified chemicals underground to break up the rock. Similar drilling in other states has caused more than 1,000 wastewater spills that have tainted drinking-water supplies. The pristine water that quenches the thirst of 9 million New Yorkers requires no filtration; if it became tainted, a water-treatment facility could cost nearly $10 billion -- approximately the same amount that the state estimates it could earn from natural-gas development in the next 10 years.
source: ProPublica
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Comments View as Flat
WWAGD?! Posted 9:38 am
06 Aug 2008
H2 to the rescue
Using water to generate H2 provides as a by product the purest water that one could hope for.
Any city close to a water source of any quality -- even seawater -- can create the finest and purest water -- all the while powering the engines of commerce!
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OneDndyLyon Posted 10:55 am
19 Sep 2008
Standing On The Shale
I'm not an advocate of drilling for anything.
My brother owns 50 acres and is looking to sign a lease with one of the many companies courting all upstate NY and PA landowners.
From what he has learned, many of these companies employ a "closed loop" technology.
Since water is more and more expensive, and even costlier to clean, they have found a way to reuse this water and move it from site to site, rather than single-use options of millions of gallons each time.
Plus, during drilling, there are 3 separate encasements for the drill to be housed in, to avoid ruining water tables - if it ruins a water well, it ruins the gas one as well. That's pricey for them.
If landowners are smart - which too many aren't - they will force these gas companies to expose themselves to huge environmental liabilities through the leases they sign.
It's not fail-safe, but protections can occur.
As for NYC's water - talk to upstate NY'rs about NYC water and you'll hear many who could care less. Upstate pays for NYC's waste of that pure water they deem so precious. But that's another story entirely.
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