One of the nations largest gas companies, Chesapeake Energy, has opted against drilling for natural gases in upstane New York's watershed. Chesapeake Energy is the largest leaseholder in the Matcellus shale. This is a subterranean layer of shale that runs from New York to Tennessee. It is believed there is natural gas in the shale.
The problem is getting the gas from te shale. Getting the gas out includes a method called hydraulic fracturing. This method puts chemicals in the water and then the water is blasted down thr gas well. This will make the gas flow more easily. The problem is the water would be laced with chemicals and that water is drinking water for half the states population. This includes over eight million people in New York City and another million in Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess(where i live) counties. The problem with this is the water doesnt get filtered from the watershed. So nine million people would be drinking this water.
Even though this would put many people in danger, this wouldn't be illegal for Chesapeake to do. Because of the economic possibilities legislation in New York doesn't band drilling in the watershed. Enviromental groups are mostly to thank for the company not drilling. They put a lot of pressure on Chesapeake and Chesapeake didn't feel it would be worth the "headache." Enviromental groups are hoping this decision by Chesapeake will spark New York legislation to adapt stricter policies on drilling.
I think this is a great thing that Chespeake isn't drilling in the watershed. Despite owning the land and being legally able to, Chesapeake listened to the cocern of several worried groups and opted against the drilling. It shows there is still some integrity left in oil companies. Also had the company gone ahead and drilled the watershed I would have been directly affected by this. Since I'm from dutchess county, my family and I would have been drinking this water.
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Courtesy of John Heidenstrom:
I found similar information to that in Canada. With the rising oil prices from the Middle East it turns out that the United States is increasing its energy independents, or at least trying to. They are exploring many alternative ways to harness oil from nature all over North America. It sounds to me that the option that you explored has a similar problem to the one that I uncovered. That problem is that the procedure to extract the oil or natural gas ruins the area around it, and in your case pollutes the drinking water.
The type of natural oil field that I discovered is called (Tar Sands). All tar sands are is a large oily mud puddle. They are oil mixed with water, sand, and rock. I assume the situation is similar with the Chesapeake project that until recently to the harvest of this type of oil was to costly and would not produce a large enough amount in a timely manner. The rising prices of the oil that the United States buys from the Middle East, along with fact that the United States is so deeply dependent on imported oil rather than domestic. These types of projects are more important to look into at the very least.
The tar sands in both Canada and the United States are not a huge hazard untouched. Once they are harvested it is said that no life can be sustained within miles of the job site. Part of the reason for this is the waist products produced by extracting oil from Tar sands. The term for these waist pools is (Tailings ponds) and they are simply the waist materials from the tar sands oil refineries, and it to gets into the water of all the places around it.
Due to the fact that there are already project put in motion that have been extracting oil from tar sands people are already making a fuss about the environmental concerns of doing so. To prove that life can exist near a tar sands refinery the oil companies put a cow pasture right next to a refinery. What they don’t tell people is that each cow on these pastures has literally a team of doctors assigned to each one with the simple task of keeping it alive in the harsh living conditions around the refinery. Harmful chemical gasses are released into the air from the refinery, which is something that frequently happens. Before warning the public they airlift the cows to safety so that no one knows what is happening and the cows don’t die.
Obviously based on the information in Dylan’s Blog and mine, the rising fuel prices are not only an economic problem but an environmental one as well. In response to the high prices of oil abroad the United States is trying to reduce their dependent of foreign oil. By doing that they need to get oil domestically and they are learning just how environmentally and economically costly that can be.
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