NY DEC Message to Landowners in New York’s Watersheds: Forget About Drilling

These are the bald facts of life for New York landowners who own land in either the New York City or Syracuse watershed areas and may want to lease their land for Marcellus Shale gas drilling: Forget it. That’s the loud and clear message from NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis. After the DEC’s announcement of last week, no energy company in their right mind will be willing to drill in New York’s watersheds (although drilling companies currently drill safely in the Susquehanna River watershed in PA, and are trying to drill in the Delaware River watershed in PA).

Reaction from landowners in New York has been mixed. While some believe watershed landowners are being unfairly penalized, others think this may speed up the process of drilling for everyone else by removing a key objection to drilling—that drilling may contaminate city water supplies.

From a press release issued by the NY DEC last week:

April 23 - New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis today announced that due to the unique issues related to the protection of New York City and Syracuse drinking water supplies, these watersheds will be excluded from the pending generic environmental review process for natural gas drilling using high-volume horizontal drilling in the Marcellus shale formation. Instead, applications to drill in these watersheds will require a case-by-case environmental review process to establish whether appropriate measures to mitigate potential impacts can be developed. There are 58 pending applications for horizontal drilling in the Marcellus shale; no applications are located in either the New York City or the Skaneateles Lake watersheds (Syracuse utilizes the Skaneateles watershed).

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