Tests Show No Impact from PA Drilling on Binghamton Water

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zero impactBinghamton, NY’s failed mayor, Matt Ryan, now has the answer to his question direct from the laboratory he hired (with taxpayer money) to test Binghamton’s water: Drilling in Pennsylvania has had zero impact on Binghamton’s water supplies which come from the Susquehanna River.

Even with irrefutable scientific evidence that drilling doesn’t pollute the Susquehanna, don’t expect Ryan, an ideologically-driven leftist, to shut up on the topic of fracking. He won’t let something like science get in the way of a good political issue.

The results are in: Nothing indicates natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania has affected the city’s water supply.

Following a request by Binghamton Mayor Matthew T. Ryan for special testing, the city recently received laboratory data showing no discernible effects on the city’s public water supply from hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Pennsylvania.

“Right now, there’s absolutely nothing to be concerned about,” Ryan said of the results. The city’s Water and Sewer Department will continue the tests, he added, “so they can continue to monitor and see if there’s any changes.”

The concerns stem from a W-shaped portion of the Susquehanna River that flows through northern Pennsylvania for 15 miles before re-entering New York state and continuing west to the City of Binghamton. There are more than 100 active natural gas wells in a six-township area of Susquehanna County surrounding the river, although many have not been hydraulically fractured and only one well pad is within a mile of the waterway.

Five chemical compounds associated with hydrofracking were not present at detectable levels in the city’s water supply, the test results show. A fifth was detectable, but at levels below the national average for public water supplies.

Ryan said the city will continue the testing regimen to establish a baseline of data in case there are any changes, and that he spoke recently with Joseph Martens, commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, about whether the state should become involved.

“He (Martens) said they were aware of those complaints and that he was going to get me some information about what they plan to do, if anything, about it,” said Ryan, a prominent critic of hydrofracking in New York. “Hopefully they will do something to check out the situation and figure out if there is a problem there."*

*Ithaca (NY) Journal (Nov 24, 2012) – Testing clears Binghamton water of fracking impact