BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Hundreds of people on both sides gathered Monday for what are expected to be contentious public hearings on a federal environmental study of a natural-gas drilling technique aimed at tapping a rich formation beneath much of the Northeast.
Opponents of the process — hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — carried signs saying “Kids can’t drink gas” and “Protect our water. Stop fracking America.” Supporters carried signs that said “Yes to science, no to paranoia” and chanted “Pass gas now!” The Environmental Protection Agency scheduled hearings in Binghamton on Monday with more sessions scheduled for Wednesday.
The EPA is considering how broadly to construct its study of fracking, ordered last year by Congress after the agency’s 2004 study that declared the technology safe was widely criticized as flawed. That study had enabled passage of 2005 energy legislation exempting fracking from federal regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The drilling technique involves blasting millions of gallons of chemical-laced water mixed with sand into the ground and then horizontally to release natural gas from rock formations thousands of feet underground. Opponents say the process can poison drinking water, but the industry contends there’s no proof that fracking chemicals have contaminated drinking water.
The hearings come as a gas rush barely 2 years old is under way in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, with drilling companies tapping into the vast and lucrative Marcellus Shale region underlying those states, New York and Ohio.
Some geologists estimate the Marcellus might contain more than 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, of which 50 trillion cubic feet might be recoverable by fracking — enough to supply the entire East Coast for 50 years.
Its location brings drilling to a densely populated region and fears of water contamination of the Delaware River watershed that provides drinking water for 17 million people from Philadelphia to New York.
