Bill to Regulate Water Withdrawals Moving Through Legislature
DEC permit system would be established
Binghamton NY PressConnects.com
2 May 2011
ALBANY -- Legislation that would establish a permit system for massive
water withdrawals from New York's streams and rivers is flowing through
the Legislature.
The bill would give the state Department of Environmental Conservation
the authority to regulate withdrawals over 100,000 gallons. It was set
to pass the Assembly late Monday, according to Assembly Environmental
Conservation Chair Robert Sweeney, D-Suffolk County.
His counterpart in the Senate, Buffalo Republican Mark Grisanti, said
he believes his chamber will do the same "at some point soon."
Most environmental groups supported the bill, but others -- including
Shale Shock and the Coalition to Protect New York -- expressed concern
that it would infringe on the state's "riparian rights," which allows
property owners to have fair use of waterways adjacent to their land.
DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens, who supports the bill, said it is
meant to close a loophole in the state's regulatory system, and
protects the current rights.
"Right now, anyone who wants to withdraw huge amounts of water in 70
percent of the state of New York doesn't have any regulation on them,"
Martens said. "By putting a water bill in place, one of the things that
DEC is going to be looking at is existing users -- people who now use
the resource -- and hopefully protecting them."
The other 30 percent of the state is regulated under different
programs, such as the Susquehanna River Basin Commission and the Great
Lakes Compact.
While the legislation isn't industry-specific, natural-gas companies
are hoping to tap into the state's portion of the Marcellus Shale and
will need millions of gallons of water for high-volume hydraulic
fracturing, a controversial technique used to break tight rock
formations and release gas. That type of hydrofracking is on hold in
New York as the DEC constructs its permitting guidelines.
The Independent Oil & Gas Association has not taken a position on
the bill, but it has been supported by the state Business Council.
Sweeney also introduced a bill in the Assembly on Monday that would
extend the current hydrofracking moratorium to June 2012. A few hundred
people crowded the Capitol on Monday calling for an outright ban, but a
temporary moratorium would likely have an easier time receiving
legislative support.
Grisanti, who heads the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee,
wasn't keen on the idea. He said he expected it would be defeated in
his committee, if it got that far.
The DEC is scheduled to release its recommendations this summer on its
review of natural-gas drilling, which is currently banned.
"I think the answer is more along the lines of whether it's safe or
not, and coming up with the necessary safeguards to put in place,"
Grisanti said. "You're kind of putting the cart before the horse if you
put a moratorium in place before the (DEC) study results come back."