BILL NUMBER:S6703

TITLE OF BILL:
An act to enact the "look before you leap act of 2012" relating to the
imposition of a 5 year moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing
for the purpose of conducting an investigation of the effect of hydrau-
lic fracturing

PURPOSE:
This bill seeks to place a 5 year moratorium upon hydraulic fracturing
in New York State in order to learn from the fracking experiences of
other states and particularly neighboring Pennsylvania and requires the
state university centers at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook
to conduct an investigation into the cumulative impacts of hydraulic
fracturing across the country, which is necessitated by the exemptions
granted to the oil and gas industry from major federal environmental
laws that protect our air, lands and water.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Establishes a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of
natural gas or oil for a 5 year period during which time the university
research centers in New York State shall conduct an investigation into
the cumulative impacts of this relatively new and rapidly expanding
technology.

JUSTIFICATION:
              

The relatively new drilling method known as high-volume hydraulic frac-
turing or fracking carries significant environmental risks. Among the
adverse environmental impacts associated the fracking such as heavy
truck traffic, road building and site clearing, the process itself
involves drilling into the earth and pumping millions of gallons of
water under high pressure into the ground that is mixed with sand and
laced with industrial chemicals which the industry is not legally bound
to disclose. The poisonous fluid fractures the shale and releases
natural gas deposits for collection. In addition to the chemically laden
water pumped into the drill site, highly corrosive salts, carcinogens
like benzene and radioactive elements like radium all can occur
naturally thousands of feet underground and combine with the fracking
fluids to create millions of gallons of highly salinated toxic wastewa-
ter.

Thousands of internal documents recently obtained by the New York Times
from the Environmental Protection Agency reveal that wastewater, which
is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it, is then
discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, containing radio-
activity at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the
level that federal regulators say is safe for the treatment plants to
handle. The NYT reports that pressure and influence from the gas indus-
try and lawmakers from states that support hydro-fracking have effec-
tively pressured the federal government to allow the industry unfettered
growth. Despite alarming accounts reported in the media from gas produc-

ing states across the country, the EPA has not intervened, in large part
because of the industry's exemptions and exclusions from federal envi-
ronmental protection laws.

Next door in Pennsylvania there has been a doubling of active wells from
36,000 in 2000 to 71,000 in 2010. Governor Tom Corbett has been quoted
as saying Pennsylvania will become the next Texas of the gas industry.
He has recently given new powers to the Secretary of Community and
Economic Development that give authority to override Environmental
Protection and other agencies if he thinks they are slowing Marcellus
expansion, despite over 1400 violations of environmental law that DEP
cited against gas drillers just last year.  The NYT further reports that
federal and state regulators around the country are allowing most sewage
treatment plants that accept drilling waste not to lest for radioactivi-
ty. However, most drinking water intake plants downstream from sewage
treatment plants in Pennsylvania that accept hydrofracking wastewater
have not tested for radioactivity since before 2006, even though the
drilling boom began in 2008.

Drillers in Pennsylvania trucked at least half of the wastewater to
public sewage treatment plants in 2008 and 2009 according to state offi-
cials but some of it has been sent to other states, including New York.

Despite the much anticipated EPA study concerning the impacts of hydro-
fracking on drinking water due out this year, recent reports by the NYT
suggest the scope of the study is being narrowed through gas industry
influence. New York State must continue to be vigilant where questions
of water quality and public health are concerned and must have all
available information before allowing a questionable practice such as
hydraulic fracturing to take place without fully knowing the potential
dangers. This legislation places a 5 year moratorium on hydrofracking in
New York State in order to benefit from the fracking experiences of
other states and to make an independent and reasoned evaluation of the
potential benefits and adverse impacts associated with this rapidly
expanding technology.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New legislation.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.

EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.