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New York To Ban Natural Gas Drilling Technique?

Posted 12/03/2010 8:30 am by

In a controversial industry, it’s one of the most controversial practices undertaken by miners.  Dubbed “fracking” or “frac’ing,” it’s a natural gas mining technique called hydraulic fracturing, in which high-powered streams of sand, chemicals, and water are shot into shale formations thousands of feet below the surface of the earth.  This stream breaks up the shale and allows natural gas to flow freely to the surface, where it is captured and bottled by gas miners.  It’s incredibly efficient, but concerns about how hydraulic fracturing may contaminate groundwater supplies have led New York State to consider a moratorium on hydraulic fracture natural gas mining.

The technique has been used in the United States since 1949, but like a lot of things from that time, it hasn’t been subjected to rigorous environmental safety studies.  Hence New York Governor David Paterson’s reluctance to continue using it in a state in which environmental regulations have worked hard to improve quality of groundwater.  The Delaware River has been left highly contaminated by hydraulic fracturing operations in the nearby shale; the FDA is expected to study the groundwater risks of hydraulic fracturing and issue a decision on the practice in 2012.

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