Will NY hearing debacle damage EPA’s cred?

By Bill Holland on August 11, 2010 12:12 PM

The Environmental Protection Agency’s inability to schedule and hold the final in a series of public hearings before kicking off its much-anticipated hydraulic fracturing study may be just the ammunition industry and pro-drilling landowners need to bury the concept of federal oversight of fracking.

Hearings were supposed to be held Thursday, August 12, at Binghamton University in Broome County, New York, smack in the middle of New York’s portion of the Marcellus Shale. On Monday, the EPA said BU was jacking the price up and hastily moved the hearings to Syracuse (outside the shale play).

The agency then had to cancel again when Syracuse officials and police said they couldn’t handle the crowds on two days’ notice. More than 5,000 people are expected to attend, testify, rally or demonstrate the advantages of hemp outside the hearing.

On Tuesday afternoon, the blame game was on. BU blamed the EPA for not realizing it would cost more than $6,000 to host thousands of bused-in fracking supporters and opponents. Syracuse blamed the EPA for the short notice. The EPA blamed everybody for not living up to their mission to serve the community.

But e-mails from local officials shown to local newspapers show the EPA’s contractors didn’t even start contacting folks on the ground in Binghamton until the last week in July, two weeks before game time.

This despite the fact that in the three previous locations EPA held fracking hearings — Fort Worth, Denver, and Pittsburgh suburb Canonsburg — they had overflow crowds. And those hearings were in largely “friendly” communities that have lots of gas drilling already.

It seems only a matter of time before any one of the industry power players in Marcellus Shale raises the question: Does the public really want a government agency that can’t even manage a meeting scheduled months in advance to regulate an industry that spuds and completes gas wells in a matter of days?

Which is a shame, because the real issue in New York and elsewhere isn’t just fracking. it’s industrial-strength gas development and its broader impact on the environment — something the EPA may be well-positioned to oversee.

A Talisman Energy executive noted on a conference call before the hearings Tuesday that where the industry needs to improve its performance are unromantic and unmysterious: well design and casing (to prevent gas migration into drinking water) and chemical spills on the surface.