BLR: Turnabout

New York families sue gas driller Anschutz Exploration, say wells tainted

Posted on February 15, 2011 at 6:40 am by Associated Press

MARY ESCH
Associated Press

ELMIRA, N.Y. (AP) – Nine homeowners have filed a lawsuit against a Denver-based natural gas driller and its subcontractors, claiming the companies contaminated drinking water with gas and silt.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in state Supreme Court, claims that Anschutz Exploration Corp. was negligent in its drilling, construction and operation of two gas wells in Big Flats and that the company’s actions resulted in contamination to nearby water wells.

A spokesman for Anschutz did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

A state Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman would not comment on the lawsuit, but referred to a fact sheet DEC released in November. According to the fact sheet, the agency investigated resident complaints and found it unlikely the gas contaminating their wells came from drilling but was naturally occurring gas that could be dispersed by properly venting the water wells.

The company wells extract gas from the Trenton Black River shale formation 9,000 feet underground. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has launched a study of the impact of the extraction method, known as hydraulic fracturing, upon water supplies after concerns were raised in the Marcellus Shale region that underlies southern New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” taps into the gas by injecting chemical-laced water into the well bore at high pressure to crack surrounding shale rock. New York state has a moratorium on fracking until it completes an environmental impact study this summer.

In Pennsylvania, which is experiencing a natural gas boom, there have also been fights over whether the drilling process has the potential to contaminate nearby water wells. The Cabot gas company agreed in December to pay $4.1 million to 19 homeowners in Dimock, Pa., whose private wells were contaminated by methane gas migrating underground from a drilling site. Cabot denies responsibility for the pollution.

The New York lawsuit seeks unspecified compensation and punitive damages.

New York fracking lawsuit could set drilling precedent

REUTERS

Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:04am BST

* Anschutz Exploration files suit against town of Dryden

* Unincorporated town amended zoning to bar gas drilling

* State department has recommended end to NY drilling ban

By Dan Wiessner

ALBANY, NY, Sept 19 (Reuters) - A lawsuit challenging a small town's ban on natural-gas drilling could have implications throughout New York state, where officials are poised to approve a controversial drilling method known as fracking.

Privately held Anschutz Exploration Corp filed suit on Friday against Dryden, a rural suburb of Ithaca with about 13,000 residents that last month amended its zoning laws to bar all gas drilling within its unincorporated borders.

New York's Department of Environmental Conservation has recommended ending a year-long ban on drilling in New York, although a public comment period on the rules was extended this month following concerns that fracking contaminates underground wells and aquifers.

The Anschutz suit, which asks the state Supreme Court in Tompkins County to invalidate the amendment, is the first to test the legal implications of the state's move.

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves cracking open rocks deep underground with a blast of sand, water and chemicals to unleash natural gas and oil.

Anschutz, which controls more than 22,000 acres in Dryden, said New York's Environmental Conservation Law bars local governments from any regulation of drilling.

Officials in Dryden and other towns considering their own restrictions on gas extraction say the law prohibits them only from regulating the drilling itself and not from saying where or whether it can take place.

Kevin Bernstein, an environmental lawyer in Syracuse, said the intent of the law was to create a consistent regulatory scheme throughout the state.

"For there to be a hodgepodge of attempted regulation by municipalities would run counter to that original purpose," Bernstein said.

Dryden's amendment said it was "not directed at the regulatory scheme for the operation of natural gas wells" but addresses land use and nuisance concerns as well as concerns over health and the environment.

The amendment is well within the town's power, said Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, an Ithaca Democrat who has been an outspoken opponent of the drilling industry.

"If they wanted to say, 'We're going to require you to take the noise level down 50 percent,' or 'This is how you're going to dispose of waste fluid,' then you're regulating the industry, and that is clearly the prerogative of the state," she said.

"But saying we're going to not allow it at all is not regulating the industry itself."

Lawyers defending the industry disagree.

"The law says they can regulate roads and taxes, and that's it," said Tom West, Anschutz's lawyer.

"I'm sure some municipal attorneys will try to come up with other clever means to accomplish the same goal (of banning drilling) but we will argue if it prohibits drilling in any way, it's beyond their authority."

Dryden is not the first New York town to enact a drilling ban. At least a dozen local governments have passed some type of prohibition on gas drilling, but most are not likely drilling sites, so the industry chose not to litigate, West said. (Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Cynthia Johnston)