New York‘s top environmental official assured lawmakers that an expected boom in natural gas drilling will be carefully regulated even as they raised concerns ranging from truck congestion to contamination of New York City’s water supply.

State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis spent much of his two hours before an Assembly hearing Wednesday promising that gas exploration along a wide swath of the Southern Tier and the western Catskills won’t happen unless it’s proven safe for the environment. The region sits atop the northern reaches of a massive but deep natural gas reserve called the Marcellus shale formation.

Energy companies have been snapping up gas leases from landowners for more than a year in the region, bringing predictions of billions of dollars of revenue along with dire warnings of environmental degradation.

Ecological concerns center on the massive amounts of chemically treated water shot into deep wells to release pockets of gas. Grannis’ agency is updating its mining regulations to deal with procedure, often called “hydrofracking” for the way it fractures rock.

Lawmakers wanted assurances that the million-plus of gallons of water needed for each well would not suck local water supplies dry, that the contaminated water that comes back up the well would not be left in pits that could be washed away in a flood, and that convoys of water trucks would not clog rural roads.

Grannis said those issues would be addressed in the agency’s environmental review due next spring.

“We are fully committed to doing a comprehensive and thoughtful review,” Grannis told the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee.

There have been no Marcellus drilling permits granted in New York.

The Marcellus land edges into New York City’s Catskill watershed. The city has a waiver from federal officials that allows it to avoid filtering that water, and city officials fear drilling in the watershed could threaten that waiver. New York City Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Emily Lloyd this summer suggested a 1-mile no-drill zone around reservoirs and other watershed infrastructure.

Paul Rush, a deputy commissioner with the city agency, told lawmakers Wednesday that hydrofracking “may pose great risks to the ecology of the surrounding area and to the water supply system.”

Rush said the city will hire its own consultant to look at the issue as it works with state environmental officials to fully understand the effects of drilling.

Source: Newsday