Bill to Regulate Water Withdrawals Moving Through Legislature

DEC permit system would be established

Binghamton NY  PressConnects.com
2 May 2011

ALBANY -- Legislation that would establish a permit system for massive water withdrawals from New York's streams and rivers is flowing through the Legislature.

The bill would give the state Department of Environmental Conservation the authority to regulate withdrawals over 100,000 gallons. It was set to pass the Assembly late Monday, according to Assembly Environmental Conservation Chair Robert Sweeney, D-Suffolk County.

His counterpart in the Senate, Buffalo Republican Mark Grisanti, said he believes his chamber will do the same "at some point soon."

Most environmental groups supported the bill, but others -- including Shale Shock and the Coalition to Protect New York -- expressed concern that it would infringe on the state's "riparian rights," which allows property owners to have fair use of waterways adjacent to their land.

DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens, who supports the bill, said it is meant to close a loophole in the state's regulatory system, and protects the current rights.

"Right now, anyone who wants to withdraw huge amounts of water in 70 percent of the state of New York doesn't have any regulation on them," Martens said. "By putting a water bill in place, one of the things that DEC is going to be looking at is existing users -- people who now use the resource -- and hopefully protecting them."

The other 30 percent of the state is regulated under different programs, such as the Susquehanna River Basin Commission and the Great Lakes Compact.

While the legislation isn't industry-specific, natural-gas companies are hoping to tap into the state's portion of the Marcellus Shale and will need millions of gallons of water for high-volume hydraulic fracturing, a controversial technique used to break tight rock formations and release gas. That type of hydrofracking is on hold in New York as the DEC constructs its permitting guidelines.

The Independent Oil & Gas Association has not taken a position on the bill, but it has been supported by the state Business Council.

Sweeney also introduced a bill in the Assembly on Monday that would extend the current hydrofracking moratorium to June 2012. A few hundred people crowded the Capitol on Monday calling for an outright ban, but a temporary moratorium would likely have an easier time receiving legislative support.

Grisanti, who heads the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, wasn't keen on the idea. He said he expected it would be defeated in his committee, if it got that far.

The DEC is scheduled to release its recommendations this summer on its review of natural-gas drilling, which is currently banned.

"I think the answer is more along the lines of whether it's safe or not, and coming up with the necessary safeguards to put in place," Grisanti said. "You're kind of putting the cart before the horse if you put a moratorium in place before the (DEC) study results come back."