Economic studies indicate that drilling in the Marcellus Shale will bring wealth to upstate communities. Certainly there will be some new jobs, Steve Coffman points out. There will be a spurt of supporting businesses and some people will see bonus and royalty income.

But communities will also see a need for more housing and public health and emergency services. Communities will face damage to roads and bridges and volatile real estate prices, Coffman says. He joined Ithaca attorney Helen Slottje, winery owner Joyce Hunt and John Benson in the Citizens for Healthy Communities-sponsored forum at Elmira Heights Theater on April 3.

Beth Miller, who moderated the forum, explained that the group is not against all drilling. “But the way it is done now,” she says, referring to high volume hydraulic fracturing, “is destroying our land and our rural economy.”

Joyce Hunt owns and operates Hunt Country Vineyards with her husband, Art. Their vineyards are located on the west side of Keuka Lake, just a few miles north of the disposal well Chesapeake had proposed for Pulteney. Hunt is concerned that natural gas drilling — and the waste associated with the process — will harm the regional economy.

Industry and regulatory officials insist that drilling technology, including hydraulic fracturing, is safe, Hunt says. “But 30 years ago the Department of Energy assured us that they could dispose of nuclear waste safely, and they still haven’t done that.”

Agriculture and tourism are the major industries in the Finger Lakes region, Hunt says. She notes that in 2008 the Pennsylvania gas industry contributed $2.3 billion to that state’s economy. “That same year the wine and grape juice sector alone contributed $3.76 billion to New York’s economy,” she says, adding that giving up agriculture for mineral extraction is a moneylosing trade in the Finger Lakes.

Economic studies rely on what can be measured, Steve Coffman says, but the connection between what a community was and what it hopes to be cannot be easily measured. When evaluating potential gain, Coffman cautions that people must consider the “real value of what we stand to lose.” Topping his list are water resources and the agricultural land use that makes the region attractive to tourists and residents. Surveys show that farms contribute to the character of this region and protect the open spaces people desire, he adds.

How can New York State promote first-class trout streams in the same area they hope to drill wells? asks Coffman. “Most of the fracking chemicals are toxic to fish.” Citing a safety data sheet from Multifunctional Surfactant F105, manufactured by Schlumberger, he says, “It warns that the product is hazardous to skin and eyes. Inhalation or ingestion can depress central nervous system, and it is toxic to aquatic organisms.”

The natural gas industry emphasizes that these additives make up only .5 percent of the fracking fluid and are contained in every day products, Coffman says. He calculates that 55,000 gallons of endocrine disruptors and other chemicals will be used to frack each well.

One industry projection calls for 40,000 wells to be drilled in New York State over the next decade. “That’s 2.2 billion gallons of chemicals,” says Coffman. He points out that the state could strive to retain its fishing streams and farms. “Or we can be a first-class producer of natural gas. But we can’t do both,” he says.

Hornby resident John Benson spent four days driving his pick-up truck through Bradford County, Pa., to get an idea of what residents south of the border are facing. “It really woke me up to what’s happening,” he says. “Some of the information coming from the companies is incredibly dishonest.”

There are eight energy companies drilling in the Bradford County area, Benson says. In addition, numerous businesses support the drilling industry by supplying gravel and pipes, hauling water to the drill site and hauling frackwater away. “The industry is monstrous,” Benson says. “It’s like the invasion of Normandy.”

Marcellus drilling hasn’t started in New York, but already some communities are seeing an influx of businesses that support gas drilling. Helen Slottje gave a quick PowerPoint tour of such industries currently located in Horseheads Center. Gas Field Specialists offers a wide range of rental equipment including backhoes, water pumps, frack tanks, storage tanks and mud pumps.

McJunkin Red Man (MRM) Pipe Yard provides gas transmission products. Kayden Industries provides centrifuges, tanks and other equipment for separating chemicals and particles from water, while their neighbor, Schlumberger Technology Corp., supplies equipment and chemicals for drilling gas wells. Just down the road Newpark Drilling Fluids claims that their water-based drilling fluids are environmentally- friendly and safer and easier to use.

Horseheads Center is actively wooing the gas industry, Slottje says. They promote the rail service to each building, easy access to major highways and “low cost utilities and labor.”

“But there is growing evidence that energy extraction is not the road to effective economic strategy,” Slottje says. At least not in rural areas. If drilling displaced agriculture, would communities benefit? Slottje compared the economic impacts of farming and drilling using “economic multipliers.”

An economic multiplier is a number used to estimate economywide impacts of industry-specific economic changes. The “multiplier effect” is often tossed around when economists discuss the benefits drilling will bring to a community. Drilling, economists predict, will bring money into a region and, as the money is spent, it will pass through the local economy a number of times.

The multiplier effect for the energy industry is 1.4, Slottje says, possibly because the workers are coming from outside of the community. In contrast, agriculture has a multiplier of 2.8. That means that farming generates more income in the local economies than drilling.

The biggest problem with economic studies in rural areas is their failure to factor in the loss of agriculture when they calculate economic gain, Slottje says. Lebanon Town Supervisor Jim Goldstein would second that. His town, he says, has not seen a dramatic increase in economic activity over the past few years of intensive drilling.

TAGGED WITH: environmental issues, gas drilling, Marcellus Shale, public health