“All the water that will ever be is, right now.”
National Geographic, October 1993

“When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water.”
Ben Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac 1733

Water is the most valuable resource on Earth and without it life as we know it would be impossible.  We are extremely lucky in the Catskills to have some of the purest, uncontaminated water on the planet.  But all that could change if fracking comes to New York State.

Recent scientific studies confirm that there is a serious threat to our water from fracking. In his peer-reviewed study released in April 2012, “Potential Contaminant Pathways from Hydraulically Fractured Shale to Aquifers” Tom Myers, Ph.D., a renowned hydrogeologist concluded that there are two potential pathways for the toxic waste from fracking to reach our aquifers.  One is through the normal process of advective transport (the transport of a mass of fluid through layers of rock) and the other is through fractures in the earth that exist in and around a fracking well pad.

Despite the fact that there is significant faulting in the rocks overlying the Marcellus shale, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has not studied faulting, even though it increases the transport rate for particles by 10x.  At a permeability (the measure of the ability of a porous material to allow fluids to pass through it) of 0.01m/day, the travel time from shale to surface is less than 1 year.

A recent study by Food and Water Watch, “Fracking: the New Global Water Crisis:, reported that drinking water can be contaminated throughout the life cycle of a fracked well; from spills of toxic chemicals before they are even sent underground to frack a well, to surface water pollution from leaks, blowouts, traffic accidents and other accidents, to the escape of methane and other contaminants below ground. They concluded that there is the potential for irreversible damage to vital underground drinking water resources over the long term.

We are considering contaminating our precious water supply at a time when our government’s intelligence services are telling us that in the future there will be the danger of wars erupting over water due to drought, floods and a lack of fresh water as a result of climate change. A U.S. Intel report released in March 2012 said, “We judge that as water shortages become more acute beyond the next 10 years, water in shared basins will increasingly be used as leverage; the use of water as a weapon or to further terrorist objectives, also will become more likely beyond 10 years.”

The current headlines are already giving us a preview of what the “fight” for clean water will look like.

At this year’s auction of surplus water by the Northern Water Conservancy District in Colorado, companies that provide water for hydraulic fracturing at well sites outbid farmers who normally “buy” the excess water that is diverted from the Colorado River Basin.  In addition to farmers not getting the water they need, the water that will be used for fracking is lost from the hydrological cycle forever.  Gary Wockner, director of the Save the Poudre Coalition devoted to protecting the Cache la Poudre River said, “Any transfer of water from rivers and farms to drilling and fracking will negatively impact Colorado’s environment and wildlife.”  The waste fluid that flows back from fracking will never be returned in any meaningful way to the aquifers, rivers, lakes and streams from which it was taken.

Hydraulic fracturing is negatively impacting the long drought in Texas.  Even though 2011 was recorded as the driest year in state history, millions and millions of gallons of water were diverted from agriculture for fracking.  The Huffington Post reported that the Texas drought cost $2 billion more than previously thought.

In the likely scenario that our national water situation grows worse, our pristine water supply could become an economic engine for our area, as people and companies look for water that they can’t find in other places.  Our uncontaminated water has the potential to create long-term jobs and profits that could dwarf the short-term profits that some will experience from fracking.

But this economic potential will never be realized if we let fracking contaminate our water.  This is one more reason why Catskill Mountainkeeper supports a ban on fracking in New York State.