Updated: NY ‘No’ Vote on Delaware Fracking: Would It Matter?

New York’s Environmental Conservation Commissioner is reportedly hinting that the state will vote “no” on fracking in the Delaware watershed.
But don’t celebrate yet, fracking opponents. Even if New York votes against it, fracking may nonetheless be green-lighted on November 21.
That’s when the Delaware River Basin Commission is scheduled to vote on fracking in the region of the Delaware, which provides drinking water for millions and habitat for one of the nation’s best wild trout fisheries.
The DRBC consists of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the federal government. If three of them vote “yes,” the DRBC can start issuing permits.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has already asked for a one-year moratorium to study fracking further. But Pennsylvania has embraced it and President Obama wants more domestic gas and oil production. Delaware (the state) is nowhere near the gas-rich Marcellus shale deposit and thus has nothing to fear if fracking goes forward (and arguably no good reason to oppose it.)

Update: I’ve just learned that Delaware, the state. gets a great deal of its drinking water from the Delaware watershed — no surprise, I guess — and so might have plenty to fear should the water be contaminated with fracking waste. So maybe Delaware will be a “no”?

Updated again Nov. 17: Delaware will in fact vote no. NJ and PA will reportedly vote yes. That leaves the Army Corps of Engineers to break the tie.

The wild card, however, is that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is suing the DRBC for considering approving fracking without sufficient study of its impacts.

Gas Driller Drops Plan to Tap West Branch Delaware

Citing public opposition and tight restrictions, Chesapeake Energy has dropped its controversial request to withdraw a million gallons of water per day from New York’s best trout stream, the West Branch of the Delaware River.

“In light of the limitations proposed for the project and the comments provided by various parties, we have decided to withdraw the application and reassess our approach to the situation,” the Charleston, W. Va. company wrote to Mark Klotz, chairman of the Delaware River Basin Commission, in a letter dated Oct. 20.

In September, when the company asked the DRBC to postpone a hearing on the project, it said it hadn’t had time to examine conditions the DRBC wanted to impose – “particularly with respect to the proposed pass-by flow.” The DRBC had planned to require the company to stop withdrawing water any time the West Branch got down to a flow of 250 cubic feet per second at the withdrawal site, about eight miles below Hale Eddy, N.Y.

The water was to have been used for hydro-fracturing, a method of drilling that permits access to what might be 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas trapped thousands of feet underneath Pennsylvania, West Virginia and southern New York.

Hydro-fracturing has been viewed with alarm by fishing advocates, who fear fragile trout streams will be seen as cheap and convenient sources of water. Each gas welll uses as much as 9 million gallons, and some experts predict thousands of such wells could spring up on the Marcellus Shale formation over the coming years. Hundreds of thousands of acres of private land have already been leased by energy companies hoping to drill.

Hydro-fracturing is also controversial because the water it injects into and then withdraws from wells is densely polluted with highly toxic substances. Groundwater contamination and fish kills from spills in streams have been reported in several states.