By DAVID BERTOLA
dbertola@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1621

Although the the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation essentially ended a drilling moratorium of the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale throughout the state, there are still questions to be answered.

On July 1, the DEC released a report to Gov. Cuomo that lifted the state's ban on the controversial hydraulic fracturing procedure for extracting natural gas. The report included revised recommendations on mitigating environmental impacts of the process - also referred to as "hydrofracking" - and recommends that 85 percent of the shale would be available for natural gas extraction.

"Eighty-five percent of what we've got under our feet in New York is enough to keep us busy for a while," said Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association.

Its membership has always supported a tough but fair regulatory structure, he said, and the new regulations will be more difficult to follow.

"(The report) has taken a set of regulations that was already very comprehensive to a whole new level," Gill said. "They will be difficult to comply with, but we will be able to."

Hydrofracking opponents have argued that drinking water supplies could be jeopardized through the process, which uses a combination of a high volume of water and chemicals to fracture a rock layer and extract the gas.

But the DEC has built-in safeguards to protect aquifers. A 26-page executive summary of the Preliminary Revised Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program said two aquifers - one in Syracuse and another in New York City - have been designated Filtration Avoidance Determinations.  

DEC spokeswoman Emily DeSantis said these are the only two unfiltered sources of drinking water in the state.

Additionally, 18 other New York aquifers have been identified by the state Department of Health as highly productive and used as water supply sources. These are designated as "primary aquifers" and, according to the DEC website, include those in Olean, Jamestown, Salamanca and Tonawanda.

Because these aquifers are the primary source for many public drinking water supplies, the department recommends in the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement that site disturbance relating to high-volume hydrofracking operations should not be permitted there or within a 500-foot area around them.

Katherine Nadeau, a spokeswoman for  the advocacy group Environmental Advocates of New York, said: "We have major concerns, but the state is taking some good steps here, as well."

DeSantis said more research is being conducted and is expected to be complete by the end of July.

By the end of August, she said, the Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement will be updated to include it. Around that time, a 60-day public comment period will begin.

No permits will be issued to drill the shale until the public comment period has ended and the environmental impact statement is final.

Nadeau said her group is excited about the new DEC regulations but timing is also an issue.

She said she would rather see regulations and a means to enforce them in place before permits are issued.