Parade of support for ban
The speakers included a couple of former or current municipal officials, several locally known singer-songwriters, one hydrologist, a number of prominent local activists and a man from Chenango County, where the brine has been used to deice roads and suppress dust on the local fairgrounds. The first speaker was Amanda LaValle, coordinator of the Ulster County Department of Environment. She spoke on behalf of the county executive, noting “he applauds the county legislature for its efforts” and “encourages other municipalities to do the same.”
Former county legislator and current New Paltz Town Supervisor Susan Zimet said the proposed law “is only the first step” and municipalities need to act to prevent the use of oil and gas well brine on roads. While the gas-rich Marcellus shale formation barely extends beyond Ulster’s western edge, another gas-producing rock formation, called the Utica Shale, does underlay the county, and Zimet said gas-industry reps were already “trying to get leases” in the Town of Rochester.
Zimet said a number of environmental groups and the Tompkins County legislature had signed a letter to Governor Cuomo “asking him to slow down” in the plan to allow hydro-fracking, which she encouraged legislators to sign.
Woodstock Town Councilman Jay Wenk said he hoped every other town in the county would follow the example of Woodstock and institute a ban on the use of brine on roads. (Speaker Sue Rosenberg, of Frack Free Catskills, said that her town, Saugerties, has also passed a similar law.)
Joan Walker said that the vertical-well production brine that the New York State Department of Conservation currently allows to be used on state roads and on county fairgrounds is “also radioactive and toxic.” She characterized the brine chemicals as having a number of toxic effects: many are carcinogenic, endocrine disruptors, and/or the cause of birth abnormalities and neurological disorders. “The DEC and energy industry say that fracking fluid is safe. I’d request that the county officials call upon DEC staffers and the energy industry reps to try drinking it themselves for good baseline end studies.”
