The New York Daily News editorial department doesn't want natural-gas drilling in the New York City watershed. Really, really doesn't want it.
Absolutely, positively and inscribed in stone, Gov. Paterson must bar any thought of putting the city water supply at risk by allowing natural gas drilling a hop, skip and a jump from the banks of upstate reservoirs.
[img_assist|nid=16057|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=150]The editorial goes on to call the DEC's draft environmental impact statement "off the wall," "playing Russian roulette with the drinking supply," and a product of "gas fever." It's a little more colorfully worded than the New York Times's Jan. 2 editorial on the topic, but the same general sentiment.
Meanwhile, the Times Herald-Record's editorial department would like to remind 9 million New York City residents that the rest of us drink water, too--and it comes not from the city's vast reservoirs, but from thousands of smaller wells, ponds and water systems that will still be vulnerable if the city gets a ban on drilling in the watershed.
They are just as susceptible to pollution, just as vulnerable to the threat of wastewater improperly stored or treated, and even more susceptible to the lingering damage to roads and fields from the drilling equipment ranging over such a wide area....It is impossible to say that one is worth protecting while the other is not, yet that seems to be what is happening in the state.
Image credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/snapr/ / CC BY 2.0
