The Daily Star was onhand last night to watch a Lake Otsego conservationist debate a drilling consultant about the science of fracking.
Win McIntyre, the "watershed coordinator" for the Otsego Lake Watershed Supervisory Committee, went first before the Otsego County Solid Waste & Environmental Concerns Committee. According to the Daily Star, he gave a detailed presentation about how the proposed buffer zones for gas drilling wells are about 6 miles too short and the potential pollution appears irreversible.
Then Steve Palmatier of Preston, who reportedly serves on a drilling committee in Chenango county and currently leases his land to drillers, took the floor:
``I'm not at all concerned about the high-volume hydrofracking process,'' he told committee members: reps. James Powers, R-Butternuts; Keith McCarty, R-Springfield; Richard Murphy, D-Oneonta; and Chair Stephen Fournier, R-Milford.
Then he took a stab at McIntyre's concerns anyway:
When gas drillers seal up a well, they pump in cement to seal the casings to prevent flowback water from contaminating wells or surface water, he said.
``I'm pretty sure they're pretty good at it,'' he said.
After the meeting, two of the committee members gave the Daily Star their reaction to the presentations:
After the session at the county Highway Department facility, [Stephen] Fournier and [Richard] Murphy said they were disappointed that the pro-drilling side had not been better prepared to address the concerns that McIntrye raised.
Update: This post has been edited to clarify that the Watershed Post did not attend the meeting.
