To The Editor:
Federal agencies regulate gas drilling on both federal lands and those held in trust for tribes which are often lumped together as “public lands.” As the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is developing new fracking regulations for federal lands, these will likely be applied to Indian lands. We don’t hear a lot about fracking on federal Indian land because much of it is west of the Mississippi.
However, the recent New York State-Oneida Indian Nation land claim settlement gives the Oneidas the right to take up to 25,000 acres of land into trust; could the Department of the Interior (DOI) put more land-to-trust? If so how much more land could be included in this federal land grab and be removed from the sovereign jurisdiction of the State?
The federal government recently announced plans to open up 600 million acres of Federal and Native American land for fracking and Obama’s executive order on Native American Affairs calls for promoting economic development “particularly energy” on tribal lands. This appears to encourage as much fracking as possible while doing little to protect the environment or our health.
The revised federal draft fracking regulations: 1. Expand “trade secrets” allowing well operators to avoid disclosing use of dangerous fracking chemicals. 2. Do nothing to prevent the industry from fracking wells right next to homes and schools 3. Have no requirement to collect and disclose baseline data on air and water quality. 4. Allow the industry to store contaminated waste in massive open pits. 5. Native Americans cannot opt out; fracking is under the control of the federal government.
Tribes are some of the largest petroleum developers in the United States. Some tribal leaders want the vast amount of money from the oil and gas produced on their reservations while other Native Americans are begging their leaders not to allow this extreme energy extraction method which is destroying their land and their tribal farming culture.
The leader of the Oneidas apparently wants gas drilling and purchased gas well leases through Ardent Resources as reported in 2004. A dozen water wells were contaminated by Ardent in 2007 in Brookfield, Madison County. And currently Ardent has a NYS DEC permit pending in Brookfield for a horizontal gas well. We should all be concerned by this.
I am apprehensive as to why Governor Cuomo approved the settlement knowing this may open Central New York to fracking. The Tribe will be free from zoning and other local government ordinances. The Oneidas could engage in any type of hydraulic fracturing on those wells regardless of the state moratorium and the DEC will have no regulatory authority. There will be lawsuits concerning this settlement which some feel was an illegal agreement.
Cheryl Cary
Canastota, NY