The rapid expansion of natural gas drilling across the nation endangers human health and the environment.

The oil and gas industry is seeking to expand natural gas production across the nation, as new technology makes it easier to extract gas from previously inaccessible sites. Over the last decade, the industry has drilled thousands of new wells in the Rocky Mountain region and in the South. It is expanding operations in the eastern United States as well, setting its sights most recently on a 600-mile-long rock formation called the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from West Virginia to western New York.

Nearly all natural gas extraction today involves a technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which dangerous chemicals are mixed with large quantities of water and sand and injected into wells at extremely high pressure. Fracking is a suspect in polluted drinking water in Arkansas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, where residents have reported changes in water quality or quantity following fracturing operations.

In the Marcellus Shale region, drilling is already well under way in parts of Pennsylvania, as well as in Ohio and West Virginia. Communities in Pennsylvania, where outdated regulations fail to cover high-tech drilling, have seen some of the worst impacts of natural gas extraction, including exploding water wells, contaminated water supplies, foul air, and reported human and animal illnesses. Even when done in compliance with existing regulations, natural gas production brings with it toxic waste, diesel fumes, traffic and wall-rattling noise, and transforms rural communities into industrial zones. Stronger regulations are needed to ensure adequate protections from the risks of gas drilling, and to control the rate and scale of development.

Irresponsible energy development in the Rocky Mountain West is also taking a toll on public wild lands, which provide vital wildlife habitat and are a source of pure air and clean drinking water. These irreplaceable ecological resources are threatened by air pollution, habitat destruction and water contamination caused by the recent expansion of natural gas drilling. More than 25 million acres of wildlife habitat in the West have been leased by the Bureau of Land Management, and could potentially be opened to drilling. In one area of Wyoming, as drilling activity increased, mule deer numbers declined by 30 percent from 2000 to 2007.

Despite the risks to human health and the environment, New York State is rapidly moving forward to allow fracking in its Marcellus Shale region, which stretches from the southern tier of the state into the Catskills, and includes the west-of-Hudson portion of the New York City watershed. This highly sensitive landscape provides pure, unfiltered drinking water for more than 9 million New Yorkers.

Allowing fracking in this region without first taking a good, hard look at the risks endangers private water supplies, air quality and landscapes across the state. Other states, including Pennsylvania, are scrambling to put more protective regulations in place after drilling has begun, but New York is in a unique position to be proactive and protect the health of local communities and valuable natural resources.

NRDC is fighting to protect communities across the country from the pollution caused by natural gas production. By tightening loopholes in our bedrock environmental laws, banning drilling on sensitive lands and requiring the most stringent regulatory requirements wherever production does take place, we can help protect critical water supplies and other precious resources and keep our communities safe and healthy.

Copyright NRDC