LOCAL HYDROFRACKING BANS 637
For years, scientists knew of the Marcellus Shale’s potential
but were unable to harness the natural gas that lay underneath.^34
However, that changed with new technological improvements in
the process of hydrofracking.^35 In early 2003, a geologist
working for a gas company in Pennsylvania learned of a new
“fracking” process pioneered by oilmen in Texas.^36 It relied
more on water, and, while originally developed to save money,
it had the added benefit of being able to fracture shale more
effectively.^37 Larger companies saw the advantage of this new
hydrofracking technique and began to combine it with another
method known as horizontal drilling.^38 In horizontal drilling, a
well is drilled from the surface to just above the gas reservoir
where it is “curve[d] to intersect the reservoir... with a near-
horizontal inclination” maximizing the amount of natural gas
available.^39 These advancements gave companies the ability to
drill and extract natural gas from areas such as the Marcellus
Shale, once considered unreachable.^40
The process of hydrofracking consists of “pumping an
engineered fluid system and a propping agent (proppant) such as
sand”^41 along with other chemicals into a well to break up
underground rock formations to allow for the easier extraction
of natural gas.^42 The fluid involved in hydrofracking often
contains compounds such as biocide^43 to prevent bacteria growth
(^34) Lavelle, supra note 29.
(^35) Id.
(^36) Id.
(^37) Id.
(^38) See id.
(^39) Lynn Helms, Horizontal Drilling, 35 DMR NEWSL., no. 1, at 1, 1
(Jan. 2008), available at https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/newsletter/NL0308/
pdfs/Horizontal.pdf.
(^40) See Marcellus Shale, supra note 2.
(^41) N.Y. STATE DEP’T OF ENVTL. CONSERV., REVISED DRAFT
SUPPLEMENTAL GENERIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT ON THE OIL,
GAS, AND SOLUTION MINING REGULATORY PROGRAM 1-1 (2011) [hereinafter
RDSGIS], available at http://www.dec.ny.gov/data/dmn/rdsgeisfull0911.pdf.
(^42) See Marcellus Shale, supra note 2.
(^43) RDSGIS, supra note 41, at 5-50 tbl.5.6 (explaining that biocide is an
additive that “[i]nhibits growth of organisms that could produce gases
(particularly hydrogen sulfide) that could contaminate methane gas [and]