Ball, Fox Screen Film in Peekskill
Continuing his effort in raising awareness about the affects of hydraulic fracturing, state Sen. Greg Ball joined Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Josh Fox for a screening of his film “GASLAND” at the Peekskill Neighborhood Center this past Saturday.
Following a press conference outside Mount Kisco Village Hall last Monday, Ball made his second attempt in less than one week to forewarn Gov. Andrew Cuomo of the horizontal drilling process known as fracking. The state senator and filmmaker joined efforts back in August, when Ball toured Bradford County in Pennsylvania, a region ripe with fracking drills and natural gas wells.
“I made my film because I wanted to give that direct experience of living in those gas-drilling areas to people in my local area, that was the point,” Fox said. “Not everyone can actually go to those places where this is happening—Greg Ball did that.”
Though the film is set primarily in the Midwest and Pennsylvania, Fox and Ball agreed that fracking is on the doorstep of New York State. Lawmakers are now faced with the challenge of creating regulations in order to protect the state’s watersheds, with legislation on the line that could potentially create buffers to underground water pipes, aqueducts, aquifers and other avenues of water supply.
The regulatory process also calls for a public comment period, where residents from a widespread range of communities across New York can become involved in recommendations to help adequately protect the state’s water supply. Ball said he believed the public’s input period should be extended another 180 days and that Cuomo should take a trip to Pennsylvania to see the affects of drilling on fracking communities.
“Every elected official in New York State has a responsibility to themselves and the people they represent to become educated on this issue,” Ball said. “The future of our land, our homes, our children and our environment is too important to risk.”
Fox’s film focuses on the lack of regulation companies experience in order to establish drills and wells in small town communities located above the Marcellus Shale, a large rock formation known for its abundance of natural gas. New York, which saw the end of its drilling moratorium this past summer, is now exploring ways to balance this opportunity for economic development while protecting the rights of private property owners.
On July 1, the New York State Department of Environment released revisions to its initial recommendations for regulations regarding hydraulic fracturing. According to the report, no permits would be issued for sites within 500 feet of a private water well or domestic use spring or within 2,000 feet of a public drinking supply wells or reservoirs. The recommendations also call upon the state to implement a ban on high-volume fracking within New York City and Syracuse watersheds.
For Ball and Fox, this drilling should be part of a nonpartisan campaign that sees fracking not in red or blue, but in terms of the gray haze that contaminates the air and water.
“We went into homes and some of those homes were Democrats and some were Republican and I have never discriminated at all in terms of who I met with and talked to and interviewed, because gas contamination doesn’t discriminate either,” Fox said. “This should not be a partisan issue, this is a public health issue.”
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.