SMYRNA – An advisory panel that met with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens in Albany last Thursday included Supervisor James B. Bays, D-Smyrna, via teleconference.

Bays is one of five new panel members added just days prior to the first of the DEC’s High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel’s seven planned meetings. The now 18-member panel is charged with making recommendations to ensure that the DEC, other agencies and local governments possess adequate resources to properly oversee and monitor all hydraulic fracturing activities as outlined in the preliminary revised draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement that was released in July.

A DEC spokesperson said the new members were added upon further reflection of the original panel’s make-up (formed with the release of the SGEIS) and after taking input from groups that questioned it. Bays, who has been designated to represent the New York State Association of Towns, said he couldn’t make the trip to Albany on such short notice.

According to the Smyrna supervisor, the DEC’s Division of Water, Minerals and Air dominated the panel’s discussion with a presentation of its resource needs, and the remaining time was consumed by people “talking in generalities” about air quality, the protection and safety of water resources, hauling and disposal of wastewater, road usage and drilling permits.

The DEC has been forced to cut more than 850 full-time positions since the recession took hold in the spring of 2008. Both Bays and NYS 51st District Senator Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, an original member of the panel, reported yesterday that additional staffing was recommended not only for the DEC’s main offices, but also for satellite offices in the field. No specific numbers were determined, however.

Libous said he suspected that DEC Region 7, with its main office in Syracuse and sub-offices in Sherburne, Kirkwood and Cortland, may have to add workers in the field.

“Obviously, if you look at companies already targeting Chenango, Broome and Tioga, there’s a good possibility that could happen,” he said.

Towns in those counties and others in Central New York began dealing with sandstone and limestone drilling-related issues long before high water volume hydraulic fracturing in shale became an issue.

Bays said he asked the DEC for logs of visits made to wells and well pads in Smyrna. He said, “It shook them up a bit.”

“If they really want to talk about impact and staffing up, let’s at least get a benchmark of what we have now,” he said Monday. “Santulli (referring to new panel member, Chemung County Executive Thomas Santulli) and I are going to have to really emphasize the local side, because there’s very little comprehension at that level (at the DEC and in Albany) about what it’s like down here at our level.”

Bays described his role of balancing towns’ differing interests as “quite an awesome task,” particularly in light of new road use ordinances and even drilling bans passed in towns that won’t even be targeted for natural gas because the shales are too shallow.

Bays said he would lean on members of the Chenango County Natural Gas Advisory committee for recommendations.

“Thank goodness I have them – Pete (Flanagan, D-Preston, committee chairman), Bradd (Vickers, Chenango County Farm Bureau President), Steven (Palmatier, economic development consultant) and the others – and I give credit to our county for having the vision to create such a committee so early on. We are definitely ahead on these issues,” he said.

Libous said the panel talked about the mistakes made in Pennsylvania, where drilling has been ongoing, and that the permitting process in New York would be “at a much slower pace” and “more environmentally responsible.”

“It’s an industrial activity that has a chance of mishap like any other. But we didn’t stop buildings from being built ... even when a person unfortunately died in accident ... We are going to try to limit companies to hopefully a zero tolerance. We have inspectors here (in New York). They weren’t doing that monitoring in Pennsylvania when a couple of casings were blown and fracturing fluid came back through.”