It's been a while since I've covered the lure of Cornell's $330+ MM Marcellus Shale holdings. Cornell (and New York State) still has yet to make a firm decision on the future course of action to be taken with these mineral rights, as the environmental concerns are still largely unknown. But as the New York Times reports, Ithaca is already receiving some of the environmental impact of hydrofracking, with none of the associated monetary benefit: "Hydrofracking impacts associated with health problems as well as widespread air and water contamination have been reported in at least a dozen statesm" said Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting, a business in Ithaca, N.Y., that compiles data on gas drilling. .. “We’re burning the furniture to heat the house,” said John H. Quigley, who left last month as secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. “In shifting away from coal and toward natural gas, we’re trying for cleaner air, but we’re producing massive amounts of toxic wastewater with salts and naturally occurring radioactive materials, and it’s not clear we have a plan for properly handling this waste.” In New York, the wastewater was sent to two plants that discharge into Southern Cayuga Lake, near Ithaca, and Owasco Outlet, near Auburn. In West Virginia, a plant in Wheeling discharged gas-drilling wastewater into the Ohio River.
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