By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN WEST — Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer will continue his crusade against upstate gas drilling that he believes could pollute New York's water supply in a panel discussion April 1 at John Jay College.
Stringer will co-sponsor the talk with NYH20, a non-profit formed in response to a proposal from state lawmakers to allow companies to drill for gas upstate in the Marcellus Shale.
Experts on the panel, including Albert Appleton, former commissioner of the city Department of Environmental Protection, and Deborah Goldberg of Earthjustice, will explain how possible gas exploration could affect residents.
The event is part of a larger effort attempting to block the proposal and use of hydraulic fracturing, or "hydrofracking," which uses a mixture of chemicals to break up rock and allow natural gas to escape more easily.
Stringer has been rallying local community boards to fight against the drilling, and residents protested the plan at a November hearing of the Department of Environmental Conservation, arguing the drilling would irrevocably pollute the environment.
But the 489 trillion cubic feet of gas located under the rock formation is enough to supply the entire United States for 20 years, a lucrative proposition for New York.
Roughly 9 percent of the Marcellus Shale sits beneath the state’s watershed, which provides the city with 90 percent of its drinking water.
Because of an exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act, gas companies like Halliburton are not required to reveal the names or concentrations of the estimated 250-plus chemicals used in hydrofracking.
Stringer’s discussion will take place at 7 p.m. this Thursday at John Jay College’s Gerald W. Lynch Theater at 899 10th Ave., near 59th Street.
