The Ithaca Journal 10/26/2012 Page : A01

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OWEGO — After three years in stateprison and theprospect of freedomashefaces a thirdmurder trial, CalvinHarriskept his emotions to himself.

Harris, 51, quietly bowed his headThursday afternoon as Tioga CountyJudge James Hayden ordered to set theOwego businessman free on a $500,000

property bond— the same one he postedin 2007.

Harris returned to court for the bailhearing, following an Oct. 19 state CourtofAppealsdecisiontoreversehissecondconviction for second-degree murder inthe 2001 death of his estranged wife,Michele.

His time in prison has provided agreatermotive to flee his latest prosecu-tion, Tioga County District Attorney

GeraldKeenesaidThursday,asheaskedHayden to remand Harris without bail.

But the judge sided with defense at-torney William Easton’s arguments thatHarris should be freed on the $500,000property bond.

“I don’t need to point out all the turnsthis case has taken over the past 11years,” Hayden said before making his

Harristo go freeon bailJudge orders murderdefendant releasedon $500,000 bond

before his third trialBy Anthony Borrelliaborrelli@gannett.com

See HARRIS, Page 6A

Calvin Harris arrives at the Tioga County Courthouse for a scheduled bail hearing on Thursdayafternoon in downtown Owego. CASEY STAFF / STAFF PHOTO

ON THEWEBSee morephotoswith thisstory ontheithacajournal.com.

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Steuben County is home to 619 un-plugged and abandoned gas, oil and oth-erwells that are a threat to public healthand safety, according to the head of anIthaca-based environmental databasefirm.

Another 41 of these wells are in Che-mung County, 46 in Tompkins County, 11in Broome County and seven in TiogaCounty, said Walter Hang, president of

Toxics Targeting Inc.They are among

5,046 unplugged andabandoned wells across38counties inNewYorkwhose locations can beidentified through aninteractive map postedby Toxics Targeting on

its website.The map also identifies groundwater

aquifers, surface water bodies and wet-lands, and provides aerial photos and

street grids.“These wells are known to be a seri-

ous problembecausemanyof themhaveleaked over the course of time and havecaused really extensive hazards,” Hangsaid. “They should have been investigat-ed and remediated years ago.”

However, thestateDepartmentofEn-

vironmental Conservation said Hang isbasinghisreportonbadinformation.Ap-proximately 925 wells shown on hismaps as unplugged or abandoned areneither, said DEC spokeswoman EmilyDeSantis in an e-mail to this newspaper.

The detailed online map is based oninformation culled from 25 years of an-nual reports from the DEC’s Division ofMineralResources obtained through theFreedom of Information Act, Hang said.

Abandoned gas wells dot regionActivist offers detailed map on company’s website of well locations in area counties

By Ray Fingerrafinger@gannett.com

SeeWELLS, Page 7A

Walter Hang

ON THEWEBwww.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/interactive_map.

ITHACA — Roger Sibley, longtime di-rector of the Franziska Racker Centers,announced his retirement Thursday.

Sibleywill retireat theendof theyearandwill bereplacedbyDanBrown,asso-ciate executive director.

“It is with a profound debt of grati-tude that the board of directors has ac-cepted Roger’s announcement,” boardPresident Howard Schler said in a state-ment. “Roger has carefully nurtured a

culture of inclusion that is at the heart ofthemany programs and talented staff atFranziska Racker Centers.”

Sibley, 66, led the agency for 33 yearsand worked closely with its founder,Franziska Racker, to expand the not-for-profit, which now includes sites in Cort-land, Tioga and Tompkins counties andserves 3,000 individualswith disabilitiesand their families.

WhenSibley started in1979, the agen-cy operated two sites with a staff of ap-proximately 35. Now, there are morethan 700 employees, 20 residential

homes and an annual budget of $27 mil-lion.

“Roger is known as a great leader inthis community,” said Brown, 52, whohasworked alongside Sibley for the past12 years. “He’s been a great mentor tome.”

Brown noted Sibley’s strong integrat-edandstrength-basedapproach towork-ing with individuals with disabilities.

“We don‘t look at what an individualcan’t do but rather what they can,”

Racker Centers’ leader Sibley retiresBy Shawnee A. Barnessbarnes@gannett.com

See RACKER, Page 6A

Roger Sibley holds the ribbon at theofficial opening of the Franziska RackerCenters’ renovated facility on WilkinsRoad on Oct. 12. FILE PHOTO

The Ithaca Journal 10/26/2012 Page : A07

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The wells threatenhomes, drinking watersources, water bodies andwetlands and can kill veg-etation in the SouthernTier, theFingerLakes andcentral and western NewYork, Hang said.

“They’re next toschools. They’re next tocritical water supplysources. They’re all overaquifers,” he said. “Thebottom line is people havenever been told aboutthese abandoned wells,and they are hither andyon.”

Citing the Division ofMineral Resources’ annu-al report for 2008, Hangsaid the wells can leak oil,gas and/or brine under-groundandcouldbeunde-tected for years. Wellshave been discovered inthe woods, alongsideroads, in residentialyards, playgrounds, park-ing lots, inside buildingsand under water, he said.

For example, accord-ing to one DEC report, awell in Rome in 1998 haddischarged brine at a rateof five gallons per minuteinto a wetland next to abrook and killed morethan an acre of vegeta-tion.

“Brine can cause wide-spread environmentalcontamination hazards,”Hang said, pointing outthat it typically has highlevels of dissolved solidsthat include a variety oftoxic metals — such asmercury, lead and barium— as well as petroleumhydrocarbons and radio-nuclides.

“This problem hasbeen acknowledged byDEC decades ago. Theyjustneverdealtwithplug-ging these wells becausethey basically don’t haveenoughmoney to do that,”Hang said.

The DEC said it takestake all complaints of wa-ter contamination seri-ously.

“By and large, com-plaints received by DECregarding potentiallyleakingwells haveprovento be from wells drilledbefore environmental

regulations were put inplace or were from natu-rally occurring sources ofcontamination,” DeSantiswrote in an e-mail. “In ad-dition, under the require-ments of the draft (Sup-plemental Generic Envi-ronmental Impact State-ment), there are multipleprotections andmeasuresrequired to safeguard theintegrity of New York’sdrinking water supplies.”

Hang says the DECdoes not have enoughmoney to fix the prob-lems.

“Plugging these wellscan cost anywhere from$5,000 to $50,000 per well,and as of 2009, they onlyhad, I think, $209,000 inthe dedicated fund,” hesaid. “This poses an in-credible liability prob-lem, for municipalities inparticular.”

This situation raisesquestions about whetherthe DEC is equipped toregulate hydraulic frac-turing for natural gas,Hang said.

“New York should notallow any shale gas ex-traction using frackinguntil all of these existingproblems have been fullyresolved,” he said.

The DEC has said itsreview of fracking isbased on a history of suc-cessfully regulating con-ventional drilling, Hangsaid.

“Beginning in 2008,they’ve been telling thepublic, ‘Oh, we’ve neverhad major problems. Wehave such wonderful reg-ulatory programs that theproblems that have beenidentified in other stateshaven’t happened here.’That’s a total lie,” Hangsaid.

WellsContinued from Page 1A

BY THE NUMBERSSome of New York’s 5,046unplugged and abandonedgas, oil and other wells, bycounty:» Allegany —1,343» Cattaraugus —1,071» Steuben — 619» Erie — 429» Chautauqua — 391» Tompkins — 46» Chemung— 41» Broome—11» Tioga — 7» Chenango— 6

Source: Toxics Targeting Inc.

Individuals charged with crimi-nal offenses noted in this col-umn will face a court proceed-ing to determine whether theyare guilty of the charges.

ITHACA POLICE» Joseph R. Kirby, 23, of Ithaca,was arrested Oct. 4 at 12:48 a.m.and charged with refusal to takea breath test.» Joaquin A. Jones, 21, ofIthaca, was arrested Sept. 29 andcharged with second-degreephysical harassment.» Claude Seymore Jr., 58, ofIthaca, was arrested Sept. 29 andcharged with second-degreephysical harassment.

» Latoya Elaine Peterson, 24,of Ithaca, was arrested Oct. 16and charged with second-degree physical harassment.» Anthony J. Fish, 20, of Ithaca,was arrested Oct. 15 andcharged with second-degreephysical harassment.» Teagen R. Barresi, 22, ofLansing, was arrested Oct. 13and charged with criminalmischief with intent to do harm.

TIOGA COUNTY SHERIFF» Glenn H. Guthrie, 41, ofWillseyville, was arrested Oct. 3and charged with third-degreerape. The charge resulted froman arrest warrant issued byTioga County court. Guthrie waspicked up by state police andturned over to the Tioga CountySheriff’s deputies and remandedto the Tioga County jail.

POLICEMONITOR