The hunt for new, clean burning natural gas has become a hotly contested issue.

Action News Reporter Reed Buterbaugh has more on a forum looking to educate the public on possible environmental damages caused by the drilling.

The Marcellus Shale thousands of feet under Broome County could lead to millions of dollars of revenue.

But some believe it could put the environment in danger.

"There are horror stories.""We don't think it has to go that way here in New York State."

Scott Lauffler is a member of the Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition, or BRSC.

It held this forum to educate the public on natural gas drilling.

Millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are blasted into the Marcellus shale to extract the gas from the rock.

There are concerns those chemicals could damage the water supply.

Bruce Baizel, an Attorney for the Oil and Gas Accountability Project says 30 to 60 percent of the water pumped into the ground is shot back up.

"People's wells blow off, literally. And then they can't, they can no longer use their water well so they have to have water trucked in."

He says much of the waste from fracturing the shale into gas, will have to transported to Pennsylvania because the Southern Tier doesn't have proper waste treatment centers.

"The trucks that hall that stuff off have an accident and then you've got a hazardous waste spill and if you get any of those situations into a city water supply you've got a problem."

The BRSC says its working with state leaders to address these issues.

"We've been looking at New York's regulations compared to other states and we don't see the level of detail in the New York regulations that we see in other states."

New York has put all drilling on hold, until it approves criteria for natural gas companies to abide by.

While the BRSC and the Sierra Club were at the meeting, representatives from the Oil and Gas industry were not invited.

Brad Gill, Executive Direct of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York says he wanted the chance to speak at tonight's meeting.

He says many municipalities throughout the state are holding meetings but the industry has been shut out.

He is calling for organizers of these events to be fair and balanced and to allow industry representatives to discuss regulations and barriers in place to prevent any environmental problems.