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Hundreds of people are expected to pack an upstate New York auditorium Monday as the federal government enters the fray over "fracking", a controversial technique for natural gas production.

The hearing is the public comment portion of an ongoing Environmental Protection Agency investigation into whether or not hydraulic fracturing, a process that injects thousands of gallons of chemical-laced water and sand into natural gas wells, cracking the shale rock and allowing the gas to flow out, is safe.

Fracturing - or 'fracking' - has helped usher in one of the biggest energy booms in U.S. history. It's also generated fear over ground water contamination and other hazards.

"It's a trap," said Martha Robertson, a resident of Dryden, N.Y., who is traveling to the hearing in Binghamton on Monday. "If it comes to New York it will transform our landscape, our economy, and our way of life. I'm deeply concerned about going in this direction."

The hearing will be the fourth the EPA has conducted across the nation as it attempts figure out if fracking, which is expanding on a rapid scale in shale gas fields across the country, is safe.

Monday's meeting, where opposition to fracking runs the highest, was originally set for last month but was changed at the last minute. Security had to be reassessed because thousands of people were expected to show up.

People in New York sit atop the Marcellus Shale, one of the largest natural gas deposits in the nation which extends beneath Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

Thanks to higher prices and new technology, vast reserves of natural gas are now available. Over half the states have shale gas reserves. Large deposits are also found close to major cities like Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and New York City.

The size of this resource is massive, effectively doubling the nation's gas reserves, according to a recent study from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Investment money is pouring into the sector. Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) recently paid over $40 billion for a shale gas company, a sign that the industry has hit the big time. Shale gas production, virtually nonexistent ten years ago, now accounts for about a fifth of the country's gas consumption, according to the MIT study. It's on track to provide over half the nation's gas by 2030.

But extracting shale gas comes with a dark side. Producing the gas involves drilling deep underground and injecting massive amounts of chemical-laced water and sand to free the gas from a seam of shale rock.

People living near the drilling are afraid the process will contaminate their drinking water, and there have been several cases where the water supplies have been ruined. They are also shocked at the pace of development this industry is undergoing. Trucks and drilling rigs operating round the clock, roads widened, pipes laid.

Many people that live near shale sites want the drilling stopped until an EPA study is complete.

On Thursday, the EPA asked companies to disclose what chemicals they are injecting into the ground. Many people want more, including greater EPA oversight, more enforcement personnel, and greater treatment of the fluids when they are returned to the surface.

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