Greetings:

Thousands of elected officials, environmental organizations and citizens have signed the coalition letter requesting Governor Paterson to withdraw the 9/30/09 draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) for Marcellus Shale Well Permit Issuance for Horizontal Drilling and High-Volume Hydrofracking.

Thank you so much for your support.

Please take immediate action to contact Governor Paterson via email, phone, fax or letter. Urge him to withdraw the draft SGEIS. It is imperative that you reach out to him until the dSGEIS comment period ends on 12/31/09.

Urge your family, friends and colleagues to take action too. Forward this email or post our Contact the Governor page on your preferred social networking site: http://toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/contact_gov

We will keep you updated as our efforts progress.

Email contact is best. The governor's email address is governor@chamber.state.ny.us

Please email us a copy of what you sent at info@toxicstargeting.com so we can maintain a record of all contacts.

Governor David A. Paterson
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
518-474-8390 (o)
518-474-1513 (Fax)
governor@chamber.state.ny.us

Make the following points succinctly and emphatically:

1. Governor Paterson must immediately withdraw the draft Supplemental GEIS (dSGEIS) because it is utterly inadequate to safeguard New York's environment and public health.
2. The Department of Environmental Conservation's (DEC) own spill reports document existing regulations have failed to prevent or to require the clean up hundreds of natural gas and oil drilling problems involving fires, explosions, polluted drinking water wells, home evacuations and massive drilling wastewater releases. DEC must not issue new gas drilling permits until those regulatory concerns have been fully resolved. That is why the Supplemental GEIS review must be restarted.
3. The draft SGEIS totally fails to propose a safe method of managing natural gas drilling wastewater and hydrofracking fluid. It simply leaves that task to localities. Improper management of natural gas drilling wastewater has already caused massive toxic pollution impacts. The SGEIS must solve this disposal problem before new natural gas drilling permits are issued.
4. DEC is woefully understaffed to cope with existing natural gas drilling problems. Only 17 staff are available to regulate nearly 7,000 existing natural gas wells. New gas drilling permits must not be issued until the SGEIS solves this problem.
5. The SGEIS fails to address critical issues associated with strict clean up liability, natural gas spill reporting, private right of legal action, insurance coverage and unfunded local government mandates. All those concerns must be addressed prior to the issuance of new gas drilling permits.

Share your other concerns with Governor Paterson. Please be respectful, but remember Governor Paterson has a duty to protect New York's natural resources and public health. That is why the draft SGEIS must be withdrawn.

Thank you for your assistance. Contact me if you have questions.

Onward and upward,

Walter Hang