The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
The Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

Dear Governor Cuomo:

I have the honor of presenting a coalition letter with more than 1,500 signatories which respectfully requests that you withdraw the Marcellus Shale Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) because it is nearly five years old, lacks any current information whatsoever and would inadequately protect New York from fracking hazards.

See: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/letters/2014/6/23/coalition-letter-withdraw-sgeis

The letter also requests that you:

1) Halt your State Department of Health (DOH) “review” of the outdated “health impact analysis” in the Draft SGEIS;

2) Instruct DOH to undertake a comprehensive shale fracking “Public Health Impact Study” openly and transparently using all available current data; and

3) Require DOH and your Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to utilize the findings of the “Public Health Impact Study” to propose and adopt a new Generic Environmental Impact Statement. That is precisely what the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency recommended in 2009. See: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/sites/default/files/Marcellus_dSGEIS_Comment_Letter_plus_Enclosure_0.pdf
To achieve the goal of protecting New Yorkers from fossil fuel extraction hazards, the letter also requests that you:

a) Halt improper gas/oil wastewater disposal practices involving landspreading as well as brine pit dumping;

b) Rescind all New York State regulatory exemptions for gas extraction wastewater disposal; and

c) Adopt strict toxic clean up liability, private right of legal action and financial surety requirements to allow citizens to protect themselves in the absence of strict regulatory oversight.

Until this comprehensive plan of action has been implemented, the coalition letter requests that New York’s shale fracking moratorium remain in full effect.

As you will see, the signatories include a truly impressive array of elected government officials, physicians and other health care professionals, local business owners, environmental, community, energy advocacy and social justice organizations, farmers, academicians, scientists, religious leaders, artists, educators, lawyers and your constituents from all over our state.

I trust that you will find the letter self-explanatory, but please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss this request in person. I and other signatories would be willing to meet at your convenience.
Please note that you and your predecessor Governor Paterson have received at least eight other coalition letters which echo many of the fundamental requests in this latest coalition letter. For your review, I have provided below links to those letters. The total number of signatories for all the letters is nearly 50,000.

Thank you for your consideration and for your public service.

Very best regards,

Walter Hang

cc: Honorable Joseph Martens
Honorable Howard A. Zucker, M.D.
Withdraw Outdated Draft SGEIS coalition letter signatories

Coalition Letter to Governor Cuomo to Withdraw RD SGEIS (22,754 Signatories)
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/cuomo/coalition_letter/2011

Coalition Letter Requesting Governor Paterson to withdraw the Department of Environmental Conservation's Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) (10,450 signatories)
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/coalition_letter

Coalition Letter to Governor Cuomo Regarding Executive Order No. 41: Requiring Further Environmental Review of High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing Combined With Horizontal Drilling (5,254 Signatories)
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/cuomo/coalition_letter

Coalition Letter Requests That Formal Public Participation and Major Revisions for DOH Review of HVHF Be Adopted (2,299 signatories)
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/letters/2013/02/24/public-doh-review

Government Officials Request that Governor Cuomo Require Public Participation for DOH Review/Assessment (137 signatories)
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/cuomo/gov-coalition-letter/dec-2012

Letter to Fracking Panel Members Requests that DOH Review be Put On-Hold and That a Comprehensive Shale Fracking Public Health Impact Study be Undertaken (1,254 signatories)
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/letters/2013/10/17/letter-to-frack-panel

Coalition Letter To Governor Cuomo Requests Termination of DEC Shale Gas Rulemaking Proposal as well as a Restart of SGEIS Proceeding (2,971 signatories)
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/letters/2012/11/28/cuomo

Coalition Letter to Governor Cuomo: Oppose a Possible Southern Tier Fracking Demonstration Project and Require Full Enforcement of Executive Order No. 41 (3,077 signatories)
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/cuomo/coalition_letter/2012/demo-order-41