Honorable _____________
Assembly District ____
New York State Capitol
Albany, NY
Honorable ______________
State Senate District _____
New York State Capitol
Albany, NY
Greetings:
Marcellus Shale horizontal hydrofracturing could pose unprecedented pollution hazards from New York's Catskills to the Southern Tier to the Finger Lakes. More than eight million residents of our state drink water from that area.
In 2009, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation released a DRAFT Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DRAFT SGEIS) to regulate Marcellus Shale gas extraction. Those draft regulations received withering criticism and were deemed insufficient by Governor Paterson.
Just before leaving office, he signed Executive Order No. 41. It requires DEC to revise the DRAFT SGEIS in order to "analyze comprehensively the environmental impacts associated with high-volume hydraulic fracturing combined with horizontal drilling."
Given the acknowledged shortcomings of the DRAFT SGEIS, it is imperative that DEC expand the scope of its review to include all the latest scientific, technical and regulatory shale gas developments. Yet, DEC inexplicably wants to limit its review to concerns that were submitted to the agency prior to 12/31/2009.
Please find attached a link to a self-explanatory letter that was recently sent to Governor Cuomo about this concern. More than 60 Democrats and Republicans in the Assembly and State Senate are signatories to that letter. I respectfully request that you review it and become a signatory too. See: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/documents/letters/2011/04/...
The letter to Governor Cuomo requests that he require an immediate 30-day comment period to allow interested parties to advise DEC about all the environmental and public health issues that must be addressed by the revised DRAFT SGEIS.
Please join your legislative colleagues in becoming a signatory to this bipartisan effort to make sure DEC fulfills the Executive Order's requirements. Contact Assemblywoman Lifton to lend your support 518/455-5444.
Yours very truly,
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