Tens of Thousands of Thanks: One for Every Comment Against Fracking
January 12, 2012
Riverkeeper Team
This morning, thanks to many of you, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) woke up to tens of thousands of comments on its flawed fracking proposal. Riverkeeper submitted three sets of comments, all of which conclude that New York State’s fracking proposal is too fatally flawed to move forward.
Riverkeeper submitted individual comments (pdf 180K) underscoring six fundamental flaws in the state’s fracking proposal that pose a major threat to the NYC Watershed and, in turn, the drinking supply for nine million of New Yorkers.
We also worked along with our coalition partners, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Earthjustice, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and a talented set of experienced experts to prepare over 600 pages of detailed technical comments (pdf 9MB) calling out some of the most significant deficiencies in the state’s draft fracking review and regulations. These range from the state’s failure to adequately address toxic and hazardous wastewater to its complete omission of the negative economic impacts associated with fracking.
The coalition also prepared detailed comments calling out the legal and policy problems (pdf 3.6MB) with DEC’s fracking proposal.
NYSDEC is obligated to review and prepare responses to all of the issues raised in the comments, which is likely to take months. In the meantime, there is still much you can do as we focus our efforts on persuading state legislators to take action on fracking.
Riverkeeper and its partners are organizing a Fracking Day of Action to lobby New York lawmakers at the state capital in Albany at the opening of the legislative session. Register, and plan to join us on Monday, Jan. 23, to tell the state legislature what you think of fracking.
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