The Department of Health is in negotiations with outside experts to help assess the state’s report on shale-gas drilling and is expected to reach a contract agreement “soon,” according to New York’s top environmental regulator.
Joseph Martens, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, told reporters Friday that the specifics of the health review are still being figured out. It is “to be determined” if that review will be completed before Nov. 29, a key deadline that—if missed—would require the DEC to reopen its proposed hydrofracking regulations to public comment.
Martens announced last month that state Health Commissioner Nirav Shah would assemble a panel of experts to review the DEC’s report on hydrofracking. That report, a set of permitting guidelines known as the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, has to be finalized before permits for large-scale hydrofracking can be issued in New York. It was first launched more than four years ago.
“We still don’t have contracts with (the outside experts) yet so it’s not 100 percent certain at this point what the exact scope is going to be, but they’re going to review the health portions of the SGEIS and how we’ve addressed health impacts in the mitigation measures,” Martens said Friday after speaking at a Business Council conference.
A final report on the DEC’s steps for preventing health impacts from shale-gas drilling will be prepared by Shah, Martens said. He declined to say whether he believes the DEC will hit the Nov. 29 deadline to finalize its regulations, but did say that it’s “possible.”
“That all depends on whether we finalize things sooner rather than later,” Martens said. “If we finalize them later, then we may have to go back for public comment. It really depends.”
Here’s video of Martens’ chat with reporters:
6 Comments
I can’t allow the language being used to stand without commenting. “Health impact” does not do justice to what is really at stake: with fracking, human beings will be exposed to radioactive waste material in air and water, respirable crystalline silica in the air, diesel contaminants from 1000’s of trucks, compressors, pumps and generators, ozone, unrelieved stress and strain 24/7 where people live, worry and fear about accidents and contamination and loss of safety. These fears are real and substantial and should not be discussed as “health impacts” and dismissed—as though this is a simple and small aspect of allowing gas drilling in people’s neighborhoods. A comprehensive and independent study of human health and safety is called for and cannot be rushed.
It is difficult to imagine that DOH could do a thorough job of review of whatever DEC has been doing in just over a month and that DEC could issue the regs with appropriate revision for what sound like substantial changes in the SGEIS. DEC and the governor have been furnished with letters and comments from doctors, other health personnel, and from the general public on the need for a Health Risk Assessment. The public has also commented at length on several other major flaws in the second draft of the SGEIS, yet Mr. Martens seemed to indicate that the public will not be allowed to see these changes until the SGEIS is finalized. Why can’t we be allowed to see what the DEC is proposing? I also wonder how much of this material being kept confidential has been discussed with the gas industry.
I think it is important not to be hung up on the Nov. 29 date and to do this right. Hopefully the DOH will carefully measure what DEC gives them against the information provided by medical and health experts, against what has happened in other areas of the country, and against documents like http://www.grassrootsinfo.org/summaryreport.pdf
This so called ” comprehensive health report” will be anything but, since it using information from the exceedingly flawed SGEIS, which uses data supplied by the fracking industry!! We need to demand FULL DISCLOSURE!!
A thorough, independent, and peer-reviewed health study (which is warranted in this case) can not be accomplished by November 29. Only a back-of-the-envelope glance could be accomplished so fast. The health risks from fracking (radiation, methane, noise, cultural upheaval, etc.) are long-term, difficult if not impossible to reverse, and far too complicated to be taken lightly. If a decision is reached by November 29, the impetus behind that decision will be clear; and that impetus will not be an interest in the health of the citizens of New York State.
It is alarming that Commissioner Martens says it might be possible to complete a truly effective health impact study on hydrofracking by the November 29th deadline.
There are so many very serious health concerns to address that a truly effective health impact study, a study that would really protect New York State residents, could not possibly be completed in such a short period of time. Martens says the researchers have not yet even been contracted to begin their studies. How can he expect it might be feasible to complete a comprehensive study in the six short remaining weeks before November 29?
The Summary Report on the Human Health Risks and Exposure Pathways of Proposed Horizontal Hydrofracking in New York State prepared by a panel of New York State health professionals was presented to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Department of Health on October 9, 2012.
These health professionals included: David Brown, ScD, public health toxicologist, Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project; David O. Carpenter, MD, Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany; Ron Bishop, PhD, Department of Chemistry, SUNY Oneonta; and Sheila Buskin, MD, MPH, Public Health and Preventive Medicine consultant.
This report, which is not exhaustive, lists twenty areas of serious concern to public health. Many of these concerns relate to the alarming amounts of radioactive, chemical-laden wastewater that flows out of the wells during gas production. This is a monumental problem because there is no safe way to dispose of this highly toxic waste. Once our water is contaminated, it will never be clean and drinkable again. Our groundwater, rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds will be contaminated. Landfills and agricultural fields will be contaminated.
Additional concerns listed are as follows: Many fracking toxins are carcinogenic and include benzene, toluene, and xylene, to name just a few. It has been known for years that benzene is linked with leukemia. In addition natural gas from Marcellus shale contains high levels of radon. The sand used in fracking is 99% silica. Breathing silica can cause silicosis, a progressive, incurable lung disease. On-site diesel-powered machinery (trucks, compressors, pumps, generators) contaminates regional air and contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone. Flaring operations contaminate air with hazardous air pollutants. Well casing/cement failures will contaminate drinking water supplies—6% of wells leak immediately and 50% over 15 years.
There is not space here to describe the many more serious concerns. Please see http://www.grassrootsinfo.org/summaryreport.pdf for the entire report. It is impossible that all of these and numerous other concerns will be thoroughly addressed in six short weeks. Number twenty on the summary list states that conflicts of interest may affect veracity of scientific findings. This is the reason thousands of New York residents are insisting that the Governor and Commissioner Martens complete an independent, comprehensive and transparent Health Impact Assessment rather than the internal review they are currently proceeding with. Governor Cuomo must not bow to political and gas industry pressures but must protect the health of New Yorkers, now and for generations to come.
As Martens continues to state about “mitigation” that the DEC will be looking at. Which means that they will soften this horrible blow of chemicals used in the process. Polluted air to be breathed. Polluted water to be surrounding people’s property? With mitigation , this does not help people who will have to live with this, Martens is stating that the Government will just soften the process by lip service, with “regulations” that will never,have the current 15 inspectors for the whole state, be able to watch the process safely at each of the wells in each of the many pads that the gas companies tout will be in the thousands in NY. How in anyone’s right mind can Martens suggest that this “health impact study” reach any other conclusion than NOT TO FRACK IN NY.