A wide array of health and environmental groups joined more than 100 elected officials Wednesday to sign on to an effort to put a pause on the state Department of Health’s review of hydraulic fracturing, calling on the state to wait until three high-profile studies are completed first.
The letter, delivered today to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, praises the governor for the state’s decision not to meet today’s deadline to finalize a set of regulations for large-scale fracking, instead allowing the proposals to expire.
But the groups and officials call for a broader look at fracking’s potential health impacts rather than the “narrow” scope of Health Commissioner Nirav Shah’s review.
“With your decision to stop the clock, we hope that you will be guiding our state along a different path—by carefully considering any and all public health impacts before deciding whether to allow fracking in New York,” the letter reads. “Such a consideration must include a close examination of health impacts in other parts of the nation where (high-volume hydrofracking) is ongoing.”
In particularly, the letter points to three outside studies cited by Shah in a letter earlier this month. The groups want Shah to wait for results from those studies—which, depending on the study, could be a few years—before completing his own review.
The groups also call for Shah to open his review to the public and for a “comprehensive, independent Health Impact Assessment that is site-specific for New York.”
Permits for large-scale fracking have been on hold since 2008, when the state Department of Environmental Conservation first launched an environmental and regulatory review of the technique. Shale-gas drilling can’t move ahead in New York until that review is finalized.
Here’s Michael Seilbeck, vice president of public policy and communications for the American Lung Association in New York, discussing his group’s concerns:
4 Comments
Science is supposed to be the deciding factor in the decision of whether or not to permit unconventional gas extraction, processing, transport, and use in NY. Therefore, there must be a full, independent heatlh Impact Assessment, completed to national/international standards, with participation of the public in NY and NY’s very committed and capable organizations of physicians, nurses, public health experts, and socioeconomic experts.
I live in Broome County, which is still suffering from pollution and negative health impacts from our industrial past, when our communities were subjected to risks that were poorly understood. Never again. All the risks must be determined and quantified, and if the risks cannot be eliminated, HVHF must not be permitted. Our health is too high a price to pay for fossil fuel companies and a few landowners to make money.
The letter is terrific and pretty much says it all. It is also signed by a lot of people, many with medical and health related degrees and experience.
I would add that any effort by DEC to start processing applications without regulations is just nonsense. This should be opposed by all thinking people regardless of where they stand on the issue of HVHF in NYS. The regulation finalization process should be completed only after Dr. Shah’s work is done, the concerns in the letter are met, the public has time to review the current version of the SGEIS including the health study along with the responses to the comments on the November 2011 versio of the SGEIS.
It is good for New York State that concerned individuals and organizations have signed on to this letter asking for a thorough consideration of all the risks inherent in HVHF for individuals, communities and the Earth in general. Banning this fracking method would be the most prudent action, barring that regulations must be strong and be based on the scientific facts of the process and chemicals used and released in HVHF. Once damage is done it can not be reversed.
Thanks go out to all the medical , environmental groups and our 100 legislators who are doing the right thing. Asking for the science that is in on health impacts. Seeing as how Penn. is right next door, and Dr. Shah has asked to see it first hand, is the only way that the scientific proof can be established and then when the science is in , I believe this state will go forward with banning this activity and move into another avenue of creating energy with viable sustainable energy. Thank you Governor Cuomo for allowing time and science and information to come forth about the impacts of
HVHF. And a big thank you to Dr. Shah as well. For generations to come, will be affected by what you do.