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A MAJOR DEVELOPMENT STRENGTHENS OUR CAUSE TO PREVENT GAS DRILLING USING HYDRAULIC FRACTURING UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF THE CURRENT DSGEIS – YOU IMMEDIATE ACTION CAN HELP US GET THIS DONE!
Today New York City “called on the DEC to rescind the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) that was released on September 30, 2009 because it does not adequately address the risks of drilling in the New York City watershed, which supplies drinking water for nine million New Yorkers." For the full press release issued by New York City, please click here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/09-15pr.shtml
Catskill Mountainkeeper, The Natural Resource Defense Council, Toxic Targeting and a myriad of other like minded organizations have been saying that not only does the dSGEIS not address the risks to the nine million people living in New York City, it does not address the risks for all New Yorkers. The dSGEIS is fatally flawed and must be withdrawn.
With New York City’s weight being thrown behind our cause now is the moment for all of us to act and achieve our immediate goal of preventing the DEC from authorizing gas drilling in New York State based on the dSGEIS.
There is one person who has the power withdraw the dSGEIS to prevent the catastrophic risks it represents. That person is Governor David A. Paterson. It is critical that as many of you as possible tell the Governor that “Drilling Isn’t Safe”, the dSGEIS Draft report must abandoned and the DEC needs to start over.
Please email Governor David A. Paterson at: governor@chamber.state.ny.us and bcc: info@catskillmountainkeeper.org so we can maintain a list of all contacts. Or you can fax Governor Paterson at 518-474-1513. To have maximum impact, send the Governor a copy of your email by snail mail. Envelopes arriving at his office have the greatest effect.
The address is:
Governor David A. Paterson
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
In addition please click here http://www.catskillmountainkeeper.org/node/1069 to send this alert to as many other people as possible so we can send the strongest message.
We know we are asking you to take action right in the middle of the busy holiday season. But sharing your concerns with the Governor right now will be the most powerful action any of us can take since this fight began.
We wish you and your family and friends very happy holidays and a hopefully healthier New Year if we can get this done.
Ramsay Adams, Executive Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper
Here are some important points to help you write to Governor Paterson:
Dear Governor Paterson:
* It is critically important to protect the State’s drinking water supplies and other irreplaceable resources that are essential to public health protection and the state’s long-term economic prosperity.
* The use of hydraulic fracturing has led to known or suspected contamination in water supplies across the country, including right next door in Pennsylvania.
* The DEC is woefully understaffed to cope with existing natural gas drilling problems. Only 17 staff are available to regulate nearly 7,000 existing natural gas wells. New gas drilling permits must not be issued until the SGEIS solves this problem.
* Please direct DEC to set aside its current draft document and commit to a twelve month moratorium on the issuance of any new permits for hydraulic fracturing in New York State.
* Please request that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region II convene a panel of experts on water quality to analyze proposals for hydraulic fracturing in New York State and assess the potential impacts of such activities on water resources in New York, utilizing the precautionary principle as the foundation for its analysis.
* Please direct DEC to develop a new draft environmental impact statement that contains all appropriate and legally-required analyses and to propose a comprehensive rule-making package that would accompany the new draft and that would be designed to fully insure the protection of the state’s most valuable water and other natural resources.
* We firmly believe that it would be an error of historic proportions if the DEC were to push through an industrial hydraulic fracturing gas drilling plan in anything like its present form.
