ITHACA - At a four-hour-long Ithaca hearing, the State Department of Conservation repeatedly was urged to withdraw its proposed program to regulate natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale underlying Tompkins County and surrounding regions of New York State.  The Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) sponsored the session to focus discussion on the gas drilling issue and to increase the opportunity for local residents to submit comments to state regulators.

A thousand people packed Ithaca’s State Theatre for the hearing, and 100 of them voiced formal concern in oral comments addressed to the DEC, maintaining that the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) is woefully inadequate in regulating natural gas via the hydraulic fracturing technique, that it ignores the widespread and long-lasting harm the drilling could cause, and that to adequately protect the public, the document must be withdrawn until the federal Environmental Protection Agency completes its examination of the effects of “hydro-fracking.”   Ken Zeserson, chair of the Ulysses Town Planning Board, was one who asked, “How in good conscience can the DEC allow this issue to proceed until it is thoroughly investigated by the EPA?”

Speakers maintained the state’s draft regulations are ambiguous, give too much latitude to drilling firms, don’t go far enough, and ignore cumulative impacts.  The result, they told the DEC, could fill the area’s groundwater and surface water with undocumented toxic chemicals from the drilling process, pollute the air, damage the area’s highways from heavy truck traffic, and produce noise and light pollution—with disastrous effects on agriculture, tourism, and the area’s quality of life.  Among those testifying were state Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, who called the plan “fatally flawed,” and Dan Lamb, representing U.S. Representative Maurice Hinchey, who said the Congressman is working at the federal level to remove current drilling firm exemptions from meeting environmental protection requirements.  City of Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson said insufficient staffing at the DEC produces inadequate oversight and a greater burden for municipalities.  County Legislator Dooley Kiefer stated that, in the regulatory proposal, the DEC is not focused on environmental protection in general, which makes it “terribly inadequate.”  Others echoed the sentiment that the agency needs to look at environmental protection, not just the issue of mineral rights.

TCCOG will submit both oral testimony and written statements submitted at the hearing to the DEC.

Written comments will be accepted by the DEC through December 31, 2009.  Comments also may be submitted online at  www.dec.ny.gov/cfmx/extapps/SGEISComments/, through e-mail to dmnsgeis@gw.dec.state.ny.us, or by regular mail (Attn: dSGEIS Comments, Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral Resources, 625 Broadway, Third Floor, Albany, NY 12233-6500).