The Fight Continues Against Hydrofracking in New York
For several years, there has been an effort underway to allow drilling for natural gas in upstate New York through a process known as hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as “hydrofracking”.
Hydrofracking uses a mixture of nearly 600 chemicals, many of them kept secret from the public, and millions of gallons of water, which are blasted underground in order to destabilize rock and shale to extract natural gas.
I have opposed hydrofracking from the very beginning because it is not yet proven that it can be done safely and without poisoning our water or causing other environmental damage. Hydrofracking poses a real danger to our state and, last year, I sponsored a bill in the Assembly to ban it entirely.
In September, the State Department of Health (DOH) announced it would conduct a “health impact analysis” on the effects of hydrofracking, which, so far, no one has seen.
The New York Times recently released a year-old state document which asserts that during the hydrofracking process, “human chemical exposures … will be prevented or reduced below levels of significant health concern. Thus, significant adverse impacts on human health are not expected from routine … operations”.
This dubious claim, however, is the basis for the State’s plan to safeguard New Yorkers from the effects of hydrofracking. The Department of Environmental Conservation and upstate health departments have documented numerous incidents of exposure. Saying there are no negative effects does not make it true.
I joined with many of my Assembly colleagues in a letter to Governor Cuomo demanding an immediate written public notice about the the DOH Review, a release of the health impact analysis, and for a public hearing to take place.
I have advocated for a broader health impact study of hydrofracking for over a year because we cannot jump into hydrofracking without fully understanding all of its ramifications first.