July 2, 2011

Hydrofracking SGEIS released

The DEC released a draft SGEIS to the press last night, holding the actual public release until July 8th, but that seems to be have been kind of a silly idea. The Journal's posted the 736-page Preliminary Revised Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement On The Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program (8.8MB PDF). Fun holiday weekend reading.

A reaction article includes County Legislator Martha Robertson and Town Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner's thoughts on the SGEIS. The most Dryden-specific piece of that is:

Town of Dryden Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner said she is "very cautiously optimistic" about the changes to the proposed regulations.

However, she said, "I do not think we will drop any of our other efforts to protect the town."

The town is one of several in the county working on ordinances to ban or control the impact of drilling. Sumner said she hopes to also institute a fund to finance pre-drilling water well testing for homeowners.

The DEC commissioner thinks hydrofracking can be done safely, of course. They've also formed an advisory council, and an article wonders whether the report will make anyone happy. Even if doesn't, I'm not sure I'd call that failure a sign of a good result.

There's also an article on the fireworks last night at TC3.

Posted by simon at July 2, 2011 10:26 AM in ,
Note on photos