Oppose extraordinarily weak proposed DOH Review plan/Urgent help needed

Greetings,

We are pushing full force to require full public participation in the Department of Health's ludicrously inadequate Review of DEC's "health impact analysis."

We got more press yesterday: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcelusShale/news/2012-12-12/public-comm...

I am grateful for the dozens of communications that have been sent to members of the Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel. These moving and nicely drafted letters are evidently having an incredible impact in the faces of misleading "canned" responses.

The reluctance of the environmental representatives to support the efforts of Fracking Panel Member Assemblywoman Lupardo is just baffling. See her strong letter: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/documents/letters/2012/12/...

See the disheartening back and forth between grassroots activists and enviro Panel Members at bottom of: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/alerts/2012/12/10/immediat...

See an important coalition letter involving grassroots activists from New York's proposed epicenter of shale gas fracking: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/letters/2012/12/13/cuomo

BIG HEADS UP/Take Immediate Action

Against that backdrop, I write to alert you that some enviros on the Fracking Advisory Panel support a shockingly weak letter about the DOH Review even while two of them tell activists that: "As such, the Panel has had no role to play with regard to the on-going health study being conducted by the Department of Health (emphasis added).

The letter has gigantic flaws. First, it does not require any public notification about the purpose of the DOH Review or how it would be undertaken.

Second, it does not require any immediate public comment about how best to conduct the DOH Review.

Shockingly, the letter requests a 60-day public comment of the FINAL DOH Review. It would obviously be too late to do anything about the DOH Review's shortcomings after it is done.

THE WHOLE POINT OF OUR EFFORT IS TO PREVENT COMPLETION OF A MERE 25-HOUR DOH REVIEW CONDUCTED TOTALLY IN SECRET WITH ZERO PUBLIC INPUT. ONCE THE DOH REVIEW IS COMPLETED, A FINAL SGEIS CAN BE ADOPTED.

THAT COULD ALLOW DEC's REVISED RULEMAKING PROCEEDING TO BE FINISHED BY 2/27/13.

You can read the draft letter for yourself: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/node/37363

I urge you in the strongest terms to take immediate action to prevent groups from co-signing and sending this extraordinarily weak letter. Do not be fooled by the letter's rhetorical flourishes. They mean little compared to the specific procedural requests.

Do not accept weak revisions such as a review of a Draft Final DOH Review. There will not necessarily be a Draft Final DOH Review. That was made up.

We need meaningful public participation. Public notice, public comment and a public hearing are essentials of Open Government 101.

See Advisory Panel Members and Contact Info: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/dec-fracking-panel

I wrote respectfully to try to dissuade the groups from sending their letter, but to no avail. See: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/node/37367

In conclusion, simply request that they support this clear, specific, to-the-point letter about fixing the public participation problems of the DOH Review: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/node/37327

Thanks so much for your help. Go hard. Keep slugging.

Very best regards,

Walter