November 28, 2012

Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York
The State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

Dear Governor Cuomo:

We, the undersigned, write to request that you require your Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to: a) terminate its shale gas rulemaking effort by not submitting any request for a 90-day extension and b) restart its Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) proceeding to allow public participation in formulating your Department of Health’s (DOH) proposed “health impact analysis” review.

DOH’s review is critically important because DEC has said that no Final SGEIS will be adopted until the review is completed. It is essential that DOH’s review be comprehensive, open, transparent and involve full public participation.

Public Comment for DOH Review Essential

To date, your administration has not published a single word about the proposed DOH review. As a result, the public has no idea about the scope of the review or how it would be conducted.

We believe the best way to address this unacceptable shortcoming is to reopen the SGEIS proceeding to allow public comment about how DEC and DOH should undertake the review. After both agencies have reviewed those comments, a final review proposal can be adopted.

Terminate Shale Gas Rulemaking Proceeding

You stated publicly that DEC's proposed rulemaking proceeding will not meet its 11/29/12 deadline. It has been reported that a revised rulemaking proposal is about to be initiated by DEC as part of a 90-day extension of that proceeding.

It would be entirely inappropriate to continue DEC's shale gas rulemaking proposal while the DOH health impact analysis review is incomplete. To do so would call into question the integrity of DOH’s review as well as DEC’s rulemaking proceeding.

Good Science Imperative to DOH Review

It is imperative for all the physicians, scientists, academic researchers, elected officials, citizens and other interested parties who have expressed grave concerns about the SGEIS's inadequate health impact analysis to be allowed to comment publicly on how the DOH review must be conducted in order to be based on “good science.”

DOH Review Must Investigate Documented Gas Extraction Problems

DOH’s review of the SGEIS’ “health impact analysis” will help determine whether shale gas fracking will be permitted in New York. Given the importance of that decision, we believe the review must investigate drinking water contamination, gas drilling wastewater dumping, unplugged gas wells and other public health hazards documented by DEC's own records as well as by local health departments in the areas of New York where gas drilling has been prevalent.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we believe that New York’s existing shale gas fracking moratorium must be maintained until all public health and environmental concerns associated with the proposed practice have been fully resolved.

In order to achieve that goal, we request that you require DEC to terminate its shale gas rulemaking effort and restart the SGEIS proceeding to allow public participation in formulating the proposed “health impact analysis” review.

We trust that you will find our request self-explanatory, but please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about our concerns.

Thank you for your consideration.

We look forward to receiving your timely reply.

Very truly yours,