Report Details DEC's Improper Gas and Oil Regulation

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton will be joining Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan and Toxics Targeting President Walter Hang this afternoon at a news conference in regards to the state DEC’s gas and oil regulation.

Hang says the DEC Mineral Resources Annual report shows billions of gallons of untreated gas and oil brine wastewater was dumped into pits and streams across the state.

Hang says the practice was supposed to be outlawed back in 1987 but continues to this day, and believes this contradicts an assertion the agency has made about problems associated with gas drilling.

He says the report details hundreds of millions of dollars are needed to plug and clean up nearly 5,000 abandoned vertical gas drilling and oil wells across the State.

Hang believes these reports further back his stance that a moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing should continue in New York State.

He adds much of these problems stemmed from conventional vertical fracking wells over the years.