Jon Campbell

ALBANY -- In a surprise move Thursday, the state Department of Environmental Conservation issued a long-awaited summary of major, sweeping changes to its ongoing review of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, a day before a full 900-page report is due to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The new recommendations include an outright ban of high-volume hydrofracking in the Syracuse and New York City watersheds and also would prohibit drilling on the surface of state-owned land. That stipulation could have a significant impact on one of the largest of the Southern Tier's landowner coalitions.

The document that will guide the state's permitting of a much-debated natural gas extraction process will be re-opened for public comment, Gov. David Paterson ordered Monday.

A $7.8 million lease offer for the natural gas rights to thousands of acres of Broome County land was overwhelmingly rejected Thursday night by the Broome County Legislature.

BINGHAMTON -- A proposed plan for a state-mandated review of a Broome County natural gas lease drew concern from a Department of Environmental Conservation official in September, according to internal correspondence.

Betty Ann Hughes, then the DEC's chief of State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) and training, said in a pair of messages that without the county completing some analysis of "the potential impacts of typical development activities" on land offered for lease, she would be "concerned that the lease action and supporting SEQR record could be vulnerable to challenge."

VESTAL -- Eight thousand it wasn't, but a standing-room-only crowd gathered Monday in Binghamton University's Mandela Room for a discussion on the risks of natural gas drilling featuring some of the loudest critics of the controversial hydraulic fracturing process.

The forum, organized by a BU student group, attracted about 400 people, the majority students with a handful of community activists and landowners.

Cuomo still mostly quiet on the subject, activists say

Andrew Cuomo's stance is too vague.

Carl Paladino? He wants to drill, and the sooner, the better.

Meeting draws 900 to downtown Binghamton

By Jon Campbell
jcampbell1@gannett.com

BINGHAMTON -- About 900 stakeholders and public officials -- a far cry from the 8,000 originally estimated -- came to downtown Binghamton Monday for a daylong meeting that often became a showcase for the controversial natural gas drilling debate.

Two-hundred people got the chance to speak during the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's meeting, which was organized to gather input on the scope of a multi-million-dollar study of hydraulic fracturing.

BINGHAMTON -- About 200 people spoke Monday during the first day of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's final public meeting on its hydraulic fracturing study, but did the agency get the feedback it desired?

An EPA official said Tuesday it did.

The Binghamton meeting marks the last of four across the country meant to solicit input on the scope of EPA's multi-million-dollar study, which is to take a look at the potential relationship between groundwater and hydrofracking, a natural gas drilling technique.

Anti-drilling protesters greet gubernatorial candidate in Binghamton