Hydrofracking--Talking
Points
Contact State officials and representatives demanding a ban on Hydrofracking in New York State. Below are some suggested points to include followed by contact information for officials:
1. With a failure rate of between 2 to 8
percent, horizontal drilling and hydrofracking pose an unacceptable risk
to
our drinking water and the quality of groundwater, aquifers, lakes and
streams
2. Drilling will introduce over 250 chemicals
into our air and water, placing local residents, wildlife, and critical
agriculture and watershed areas at risk
3. Communities where hydrofracking has occurred
have experienced explosions, fires, spills, stream contamination,
and well pollution as well as degradation of aquifers and other water
supplies
4. Local emergency services, including volunteer
fire departments, EMS units, and healthcare providers, will be
severely stressed and placed at considerable risk from accidents
5. Gas drilling in NYS will involve construction
of a massive infrastructure of wellheads, pipelines, compressing
stations, and processing centers spread across much of rural upstate NY
6. Infrastructure development will involve
extensive clearcutting, 24-hour noise and light pollution, huge increases
of truck traffic, and the permanent altering of existing landscapes
7. Industrialization is incompatible with
agriculture, tourism, recreation; drilling and related development will
significantly alter existing use patterns of rural area
8. Compulsory integration of neighboring
landowners to allow gas extraction against their wishes is an unlawful
seizure of land and an unconstitutional abuse of power
9. Extensive drilling will undermine property
values and increase tax burdens on local citizens, creating boom and
bust economic cycles in local communities
10. NYC's Dept. of Environmental Protection
has concluded that hydrofracking is too dangerous for the city's
Catskill/Delaware watershed
11. NYS DEC's draft Environmental Impact
Statement (dSGEIS) is fatally flawed in its open support of drilling,
its
minimization and dismissal of risks, and its failure to consider the total
cost of drilling
12. NYS DEC is seriously understaffed and
underfunded, and is in no position to regulate and effectively monitor
drilling in NYS, and
13. Natural gas is not "clean energy"
but rather just another polluting, non-renewable fossil fuel contributing
to
global warming
We call on you to put the people first and
protect our health, environment, communities, and future by
banning horizontal drilling and hydrofracking to release gas from low-permeable
stone formations in New York
State.
Governor David Paterson – (518)
474-8390 or (315) 428-4337
Executive Chambers, State Capitol, Albany, NY 12224
gov.paterson@chamber.state.ny.us
Department of Environmental Conservation – (518)
402-8000
Attn: dSGEIS Comments
Bureau of Oil and Gas Regulation, NYS DEC Division of Mineral Resources
625 Broadway, Third Floor
Albany, NY 12233-6500
dmnsgeis@gw.dec.state.ny.us
NYS Senate
49th District – David J. Valesky (315) 478-8745 (518)
455-2838
State Office Building, Room 805
333 East Washington Street
Syracuse, NY 13202
valesky@senate.state.ny.us
50th District – John A. DeFrancisco (315) 428-7632
(518) 455-3511
State Office Building, room 800
333 East Washington Street
Syracuse, NY 13202
jdfran@senate.state.ny.us
NYS Assembly
119th District – Joan K. Christensen (315) 449-9536 (518)
455-5383
4317 East Genesee Street, Room 103
Syracuse, NY 13214
ChristensenJ@assembly.state.ny.us
120th District – William B. Magnarelli (315)
428-9651 (518) 455-4826
State Office Building, Room 840
333 East Washington Street
Syracuse, NY 13202
MagnarW@assembly.state.ny.us