We the undersigned …
CALL FOR A BAN ON GAS DRILLING IN LOW-PERMEABLE STONE DEPOSITS IN NEW YORK STATE
Whereas,
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 areas
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. New York City’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.
Sincerely,
The Petition Signers and the following organizations:
Action Otsego, Advocates for Springfield, Atlantic Chapter of Sierra Club, Bronx Greens, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, CDOG (Chenango Delaware Otsego Gas Drilling Opposition Group), Citizens Action Alliance, Concerned Citizens of Otego, Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Energy Justice Network, Environmental Working Group of Central New York, Friends of Brook Park, Fort Worth Citizens Against Neighborhood Drilling Ordinance (FWCanDo), Hands Across the Border, Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederation (banned drilling on all lands under their control), More Gardens!, National Alliance for Drilling Reform, New York Climate Action Group (NYCAG), NYH2O, Schoharie Valley Watch, Inc., Shaleshock, Sustainable Otsego and SWiM (Safe Water Movement)
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