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Drilling Deep Into Controversy
For more than a year, a swelling movement of landowners, politicians, individuals and environmental organizations has been pressuring New York State to strongly regulate — or even ban — a natural gas drilling process that could wreak havoc on the environment.
At stake are freshwater sources for millions of people in Philadelphia, New York and the countryside, as well as watersheds that replenish environmental treasures from the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River to the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay.
On Sept. 30, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC ) issued an 809-page draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement On The Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program (SGEIS). The DEC states it is offering a plan to regulate drilling activities that would minimize environmental and public health risks. It would streamline the process of allowing companies to apply for a drilling permit to the DEC without completing an environmental impact statement for each well site.
Article continues: http://www.indypendent.org/2009/10/29/drilling-deep/
IMAGE CREDIT: S.M. VIDAURRI
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