The process of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," questioned by many environmental groups as degrading a region’s water quality, extracts natural gas from shale by pumping water, sand and chemicals into the ground to create fissures in the rock and release the gas.
The Department of Environmental Conservation released sketchy details of major revisions to gas well permitting rules this afternoon. The agency will give its recommendations contained in a 900-page document to Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday, the same day an executive order prohibiting fracking expires. The agency describes the document as a work in progress, with some details still to be worked out when research is completed.
The executive order was issued last year by then-Gov. David Paterson to allow the DEC more time to review the technology and develop new permitting rules. It was largely symbolic, as DEC officials have said repeatedly that no permits will be issued until the environmental review is finalized, a process that will continue for many more months. The review has put a de facto moratorium in place since it began in 2008.
"This report strikes the right balance between protecting our environment, watersheds and drinking water and promoting economic development," DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said in a prepared statement Thursday.
He said the areas that would be off-limits to drilling comprise about 15 percent of New York’s part of the Marcellus Shale, a natural gas-rich rock formation that also underlies parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
The DEC’s supplemental environmental study and revised draft recommendations will be subject to further public comment and revisions, a process likely to take months during which there will be no hydraulic fracturing.
--Jack Z. Smith
