Labor org cites rising DEC concerns

SGEIS and enforcement capabilities questioned

By SANDY LONG

ALBANY, NY — The labor organization representing 2,000 Public Employees Federation members working in the professional, scientific and technical jobs for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), has called for an extension to the agency’s draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) comment period and a “one-year moratorium of expansion of gas well hydro-fracking.”

In addition, PEF/encon has now raised additional objections to proposed budget cuts that it maintains will prevent the DEC from fulfilling its mission.

During comments made at a state budget hearing on January 26, PEF executive board representative for PEF/encon, division 169, Wayne Bayer said, “If the [New York State] Legislature approves a budget for NYSDEC that does not have substantial increases in funds for programs, services and staffing, then it could be plausibly argued that the legislature is acting like unindicted co-conspirators working in concert with the governor, his staff and DEC management to jointly perpetuate a public fraud or misconception that DEC is adequately funded enough to enable it to continue its historic missions and to responsibly fulfill its many state and federal statutory and regulatory responsibilities.”

Bayer added that “staffing and budget cuts made over the last 20 years, and proposed again this year, make DEC a shadow of what it once was and what it was envisioned to be 40 years ago at its conception. DEC was then and is now still operating with a triage management philosophy, and doing superficial drive-by regulatory inspections and oversight.”

Speaking on behalf of the organization, Bayer charged that the expansion of natural gas drilling will worsen the existing staffing situation. “The paltry number of new positions requested by the governor for the gas-drilling mission is far from adequate, and is more than offset by a reduction in another 54 positions elsewhere in the budget and the continuing budget freeze on hiring,” he said. “We strongly believe that drilling should not proceed until an adequate severance tax on the gas producers is identified and implemented to fund oversight and enforcement positions.”

The comments follow the earlier submittal of the labor organization’s assessment of the draft SGEIS, which lists the following points, among others:

• The dSGEIS is inadequate as it is currently drafted because it does not require any assessment or evaluation of the cumulative environmental impacts once new wells are drilled.

• There should be cumulative impact studies on recapture, treatment and disposal of the backflow water that may be contaminated with radiation, dissolved solids and salts. Sewage treatment plants must be identified and technologically modernized to handle this water.

• Funding sources must be identified to adequately staff state, county and municipal agencies to meet regulatory responsibilities.

• The dSGEIS fails to fully assess the substantial negative impacts to air quality, traffic and noise associated with widespread industrial gas drilling.

• There has not been a cost-benefit analysis performed to develop a full accounting of actual costs and opportunity costs such as increased road maintenance or emergency response or remediation expenses.

• The dSGEIS ignores discussion of the industrialization of rural and semi-rural areas and avoids analysis of the environmental impacts of gathering lines, pipelines and compressor stations, placing waters, wildlife habitat and air quality at risk.

Visit www.pefencon.info to view the letter and comments, or for more information.

The DEC did not offer comment by press time.