WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) has urged Governor Andrew Cuomo to withdraw the revised draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) on high-volume horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale.

Hinchey lists 10 concerns with regard to the document, which include the lack of a cumulative impact analysis, the lack of a public health assessment, the lack of a comprehensive wastewater treatment plan, the failure to prohibit the use of toxic chemicals in all fracturing fluids, the lack of a requirement to publicly disclose all chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluid at each well site, the absence of a plan to identify New York areas prone to higher seismic activity, the failure to require the needed increase in DEC resources and staffing, the failure to ban land spreading of drilling waste fluids and centralized impoundments for fracking fluids and flowback water, a failure to align DEC’s gas drilling permit rules with the requirements of secondary lending institutions covering oil and gas activity on mortgaged properties, and a failure to provide an enhanced role for local governments to prohibit gas development incompatible with local land-use and zoning regulations.