Riverkeeper Testifies at NYC Council Hearing on Fracking
March 3, 2011
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Lends Support to Rally at Federal Square Plaza
On March 1, Riverkeeper testified at the New York City Council Committee on Environmental Protection's public hearing on hydraulic fracturing. We will be submitting comments to the DRBC urging the suspension of its current rule-making process and deadlines, and called on the City Council to do the same. We also urged the City Council to consider a resolution that would similarly call on Governor Cuomo to extend Executive Order No. 41 for at least a year beyond July 1, 2011 to allow DEC to complete a thorough environmental review and rule-making process. Riverkeeper feels it is imperative for the City Council to call DEC Commissioner Joe Martens before a full hearing to ask his assurance that the draft regulations will be comprehensively revised “from the ground up,” and to press him on whether he plans to issue new regulations.
Later the same day, Riverkeeper lent its support to the rally at Federal Square Plaza aimed at telling the federal government to protect NYC's water and take the Delaware River Basin off the table for gas drilling. The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is composed of the four governors from New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania plus a federal representative from the Army Corps of Engineers.
On March 2, the DRBC approved a 30-day extension of the public comment period for its proposed natural gas drilling regulations.
Commissioners from Delaware, New Jersey, New York and the federal government voted for the extension during a meeting in New Jersey. The commissioner from Pennsylvania opposed it.
Written comments on the draft rules will now be accepted until April 15.