NEW YORK—New Yorkers attended four public hearings on Wednesday to voice their concerns about or support for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the method of obtaining natural gas by blasting shale with a solution of water and chemicals.
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) opened a 60-day period of public comment on its Supplement Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) on fracking in August. The DEC later extended the comment period to 90 days, and on Wednesday it again announced a 30-day extension. The last day to submit a comment is now January 11, 2012.
“We'll claim that as a victory,” said Eric Weltman of Food and Water Watch, who has long been adamantly opposed to fracking moving ahead in New York state.
In a theater-style classroom at the Borough of Manhattan Community College on Chambers Street hundreds filled the seats for the last hearing at 6 p.m.
A proponent of fracking distributed fliers outside.
“I think it’s going to bring jobs,” said David Hammer, 62, a retired state parole officer. “If we don’t want to be dependent on other countries for energy, we’re going to have to get it somehow.”
Some opponents of fracking refused Hammer’s literature. They remain skeptical about the ability of gas companies to frack without adversely affecting communities upstate and the environment. Much of the concern revolves around the contamination of drinking water, something that opponents and some experts say has happened in other parts of the country where fracking is already legal. Other concerns include fracking using too much water, creating too much noise pollution, and disrupting the tourism industry upstate.
