January 4, 2013

Attn: Draft HVHF Regulations Comments New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 625 Broadway Albany, NY 12233-6510

Dear Commissioner Martens,

Please accept the following comments regarding draft regulations on High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing. At the outset, I wish to protest the process by which these regulations have been released for final public comment prior to completion of the revised SGEIS, which by law is required to inform the subsequent development of regulations. Furthermore, the burden that DEC has placed upon individuals, organizations, and local governments to submit final comment on regulations within 30 days over the holiday season discourages meaningful public participation. Because of the inherent risks to public health, the environment, sustainable economies, and communities, in addition to programmatic deficiencies within the DEC, high-volume hydraulic fracturing should not be permitted in the state of New York anytime in the foreseeable future. Notwithstanding the above objection, I submit the following comments relating to one of many problems with the draft regulations, specifically the failure to protect state lands. State lands represent the natural heritage and history of New York, the legacy of past generations and a sacred gift to our children. State lands help sustain wildlife and habitat, biodiversity, water resources, and clean air. Parks, trails, and campgrounds provide outdoor recreation where families can experience the beauty of our state, and historic preservation sites reveal our rich history and culture. The draft regulations fail to protect state-owned land by permitting subsurface access for drilling and fracking beneath them. This means that drilling rigs could be constructed immediately outside of the boundary of a state park or historic area, completely encircling the park and fracking the earth below. In fact this is very likely to occur because drillers seeking to maximize subsurface access will wish to locate rigs as close to the boundary of state land as possible. Edge effects caused by the clearing of adjacent well sites would degrade the value of habitat for hundreds of feet inside state conservation land. However, noise and light from industrial drilling activity would penetrate much deeper, disrupting ecosystem functions and wildlife behavior, including breeding, feeding, and denning. Many of the state parks in New York comprise relatively small patches of only a few hundred acres, so drilling activity next to these could completely devastate interior ecosystems. Furthermore, fragmentation caused by the concentration of impacts along the perimeter of state land threatens to ecologically isolate otherwise protected core habitat from surrounding natural areas.

Since the draft regulations fail to require any property line setback, state land would also be highly vulnerable to contamination from spills and air pollution. Furthermore, since the draft regulations do not prevent drilling beneath rivers, streams or ponds, natural water bodies inside of state land would be vulnerable to methane and chemical contamination from fracking below. For everyone who appreciates New York state lands, the adverse impacts would be profound. With the noise, odors, and gas flares of industrial activity nearby, possibly next to entrances, campgrounds, or picnic areas, families will no longer be able to relax and enjoy the outdoors. Likewise, those who hike, hunt, and bird watch will no longer see wildlife as in the past. Where fracking becomes widespread, impacts would be severe, and for smaller parks with greatest exposure, they would be catastrophic. Visitation to state park and recreation areas would likely plummet as a result. The draft regulations should be revised as follows to avoid harm from fracking immediately next to and under state lands: Section 52.3 and Section 190.8 of the draft regulations should be revised to prohibit any surface or subsurface disturbance to state lands from fracking. The horizontal drilling of gas wells beneath state lands should be prohibited. The regulations should require a minimum property line setback of at least 1000ft between any well pad and state lands.

In addition to the above, the draft regulations do not clearly prohibit fracking within all state lands. As written, the term "state land" used in Section 52.3 only applies to property administered by the Division of Fish, Wildlife, and Mineral Resources. (This is based on the definition of "state land" contained in Section 52.1.) Similarly, draft text which has been added to Section 190.8 is limited in scope by subsection 190.0(a) to include only lands administered by the Division of Lands and Forest and Division of Operations. Nowhere in the draft regulations does there appear to be a clear prohibition on frackingincluding the siting of gas wells or other surface impactson lands administered by the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP). (It should be noted that this omission was also identified as a problem by the Environmental Defense Fund in comments on the 2011 rdSGEIS.) The 178 state parks and 38 historic preservation areas of New York State are irreplaceable treasures that demand the greatest degree of protection. Other lands under the auspices of OPRHP include lakes, golf courses, camp sites, nature centers, and trails all recreational amenities enjoyed by people throughout the state and the nation. Fracking would permanently diminish or destroy these places of immeasurable natural, scenic, historic, and recreational value. The fact that administrative authority over state parks is with OPRHP does not change the fact that regulatory authority for fracking still resides with the DEC. The regulations should be revised to clearly prohibit fracking on any state land, including State Forests, Wildlife Management Areas, and State Parks. Sincerely,