A story in the New York Times on June 13 seems to confirm the rumors we’ve been hearing for the past several weeks. Sometime this summer the Cuomo Administration will begin issuing shale gas drilling permits in areas of five Southern Tier counties where local municipalities haven’t passed fracking bans or moratoria.

Governor Cuomo is taking a gamble with the health and safety of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. The state still has not done a health impact study to determine what effect the inevitable water and air contamination will have on local residents. New York should not use the citizens of Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Steuben and Tioga Counties as guinea pigs.

Call NY Gov Cuomo at 518-474-8390, fax him at 518-474-1513 or write via his website http://www.governor.ny.gov/ContacttheGovernor.  Send him your sGEIS comments – again ! – and more scientific information, more examples of what is or has happened to communities near or downstream from drilling and ask for a cumulative Health Impact Assessment(HIA) before drilling is allowed.  We do not want another live-in experiment like what is happening in Pennsylvania to start up in New York.

All New Yorkers deserve equal protection.  Our upstate counties should not be turned over to out-of-state gas corporations as sacrifice zones.