Download the documents. Note: These documents are from 2012 and show that the current Cuomo ‘fence-sitting’ is of long standing. He cancelled the Advisory Council meetings because of the results showing negative health impacts.

• New York State Association of County Health Officials Report
• NYS Conference of Environmental Health Directors – Local Health Department Concerns

In January, two groups representing county health departments prepared separate reports on the burden natural-gas drilling could place on their operations, expressing concern about the state’s ongoing review of hydraulic fracturing.

The reports were prepared for the state’s High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel, an 18-member board of outside environmentalists, lawmakers and industry experts formed last year to advise the Department of Environmental Conservation on financial and resource issues associated with hydrofracking.

But shortly after the documents were submitted to the DEC, and a day before they were supposed to be unveiled, the panel meeting was abruptly canceled. The advisory board hasn’t met since and has been placed on hiatus as the DEC continues its regulatory and environmental review of the gas-extraction process.

The “program proposed by the (DEC) is inadequate to protect public health and to detect and remediate contamination of drinking water aquifers,” according to the report prepared by the NYS Conference of Environmental Health Directors.

The two documents — the other prepared by the state Association of County Health Officials, known as NYSACHO — were never distributed to the DEC’s advisory board, nor were they formally released to the public. Earlier this year, they were obtained by anti-fracking group Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy and quietly posted on its website.

The reports were set to be presented at the panel’s Jan. 12 meeting before the meeting was abruptly canceled. On Jan. 11, the presentation was postponed to Jan. 26. That meeting was ultimately cancelled so the DEC could wade through more than 60,000 responses it received on a proposed set of hydrofracking guidelines, known as the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement.

It’s unclear if the content of the reports led to the DEC’s postponement of the Jan. 12 meeting. When asked, an agency spokeswoman did not respond directly.

“The presentations will be made available to panel members,” spokeswoman Emily DeSantis wrote in an email. “The panel will reconvene after the release of the final SGEIS.”

Originally, the DEC had said the Jan. 12 meeting was pushed back because the “main presenter requested additional time to prepare.” Linda Wagner, executive director of the Association of County Health Officials, said in an email Thursday that the group asked to postpone “due to weather concerns for those traveling.”

The county health department organizations were asked by the DEC to analyze the state’s proposed rules for high-volume hydrofracking and attempt to detail the costs it would have on local agencies. And while many of the needs proved difficult to quantify, the two groups called on the DEC to pay more attention to the potential impacts of gas-drilling on the public health.

“We must also ensure that we can determine the likely long-term public health impacts and estimate their associated costs,” one report reads. “Hence, NYSACHO urges the state to ensure that the private parties who stand to profit from gas drilling and sales will finance an expert, independent, and evidence-based study of potential public health impacts, preventive approaches to mitigate human health risks, and estimated related costs prior to lifting the moratorium on permits.”

High-volume hydrofracking — a technique used with gas drilling in which water, sand and chemicals are injected into shale formations to unlock gas _– has effectively been under a moratorium in New York since 2008, pending the finalization of the DEC’s review.

Environmental groups have been critical of the technique. They have called on the DEC to undertake a study analyzing its impact on human health similar to the one proposed by the county health group.

“Nobody’s ever done a real analysis of the public-health impacts,” said Rob Moore, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York and a member of the state’s hydrofracking panel. “There’s a lot of information that is unfortunately under lock and key because of non-disclosure agreements … but there’s never been a real, clinical study of this.”

DeSantis said the “primary objective” of the DEC’s hydrofracking review is to “identify potential to public health and the environment” and provide ways to mitigate impacts.

“DEC, in partnership with (the Department of Health), considered the impact “high-volume hydraulic fracturing could potentially have on public health and communities if it goes forward in New York,” she wrote.

Both groups that authored the reports declined comment on their content. But Wagner, the executive director of the county health officials group, said she’s confident many of their concerns will be addressed when the DEC issues its final hydrofracking rules, particularly when it comes to the relationship between the state and counties in responding to drilling complaints.

“Since our report was sent to (DEC) in early January, NYSACHO has had several conversations with (DEC) and (state Department of Health) officials to work together in clarifying roles and responsibilities between the various state and local agencies,” Wagner wrote in an email. “We aren’t certain of the final outcome of those conversations, but it seems clear that NYSACHO’s comments are being seriously considered.”

An updated memorandum of understanding that clearly lays out the state and local roles is currently being drafted, according to the DEC.

Fracking in Southern Tier?
The two county reports were prepared based on the DEC’s latest draft rules, which were released late last year. Since then, a plan has been floated that, if enacted, would allow a limited number of hydrofracking permits in five New York counties — Broome, Tioga, Chenango, Chemung and Steuben. Parts of the Southern Tier and Catskills region sit within the Marcellus Shale, a large underground rock formation rich with natural gas.

Johannes Peeters, the Tioga County director of public health, said his department would likely need to hire additional staff in order to respond to drilling complaints. The department would also need to address other issues caused by an increase in industrial activity — everything from a greater demand on hospital services to an expected increase in communicable diseases, he said.

“I think there’s going to be a higher demand on personnel than I have. So I’m looking to at least have some additional personnel to address those things, and I think it’s not fair for the taxpayers to pay for that,” Peeters said. “I think it should be something that comes out of (a company’s drilling) permit or they’ll give the counties to cover those costs.”

It’s a sentiment similar to that expressed in the two local health department reports. NYSACHO, for example, cited a potential need for greater state aid to counties if high-volume hydrofracking is eventually allowed, as expected.

“Since it is difficult to know precisely what resources will be needed and when, NYSACHO believes that increased (state) funding may be necessary to reimburse counties for increases in core public health services,” the group wrote. “However, we believe that the financing of this additional state aid should come from the private interests that seek to profit from drilling and the sale of natural gas.”

Meanwhile, the future of the DEC’s hydrofracking advisory panel remains up in the air. Chemung County Executive Thomas Santulli, a member of the board, said he’s been asked to try and quantify the total cost a drilling boom would have on county services, including emergency services and housing.

“I think we (the panel) have got a lot more work to do,” Santulli said. “They’ve asked me to quantify it with a cost, which we haven’t completed yet, but that’s the task we’re doing now.”

DeSantis, the DEC spokeswoman, said the panel will meet for additional meetings but “we do not have a definitive time frame.”