NY DEC study

The Department of Environmental Conservation regulates the development and production of oil and gas resources in New York State. The development of a potentially significant gas resource in the Marcellus Shale uses horizontal drilling and a high-volume hydraulic fracturing technique known as "slick water fracturing." This technique requires large volumes of water and requires further review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act ("SEQRA") before any well permits can be issued.

In 2009 the NY state DEC released a draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Study (SGEIS) to specifically address hydraulic fracturing. The home page for all things SGEIS is here. 

In December 2010, Governor Paterson ordered DEC to conduct further environmental review to ensure that all environmental and public health impacts are mitigated or avoided and to present this information to the public for further review.

In Sept. 2011 the DEC released the Revised Draft SGEIS

In November 2012 the DEC released proposed Fracking regulations

On Dec. 17, 2014 the NY Dept of Health released its report,

A Public Health Review of High Volume Hydraulic Fracturingfor Shale Gas Development

On May 13, 2015 the DEC released the Final SGEIS. It weighs in at 2,000 pages. If printed, it would need an 8-inch binder and would weigh 20 pounds. More than 260,000 comments were sent to DEC during the review of the SGEIS.