Area officials are urging Governor Cuomo to rethink position on hydrofracking
-->By: Jennifer Lee
Updated: September 18, 2012
As Governor Cuomo nears a decision on hydrofracking, area officials are continuing to write letters to the Governor urging him to rethink his position on drilling in the state of New York.
Oneida County Legislators and other public figures are saying there is still no concrete evidence to prove hydrofracking is safe. And until science can back it up, officials say New York should not be a place for experiments.
"There's no urgency to frack at this time," said Oneida County Legislator Chad Davis, D-18.
Oneida County Legislator Chad Davis and other area officials are calling the Governor to protect New York by holding the state's moratorium on fracking.
They say extracting natural gas from rock formation deep in the ground is questionable. Legislator Davis says the Department of Environmental Conservation's framework to go forward with hydrofracking is quote "fuzzy math."
"Regulations as they stand do not properly address the public health safety and welfare of the chemicals and flowback water associated with hydraulic fracturing," said Legislator Davis.
Critics say the flowback water or the water that comes back up after fracking could bring back chemicals used during the process and pollute the soil. Other skeptics say gas being released from the rock can escape and contaminate the ground water.
Area officials say New York should wait until there are more answers.
"We should wait for the EPA study to come out to how hydrofracking is affecting the ground water to our NY state geology," said Davis. That study is expected to be released in 2014.
Some Central New Yorkers eyewitness news spoke with say they don't know enough about hydrofracking to have an opinion. Others say it's a bad idea.
"Just because one state is doing it means another state should go ahead. It's a big money thing. It's all about the money isn't it," said Pam Leigh.
We reached out to the Governor's office for a comment, but we did not receive one as of news time Tuesday night.
