Health Dept. Examines Fracking Effects
The state Department of Health is conducting a study regarding the impacts of the potential use of a controversial gas drilling method in areas of upstate New York that has environmental activists in New York City concerned.
Joseph Martens, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), officially requested the review of high volume hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) to be led by state Health Commissioner Nirav Shah.
As previously report, the state DEC is considering allowing gas companies to use hydrofracking-a drilling method involving the highpressure injection of a slurry of water and chemicals underground-to tap into a vast plume of natural gas located within the subterranean Marcellus Shale.
In a statement issued last Friday, Sept. 21, Martens resisted calls by several groups for an independent health study of hydrofracking, which activists in New York City and
