DAMASCUS CITIZENS FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND NYH2O APPLAUD NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL’S NEPA LAWSUIT
B. Arrindell
June 8. 2011 DAMASCUS CITIZENS FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND NYH2O APPLAUD NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL’S NEPA LAWSUIT
Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Inc. (DCS), a grassroots non-profit citizen group dedicated to protecting public health, the environment and the communities of the Delaware River watershed, and NYH2O, a citizens group dedicated to protecting New York City’s high quality drinking water, are very pleased to support the action taken recently by the Attorney General of New York to compel the federal government to prepare a comprehensive environmental impact statement and public health assessment before regulations are adopted by the Delaware River Basin Commission to allow shale gas development in the Basin.
“For over three years, we have been imploring the DRBC to ‘put the science first’ and prepare an EIS before it considers whether to allow gas drilling in the Basin,” said Barbara Arrindell, director of DCS, adding, “We tried and tried again to get DRBC to do this the right way voluntarily.”
Less than two months after taking office, President Obama stated, in a memorandum to all federal agencies that, “Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration on a wide range of issues, including improvement of public health, protection of the environment, increased efficiency in the use of energy and other resources, mitigation of the threat of climate change, and protection of national security. The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions.”
Cliff Westfall, legal coordinator for DCS, said, “Now is the time to put these words into action and commit to preparing the EIS called for by the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit. Obviously, until this EIS is published and made available to the public and the commissioners, the DRBC should suspend further consideration of its proposed gas development regulations.”
The AG’s action is consistent with legal actions DCS has taken in the last year against the Delaware River Basin Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that bring to light many of the environmental risks of gas drilling and the failure of both the DRBC and the PaDEP to follow their own rules and regulations when considering gas well projects, especially for sites that would located in the Special Protection Waters drainage area of the Delaware River Basin.
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