The Catskill Chronicle

Today is deadline for submitting comments

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY (January 11, 2012) —At 3:00 p.m. today, volunteers from Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy will deliver 10,000 letters from concerned citizens to the post office in the tiny hamlet of Callicoon Center. 

They will be mailed to the NYS DEC on what is the last day to submit comments on the Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, the document that will set the rules for hydraulic fracturing in New York.   

Although Catskill Citizens has already called for the Draft to be scrapped in its entirety, and for the enactment of a statewide prohibition on fracking, member Tom Wilinsky says it is still important for citizens to participate in the comment process. "The DEC is already very well aware of the many fatal flaws in the Draft, and of the dangers posed by fracking, but these comments send a clear message to Governor Cuomo and to the state legislature – New Yorkers overwhelmingly reject fracking."

Last Friday, the DEC reported that it had received 18,000 comments on the Draft, and that they were running 10 – 1against fracking.  

Yesterday, organizations that oppose fracking, and landowners groups that support it, delivered thousands of additional comments to the DEC.

The deadline for submitting comments through Catskill Citizens’ website http://catskillcitizens.org/dsgeis.cfm is 4:00 p.m. today. 

The DEC will accept online comments until midnight at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/76838.html, and written comments that are postmarked no later than today.

For further information call 845-468-7063, or e-mail info@catskillcitizens.org.