The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation held a public hearing at Stuyvesant High School on its new Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) for the hydraulic fracturing or "hydrofracking" method of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale deposits.

People in New York City are concerned about possible drinking water contamination because the DEC did not explicitly ban hydrofracking in the upstate watershed that provides about half of the city's water supply, without filtration. See a report on the hearing at www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-rose-levy/protecting-new-york-citys_b_354264.html

Both houses of Congress this week passed legislation asking the US Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a new study on the risks of hydrofracking to drinking water supplies, and EPA administrator Lisa Jacksin said she agrees that this should be done.

For a Columbia University report on the impacts of hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale, go to
www.urbandesignlab.columbia.edu/?pid=gas_extraction

For a report on possible radioactivity relating to hydrofracking see
http://www.propublica.org/feature/is-the-marcellus-shale-too-hot-to-handle-1109