Tompkins County Council of Governments Sponsors Public Hearing on Proposed DEC Gas Drilling Rules
Thursday, December 1, 2011 from 7:00 - 11:00 p.m. at The State Theatre, 107 West State Street Ithaca, NY 14850
Facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/307558602595965/
ITHACA - The Tompkins County Council of Governments, TCCOG, announces that it is sponsoring a public hearing on Thursday, December 1st to provide citizens an opportunity to comment on the draft Supplemental Generic 
Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining and regulations that will govern high-volume hydraulic fracturing.
The hearing will be held from 7-11 p.m. in ITHACA’s State Theatre, adjacent to the downtown Ithaca Commons. The proceedings will be transcribed by a professional court stenographer. At the hearing, TCCOG will accept both written and oral testimony and present the comments to the DEC prior to the December 12th comment deadline.
TCCOG Co-Chair Don Barber said ,“TCCOG’s mission for this public hearing is to provide a local venue for citizens to voice their opinions about the Department of Environmental Conservation’s 2011 revised Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) as it pertains to high volume hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shales”.
According to Martha Robertson, Chair of Tompkins County Legislature, the Tompkins County Council of Governments supports open and transparent government processes and so is proud to sponsor this hearing. While the DEC has scheduled public hearings in other parts of the State, there are none within the Finger Lakes Region. To facilitate participation in the comment process, the TCCOG hearing is for citizens within Tompkins County, the Finger Lakes Region and beyond, to make comments on the dSGEIS.
Caroline Town Councilman Dominic Frongillo will moderate the hearing. Doors will open at 6:30 pm. Anyone wishing to make oral comments must register on a sign-in sheet that will be available at the hearing. Forms will be provided for written comments. People are welcome to come with comments already prepared. This hearing will follow the same format as others held by the DEC, with oral presentations limited to three minutes and speakers presenting in the order registered, as time permits. Those wishing to make comments will be asked to focus their comments specifically on the contents of the draft SGEIS, rather than general statements for or against gas drilling.
The dSGEIS can be viewed at http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/75370.html and the proposed regulations at http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/77353.html. A paper copy is available for review at the Tompkins County Public Library.
For questions, please contact: Michelle Pottorff at (607) 274-5434
###
19th 2011 and ends December 11th 2011. Deer hunting continues after that with primitive weapons (archery and black powder). See NYS DEC website link below for exact dates on that. Please; whether you hunt, bike, hike or play: wear fluorescent neon colors (like “hunter orange” or “biker neon yellow”) so we can all see each other. The hunters in our area have an excellent safety record … but (for example) it is just as scary for them to think they hear a deer tromping through the woods only to discover it is a naive hiker wearing brown. So; wear neon! Oh and YES hunting is permitted at Hammond Hill and Shindagin Hollow and generally all similar NYS forests. Deer hunting is not allowed after sunset. Regulations are stricter in areas designated “parks” like Treman or Buttermilk for example. Here is DEC’s web page with hunting dates: 
Recent Comments