Metro

Blown fracking deadline a pain in the ga$

ALBANY — The state will miss another deadline today to green-light fracking and end a four-year ban on the controversial process, which is seen as a bonanza for struggling upstate communities.

The state Health Department said yesterday it needs a few more weeks to complete a review of the potential public-health impact of high-volume hydraulic fracturing.

Gov. Cuomo’s top environmental regulator said he’ll wait for the results before finalizing an environmental-impact statement that’s required before upstate natural-gas drilling can begin.

The impact statement would have to be finalized today if the state wants to meet a Feb. 27 deadline to adopt fracking regulations as currently proposed.

Pro-fracking groups, including upstate landowners in the Marcellus Shale region, fear that missing today’s deadline would force the administration to restart the lengthy regulatory process and set back the approval process for months.

But Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens insisted that if the health review finds that his agency’s draft impact statement “has adequately addressed health concerns,” permits could be around the corner.

He said he could then issue the environmental-impact statement “on that basis, [and the Department of Environmental Conservation] can accept and process high-volume hydraulic fracturing permit applications 10 days after issuance.”

Fracturing shale with a high-pressure chemical, sand and water mix to capture trapped gas pits environmentalists, who fear pollution of water supplies and other health hazards, against landowners and drillers, who say natural gas burns clean.

The DEC itself has predicted that fracking could create more than 50,000 jobs in economically depressed upstate.

“The time to ensure the impacts on public health are properly considered is before a state permits drilling,” Health Commissioner Nirav Shah wrote to Martens. “Other states began serious health reviews only after proceeding.”

Environmentalists yesterday cheered the Health Department’s determination to continue its review.

Yoko Ono, who heads Artists Against Fracking with son Sean Lennon, thanked Cuomo “for taking time to do a more complete health study.”

A leading drilling industry spokeswoman was willing to give Cuomo the benefit of the doubt— but only if a happy ending for the pro-fracking side is in store.

New York State Petroleum Council Executive Director Karen Moreau said the process “can and must end with a decision to move forward with creating jobs in the Southern Tier . . . It’s time for action.”