CATSKILLS – A group of 26 environmental organizations has asked Governor Paterson to toss the draft supplemental generic environmental impact statement for oil and gas mining.

They claim the document is inadequate.

The study, which would apply to the mining of Marcellus Shale, needs to be redrafted, said Ramsay Adams, executive director of Catskill Mountainkeeper.

“We’ve had our experts look at the document and it is fundamentally fatally flawed; most obviously no cumulous impacts,” he said. “We are saying loud and clear, a unified message from all across the environmental community in the great State of New York, ‘stop, do this right, this is not an adequate draft, so go back to the drawing board’.”

Environmentalists are concerned with the horizontal drilling for natural gas, called fracking, which they feel could be harmful to water supplies including the expansive New York City reservoir system in the Catskills.

In the meantime, the Dutchess County Legislature stands poised to ask the state to extend beyond the December 30 deadline, the time by which public comment may be received.