OSSINING – The Riverkeeper environmental organization is concerned with the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s draft supplemental environmental impact statement it released last week to guide shale gas extraction.               

Among their concerns, Riverkeeper Program Director Kate Hudson said, is the document’s failure to protect the supply infrastructure of the New York City water supply.

“The aqueducts and tunnels that do not lie within the watershed do not receive any protection in the SEGEIS and given that that infrastructure is already leaking and aging, it is of significant concern that hydraulic fracturing would be allowed anywhere near that infrastructure and it’s a concern that we share with DEP,” she said.

Riverkeeper also believes “key weaknesses” in the plan include that regulations must be in place before permits and the DEC should not issue permits until it has the resources in place.