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Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program

Well Permit Issuance for Horizontal Drilling And High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing to Develop the Marcellus Shale and Other Low-Permeability Gas Reservoirs

The draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) for potential natural gas drilling activities in the Marcellus Shale formation is now available for public review and comment. The draft SGEIS supplements the existing Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) and analyzes the range of potential impacts of shale gas development using horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing. The draft SGEIS outlines safety measures, protection standards and mitigation strategies that operators would have to follow to obtain permits.

Comments - The public comment period has ended and the Department is now evaluating the many comments received. Watch this page for updates.

Document Availability - The document is offered as a PDF document that can be accessed by chapter below. The entire draft SGEIS document ( PDF, 22.77 MB) is also available as a single PDF file. It can be downloaded and searched.

Paper copies are available for review at a number of locations.

The dSGEIS was originally posted on 9/30/09. Subsequent to that date typos were found and corrected. No textual changes were made. This document was posted on 10/05/09.

On 10/26/09 Chapter 5 was updated to include Photo 5.25. No textual changes were made.

Some of these are very large documents. Only print them if you really need to, and only those sections that you need. Double side all printing and copying jobs. For every ton of office paper use avoided, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by more than 8 metric tons.

dSGEIS Table of Contents

Executive Summary

  1. Introduction (PDF, 122 KB)
  2. Description of Proposed Action (PDF, 696 KB)
  3. Proposed SEQRA Review Process (PDF, 180 KB)
  4. Geology (PDF, 2.97 MB)
  5. Natural Gas Development and High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing (PDF, 4.15 MB)
  6. Potential Environmental Impacts (PDF, 2.71 MB)
  7. Mitigation Measures (PDF, 648 KB)
  8. Permit Process and Regulatory Coordination (PDF, 151 KB)
  9. Alternatives (PDF, 153 KB)

Glossary (PDF, 158 KB)

Bibliography (PDF, 61 KB)

Consultants Bibliography (PDF, 219 KB)

Appendices Part 1 (PDF, 1.2 MB)

Appendices Part 2 (PDF, 3.9 MB)

Appendices Part 3 (PDF, 575 KB)