January 4, 2013 Attn: Draft HVHF Regulations Comments New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 625 Broadway

Albany, NY 12233-6510 Dear Commissioner Martens: I am writing to comment on the Revised Express Terms 6 NYCRR Parts 550 through 556 and 560. My comments are given under protest, as I am convinced that the issuance of the revised regulations by the DEC without the prior publication of the final SGEIS, is a severely flawed procedure. Notwithstanding this reservation, I offer the following comments with regard to the variances for setbacks in Part 560.4(c). The variances in this part would apply to setback distances from domestic water supplies and water supplies for livestock and crops; and setback distances from inhabited dwellings or places of assembly. It is critical that safe distances be maintained between these places and all activities associated with site preparation through partial reclamation after drilling. The Department, in the revised regulations, proposes to allow the landowner of such places (with the consent of all tenants in a dwelling) to agree to a waiver reducing the setback distances. The landowners consent to a waiver is likely to be obtained through payment of monetary inducements from the well owner/operator. In the cases of an occupied dwelling and its domestic water supplies, a waiver of the setback distance could subject the following persons (and possibly others), who are neither owners nor tenants, to increased risks through exposure to drilling related activities: other family members, long term guests, minor children, and persons who are not competent to make decisions about waivers. In the case of dwellings that will remain inhabited, the Department should specify that waivers of setback distances will be allowed only if all inhabitants, whether or not they are owners or tenants, are competent and of legal age and agree to the waiver in writing. In the case of domestic water supplies to dwellings that will remain inhabited, the Department should specify that waivers of setback distances will be allowed only if all inhabitants are competent and of legal age and agree to the waiver in writing. In the case of water supplies for livestock and crops, a distributor or consumer has no way of knowing that a farmer or grower has consented to a setback waiver, and that the water supplies for meat or produce have been subjected to possibly dangerous exposure to drilling-related activities. In the case of a water well or spring used as a water supply for livestock or crops, the Department should remove from the revised regulations the provision for waivers of setbacks. In the case of places of assembly, many occupants are not the landowner and are not tenants. They may be patients in hospitals, occupants of nursing homes, children in school or on playgrounds and sports fields, families using parks, visitors to libraries, parishioners in churches, workers in factories, workers in offices, workers in stores, customers at stores, visitors to public buildings and possibly many other citizens. In many of these cases the occupants or visitors have little or no choice regarding the location or time of their presence. None of these people, with the exception of the landowner, would have an

opportunity to deny consent to the exposure to drilling- related activities which would result from a waiver of the setback distance. In the case of places of assembly, the Department should remove from the revised regulations the provision for waivers of setbacks of well pads from places of assembly. In addition, the Department should clarify that places of assembly include all locations, whether privately or publicly owned, whether indoors or outdoors, at which members of the public assemble for any reason. Yours truly,