LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION memorializing the United States Congress to enact
H.R. 2766, repealing the 2005 exemption for hydraulic fracturing in the
Safe Drinking Water Act

WHEREAS, In the 2005 Energy Policy Act, Congress exempted hydraulic
fracturing by the oil and gas industry, the only industry to be so
exempted, from the Safe Drinking Water Act, which was designed to
protect people's water supply from contamination from toxic materials;
and
WHEREAS, Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting millions of gallons
of water and sand mixed with tens of thousands of gallons of chemicals
-- some that are known to cause cancer -- deep into the ground, where as
much as a third of those fluids remain after the gas is removed; and
WHEREAS, More than 1,000 cases of contamination have been documented
by courts and state and local governments in New Mexico, Alabama, Ohio,
Texas, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, where hydraulic fracturing has been
taking place; and
WHEREAS, These cases of contamination have cast a significant doubt on
the 2004 Environmental Protection Agency study that concluded that frac-
turing did not pose a risk to drinking water; and
WHEREAS, The body of the same EPA study contains damaging information
that was not mentioned in the conclusion, and that the study foreshad-
owed many of the problems now being reported across the country; and
WHEREAS, It is imperative that we protect our drinking water supplies
from harmful chemicals that are being pumped into the ground by oil and
gas companies looking to produce on more and more land in New York State
and across the country; and
WHEREAS, While there is value in drilling for natural gas, it is
important that it be done in a manner that does not have a long-term
negative impact on our drinking water -- a resource that is critical to
human health and survival; and
WHEREAS, Members of Congress are now coalescing around draft legis-
lation that would repeal the extraordinary exemptions for oil and gas
drilling from the Safe Water Act and with Congress member Hinchey
successfully pressing the EPA to conduct a review of its policy on the
risk that fracturing poses to drinking water supplies; now, therefore,
be it
RESOLVED, That the Congress of the United States be, and hereby, is
respectfully memorialized by this Legislative Body to enact H.R. 2766,
repealing the 2005 exemption for hydraulic fracturing in the Safe Drink-
ing Water Act; and be it further
RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to the President of the Senate of the United States, the Speaker
of the House of Representatives, and to each member of the Congress of
the United States from the State of New York.