The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released a report Wednesday, Sept. 7 on its findings about hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” a method of natural gas drilling.

The report, titled Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DSGEIS), gives a detailed analysis of the major environmental impacts and safety concerns related to fracking, as well as a guideline for state regulation of the drilling.

The DEC has set specific dates during which all responses to the document from the public must be received.

“The public comment period for the revised draft SGEIS begins [Sept. 7] and concludes Dec. 12,” a DEC press release read. “The public comment period for the regulations will begin in early October and will run concurrently with the DSGEIS public comment period. DEC plans to hold four public hearings during the comment period for the DSGEIS and regulations in November. The hearings will be held in counties within the Marcellus Shale region, as well as New York City. Exact dates and locations will be released in early October.”

Fracking releases natural gas from subsurface rock formations by drilling into the ground and pumping millions of gallons of water laced with chemicals down to fracture the bedrock, allowing the gas to bubble up to the surface.

So far, the proposed locations for allowing fracking in the state include Broome, Cattaraugus, Chemung, Chenango, Delaware and Tioga Counties.

Brendan Woodruff, campaign organizer for the Binghamton University chapter of New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), said he is worried that this time frame is too short for proper evaluation of the report.

“The 90-day comment period is insensitive on the part of Gov. Cuomo given the current situation many people find themselves in because of the recent floods,” Woodruff said.

According to the DEC, its biggest priority is to protect New Yorkers’ drinking water and the environment by ensuring safe extraction of the state’s natural gas.

In the DSGEIS, the DEC outlines the potential risks that come with fracking as well as proposed solutions to these risks.

Opinions about fracking’s risks vary.

Woodruff expressed his concern that not enough research has been done and that the DEC was not given enough time to effectively evaluate the safety of fracking.

“The DEC has not done an adequate job protecting the environment. The draft they release does not look into the effects it will have on public health in depth and proposes no way to dispose of the harmful wastes associated with fracking,” Woodruff said.

Steven Mazzoni, a sophomore majoring in accounting, disagreed.

“Regarding the 90 days that the DEC has given to review the 1,000-page document, I believe that this is more than ample time to formulate an idea about the possible risks associated with fracking,” Mazzoni said.

Dan Fitzsimmons, president of the Joint Landowners’ Coalition of New York, argued, however, that there wasn’t any proof that fracking is dangerous.

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” Fitzsimmons said. “There has been a lot of misinformation about the process. If you read the research, you will find that the damage done in places where fracking has been performed is a result of something else and a not a direct result of the process.”

According to a report from The New York Times that was published in March, the result of thousands of documents obtained by the Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the wastewater produced by hydrofracking contains dangerous materials and is often not properly treated before it is released into waterways used for cities’ drinking water. These include the Susquehanna River, which provides drinking water for communities from Binghamton to Baltimore.

A whole section the DSGEIS, some 300 pages, is devoted to analyzing damage done by fracking in Pennsylvania.

A hydrofracking well can produce over a million gallons of wastewater, which often contains highly corrosive salts, carcinogens, radioactive elements and the chemicals used in the process. In Pennsylvania, this wastewater is sometimes trucked to sewage plants and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, sometimes just miles upstream from the drinking water intake plants. According to The New York Times, the sewage plants are not equipped to test or treat the fracking water sufficiently to remove its harmful components before discharging it.

Emily Schumacher, a sophomore in the Decker School of Nursing, said she thought it is important for BU students to be knowledgeable, as well as concerned, about fracking.

“Coming into college I must say I was not aware of the process [fracking] entails and the harmful repercussions it creates,” Schumacher said. “Sadly, I feel like a majority of students on campus are not aware of what hydrofracking is and how devastating the environmental and health effects are. I think it’s important to educate students on what exactly it is and how it can affect them in everyday life.”