Four Corning City Council members were among 313 elected officials across upstate New York who signed a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in early June, saying the DEC’s draft regulations on high-volume, horizontal fracking are inadequate and calling for more independent studies to be added.

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The elected officials -- which included village trustees and mayors, town board members and town supervisors, clerks and highway superintendents, city council members and mayors, and county legislators -- called for the following:

• A comprehensive health impact assessment of the entire shale gas extraction process, including direct and indirect health effects and cumulative health impacts.

• A revised analysis that considers all potentially negative socioeconomic impacts, including but not limited to increased demands on local governments, first responders and law enforcement, and the effects of drilling on property values and home mortgages, existing businesses and economies, and local community character.

• A revised study of cumulative impacts, including impacts on rural landscape, water resources, air quality, and greenhouse gas emissions, and the lack of safe alternatives for wastewater disposal.

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