NY DEC Takes on Fracking

assessment, human health, environmental fate and impact, risk assessment and risk management, and informatics and modeling. The emphasis on informatics and modeling, new for this update of the strategy, reflects the need for a way to organize the rapidly growing wealth of data on ENMs. Coral reefs sequester carbon dioxide, support fisheries, protect the coastline from storms, and help generate tourism revenue. But reefs around the world are being compromised by changing ocean waters and further threatened by opportunistic pathogens such as Serratia marcescens, which causes white pox in Caribbean corals. Researchers have discovered that a cocktail of other bacteria isolated from Caribbean reef tracts, when administered under laboratory conditions, helped prevent white pox disease progression in the polyp Aiptasia pallida, a coral cousin and surrogate model for coral research. 6 The researchers believe it may be possible to use beneficial probiotic-like bacteria as a tool for the proactive management of coral reefs. After months of public meetings and a review by the agency's independent Science Advisory Board, the EPA recently announced its final research plan for hydraulic fracturing (" fracking "). 7 The study plan encompasses the full cycle of how water is acquired, used, and disposed of during fracking. The initial research results and study findings will be released in 2012, with a final report expected in 2014. 1. Perring AE, et al. Characteristics of black carbon aerosol from a surface oil burn during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. 14 Nov 2011]. 6. Alagely A, et al. Signaling-mediated cross-talk modulates swarming and biofilm formation in a coral pathogen Serratia marcescens. Announces Final Study Plan to Assess Hydraulic Fracturing/Congressionally directed study will evaluate potential impacts on drinking water [press release]. New York is one of a handful of states (others include New Jersey, Maryland, and North Carolina) that have banned hydraulic fracturing, or " fracking, " pending further study and scientific review. A key element of New York's review is the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), a 1,537-page document drafted by the state's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The SGEIS was issued in September 2011 with a comment period scheduled to close December 12. No fracking permits have been approved in New York, and none will be until the SGEIS is finalized, according to Emily DeSantis, the DEC's assistant director of public information. DeSantis says fracking's public health impacts were " fully considered " in the draft SGEIS. …