Broome

In today's New York Times, reporter Danny Hakim writes that Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration is quietly pursuing an entirely new plan to regulate hydraulic fracturing.

Anonymous sources, including a senior Department of Environmental Conservation official, told the New York Times that Cuomo is seeking to limit the practice to areas where the Marcellus Shale formation is deepest, along the New York/Pennsylvania border.

Towns would also have to agree to permit hydraulic fracturing within their borders:

Even within that southwest New York region — primarily Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Steuben and Tioga Counties — drilling would be permitted only in towns that agree to it, and would be banned in Catskill Park, aquifers and nationally designated historic districts.  Read more

Above: Paul Rush, the Deputy Commissioner of the DEP, helps Jim Eisel, the Chair of the Delaware County Board of Supervisors, into a life preserver at the boat launch on the Pepacton Reservoir on May 24, 2012. Photo by Julia Reischel. 

It's finally happened: Recreational boats are allowed on the Pepacton, the Schoharie, and the Neversink reservoirs.

Those three Catskills reservoirs, which supply the bulk of New York City's drinking water, have been off-limits for generations. Before this week, only metal rowboats were allowed on them, and then only for those with proper fishing permits. Now, canoes, kayaks, sculls and small sailboats are free to roam the waterways. (For specifics on navigating the rules and regulations, see our boating guide.)

This week, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the reservoirs, threw three separate opening ceremonies at the three city-owned lakes in three different Catskill counties. (A fourth NYC resevoir, the Cannonsville in Delaware County, has been open to boating in a pilot program for three years.)  Read more