The state Department of Environmental Conservation hasn’t issued permits for the past four years for hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling for natural gas.

A bill introduced Friday by Sen. Jennifer Metzger, D-Middletown, in the state Senate would permanently ban horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing and gelled propane hydraulic fracturing in New York state.

Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting water, sand and some chemicals about 8,000 feet below the surface to break apart shale formations and unlock reserves of oil and natural gas. New York is home to the Marcellus Shale, a source of oil and gas that also lies beneath much of Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Roughly 18,700 square miles of the shale formation are in New York state. Metzger’s legislation also bans a practice called gelled propane fracturing, which uses propane gas because it is heavier than air.

Metzger writes in her legislative justification that the legislation codifies the findings of the state DEC’s 2015 State Environmental Quality Review act findings statement on horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Metzger said since 2015, there have been additional studies that show public health harms related to hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, including increased hospitalization rates, respiratory illness, reproductive risks including low birth weight and preterm births and dangers to at-risk populations.

“The evidence is clear: Horizontal drilling and HVHF pose significant and unacceptable risks to New York’s drinking water, air quality, environment, climate, and public health,” Metzger wrote. “The legislative ban on Horizontal Drilling and High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHF) and Gelled Propane Hydraulic Fracturing (GPHF) aligns with New York’s long tradition of pioneering leadership on environmental protection, public health, and climate change.”

Metzger also cites the 2016 EPA report, “Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas: Impacts from the Hydraulic Fracturing Water Cycle on Drinking Water Resources in the United States,” as evidence of environmental issues. In 2010, Congress asked the EPA to investigate the safety of hydraulic fracturing. A draft report was issued in 2015 followed by the final report in 2016.

The 2015 draft report said there were no widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States. That language was later removed from the final 2016 report, though the report also didn’t say hydraulic fracturing causes groundwater contamination. Instead, the EPA report, concluded during the presidency of President Barack Obama, identify six combinations of hydraulic fracturing activities that are likely to create groundwater contamination issues, including withdrawing water at times when there is limited water availability; spilling fluids or chemicals that result in large volumes of chemicals reaching groundwater sources; using hydraulic fracturing on wells with inadequate mechanical integrity; injecting hydraulic fracturing fluids directly into groundwater resources; discharging inadequately treated hydraulic fracturing wastewater into surface water resources; and disposing or storing hydraulic fracturing wastewater into unlined pits.

The report’s authors do not seem to not intend for those impacts to stall hydraulic fracturing efforts, however. Immediately following the statement of those activities is language saying policy makers can prevent such issues from happening.

“The above combinations of activities and factors highlight, in particular, the vulnerability of groundwater resources to activities in the hydraulic fracturing water cycle,” the report states. “By focusing attention on the situations described above, impacts on drinking water resources from activities in the hydraulic fracturing water cycle could be prevented or reduced. Overall, hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas is a practice that continues to evolve. Evaluating the potential for activities in the hydraulic fracturing water cycle to impact drinking water resources will need to keep pace with emerging technologies and new scientific studies. This report provides a foundation for these efforts, while helping to reduce current vulnerabilities to drinking water resources.”