Brian Nearing is reporting in the Times Union opponents of natural gas fracking continue to press the state Department of Environmental Conservation over proposed new rules that would allow landfills in New York to continue accepting tons of such waste from neighboring Pennsylvania. According to a report by Environmental Advocates of New York, landfills in the western part of the state have taken more than 600,000 tons of solid waste from fracking wells, plus an additional 22,000 barrels of liquids, all from out-of-state sources. DEC spokesman Sean Mahar called the Environmental Advocates report inaccurate. “With its strict oversight, DEC continues to see no evidence of pollution associated with drilling waste at landfills,” said Mahar. Legislative efforts to ban fracking waste imports first occurred in 2012, and have failed to clear the Legislature. Read the full story in the Times Union.