After years of debate over the method, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration announced on Wednesday it is imposing a state-wide ban on hydraulic fracturing, citing numerous potential health risks.

More popularly known as fracking, hydraulic fracturing is a controversial method of extracting oil and natural gas through the introduction of water, sand and chemicals in resource-bearing rock formations such as shale.

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"I cannot support high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the great state of New York," said acting Health Commissioner Howard Zucker. Based on Zucker's conclusion, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation would then issue a legally binding recommendation.

Environmentalists have argued that fracking contaminates the groundwater and that increased drilling activity can lead to air pollution as methane is also released in the process of breaking the shale. They also say fracking can contribute to seismic activity.

The decision makes permanent a temporary moratorium on fracking imposed by the state in 2008 as green advocates increasingly raised awareness on the issue, prompting New York to initiate an environmental study about the process.

Cuomo, who is known to act decisively on highly divisive issues like gun control and gay marriage, put off making a decision on fracking pending the long-awaited study. "I've never had anyone say to me, 'I believe fracking is great,' " Cuomo said. "Not a single person in those communities. What I get is, 'I have no alternative but fracking.' "

The decision is expected to fire up a new wave of debates as the extraction method, presently the only viable process to get to hard-to-reach shale formations, is seen by many as an option to provide impetus to a sluggish state economy.  

Oil and gas companies criticized the ban, arguing that the state would miss out on providing thousands of jobs and on revenues that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Studies and geologic surveys show that a part of the so-called Marcellus Shale, a huge natural gas reserve in the Appalachians, lies in the southern part of the state. Neighboring Pennsylvania has cashed in on the fracking boom and has extracted 3.26 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from the formation in 2013 alone, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.