Marcellus town board wants a local law imposing a moratorium. Otisco officials need more information before taking action.
View full sizePeople organized by Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation rally outside the state office building on East Washington Street, in Syracuse, to call for a moratorium on hydrofracking for natural gas, including Andy Major (left), Amber Coon (middle) and Ann Jamison, all of Syracuse. Marcellus, NY -- Marcellus and Otisco town boards reacted differently on Monday night to proposals to impose moratoriums on hydrofracking, a controversial method of drilling for natural gas.
The Marcellus board directed its lawyer, James Gascon, to draft a local law by the board’s next meeting, scheduled for Aug. 26. The board could then set a date and time for a hearing on the proposal.
Hydrofracking, also called simply “fracking,” is a drilling method that injects a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into underground shale formations. The mixture fractures the shale, freeing the natural gas trapped in the rock formation.
The industry says fracking is safe and has been used to decades in New York to drill thousands of wells. Opponents say fracking harms the environment, especially the use of high volumes of the water, sand and chemical mixture and the new technique of drilling horizontally through underground shale.
“I think our health and our environment and our water (are) too precious to just kind of say ‘Let’s step back and wait and see what happens.’ I don’t think we can do that,” said Anita Williams of the Otisco Lake Preservation Association.
In urging the board to act, Williams noted that earlier that night the hired a contractor to test a cemetery fence for lead paint.
“You’re concerned about lead paint,” she said. “Why aren’t we concerned about what hydrofracking does to our environment. Why aren’t more people standing up and saying ‘Wait a minute. That gas is there. It’s been there for millions of years. It’s not going away.’ Let’s step back and take time.”
Town Supervisor Dan Ross said there is no urgency to enact a ban, noting there are no applications to drill in the town pending. “Do we want to pass our own moratorium -- every town have their own moratorium as opposed to a statewide moratorium,” he said.
A local law could put the town at odds with state energy regulators, he also said.
After the meeting, Williams said Tully, DeWitt, Skaneateles, Cortlandville and Onondaga County have all enacted moratoriums, and the town of Camillus changed its zoning law to outlaw fracking anywhere in the town.
Otisco Supervisor Wayne Amato said his board took no action when the issue came up at it’s meeting Monday night. “Right now the board doesn’t have a lot of information to work off of, so nothing has been done,” he said.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation is studying whether new regulations are needed to govern hydrofracking, but officials have not reached any decision.
The DEC has established more stringent regulations for drilling in the Skaneateles Lake watershed, which provides unfiltered drinking water to Syracuse, Skaneateles, Elbridge and Jordan, and for drilling in the Catskills, which provides drinking water to New York City.
Williams said the lake association will raise the issue at Thursday night’s Spafford town board meeting. Marcellus, Otisco and Spafford are all in the Otisco Lake watershed.
Reach John Stith at jstith@syracuse.com or 251-5718.