Regulating gas-drilling

Sullivan County towns have the option

By FRITZ MAYER

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — Walk into any municipal meeting in Sullivan County these days, and you’re likely to come across a discussion on gas wells.

A joint meeting between the Callicoon town board, planning board and zoning board of appeals held on May 15 was intended to address the possibility of updating the town’s 28-year-old comprehensive plan. But the conversation also included quite a bit of discussion on what a town can do about regulating gas drilling.

Dr. Bill Pammer, the commissioner of Planning and Environmental Management for Sullivan County, said companies wishing to drill for gas in New York must get a drilling permit from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). But, he said, “The DEC permit does not release a gas company from local review.” He said it was an opportune time for the Town of Callicoon, as well as other towns in the county, to consider the creation of drilling ordinances to regulate various issues, such as those that deal with the height and noise of the drilling rigs.

In Texas, where gas drilling has been going on for at least four years, municipalities have created drilling ordinances that are quite extensive. One for the City of Bedford, for instance, runs 42 pages. Among the multitude of restrictions in the law are these: that drilling operations within 600 feet of occupied dwellings cannot cause noise levels at the dwelling to register more than five decibels above ambient background noise; that screening shrubs be placed around drill pads; that drillers post up to a $200,000 bond to cover expenses such as road repairs; and that no permits be issued for drilling in a city street.

Right now, like most towns in Sullivan County and in New York State, Callicoon has nothing on the books regarding the regulation of gas drilling, though many towns have begun to study the issue.

In Pennsylvania, which is not a strong home-rule state like New York, municipalities that have tried to regulate gas drilling through ordinances have been met with lawsuits. In 2007, the courts sided with gas companies in two western counties on the grounds that just about all aspects of drilling in that state are covered by the state’s Oil and Gas Act, which can’t be overridden by local governments.

The comprehensive plan

The bulk of the meeting in Callicoon was taken up with a discussion about what was involved with updating the town’s comprehensive plan. Pammer explained the process, and offered the county’s services to facilitate the process. The cost to the town, however, which would be about $15,000, concerned some council members. Lawmaker Howard Fuchs wondered if, in one of the resident surveys regarding the plan, residents could be asked if they were in favor of moving forward with it.

Pammer responded that such a question had never been asked of residents. Instead, the decision to update a plan was generally made by the board with input from the planning and zoning appeals boards.

Pammer said that the state recommends that towns update comprehensive plans every eight to 12 years. The current Callicoon plan was adopted in 1980. Pammer said that such an old plan might invite a lawsuit from a developer on the grounds that the plan was out of date or conflicted with the town’s zoning regulations.

Pammer said about half of the towns in the county have updated their comprehensive plans in the past four years, including Delaware, Tusten, Liberty, Lumberland, Thompson, Bethel, Fallsburg. Other towns, such as Highland and Cochecton, have plans that are less than 10 years old.