Towns want home rule strengthened

Tusten and Callicoon send resolutions to Albany

By FRITZ MAYER

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — At least 12 of the 15 towns in the county are considering resolutions that ask New York State Senator John Bonacic and Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther to support legislation that would restore some home-rule authority to the towns with regard to natural gas drilling.

The towns of Tusten and Callicoon unanimously passed the resolutions at their separate town meetings on July 13. The resolutions, which were very similarly worded, said that the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) that governs gas drilling gives the towns some authority to cover impacts to local roads, but the authority is not sufficient to ensure that costs for damage to local roads are paid for by gas companies and not local taxpayers.

The resolutions ask Gunther and Bonacic to support legislation that would allow the towns to impose impacts fees before permits are issued by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and impose performance bonds, which under current law can only be required by the DEC.

The resolutions also said that, collectively, the towns, with the assistance of the county planning department, would undertake an assessment of local roads and a study of the likely impacts to the roads from extensive gas-drilling operations.

The resolutions also asked the Albany lawmakers to support the local request that the fracking fluids, which are used to fracture the deep-lying shale and come back out of the well once drilling is completed, are stored in steel containers rather than in open pits.

Tusten supervisor Ben Johnson said the resolution grew out of an emergency meeting of the Sullivan County Association of Supervisors on July 10, which 12 of the 15 supervisors attended. All agreed to consider the legislation at upcoming board meetings.

Also on the matter of home rule, Ed Jackson, chairman of the Tusten Planning Board, said he had opened a dialogue with officials involved with gas drilling in Rifle, CO. He said like New York, that state has strong home-rule laws, and that local officials there had managed to recover some home-rule authority that had been stripped away by state law.

On the matter of a drilling moratorium, Johnson said he was not comfortable with moving forward with one yet, and that any moratorium had to come with a plan to address drilling concerns in areas where the town maintains some control: the condition of roads and the ability to raise real property assessments on properties that have successful gas wells.

The matter of a moratorium will be further discussed at the next meeting on July 22, at 7:00 p.m.