Sullivan officials’ gas drilling moves

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — As state law now stands, there is nothing to prevent gas drilling companies from setting up drilling rigs in flood plains. Sullivan County lawmakers would like to change that. On June 18, they passed a resolution urging the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to prohibit gas drilling activities “from occurring anywhere within 100-year and 500-year flood plains as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency” (FEMA).

The resolution noted that the DRBC had previously asserted its authority to review all aspects of natural gas extraction in the special protection waters of the Upper Delaware Watershed.

The county legislature also passed a resolution urging the state legislature to clear up ambiguities in the state’s Environmental Conservation Law regarding the authority of municipalities to regulate local road use with regard to gas drilling, and asked that the legislature specifically authorize local governments to require that gas drilling companies post bonds or other types of insurance against possible damage of local roads caused by gas drillers.

In a third gas-drilling-related resolution, county lawmakers asked state lawmakers to give local officials the same authority over gas drilling that they now have over mining operations under the Mined Land Reclamation Law, which allows local officials to have input on such things as setbacks from property lines of mines operations, and the authority to determine which routes truck drivers must use while traveling to and from a mine.