Syracuse latest city to ban hydrofracking
The city of Syracuse became the latest municipality to ban a controversial technique used with natural gas drilling, following Albany, Buffalo and a dozen or so towns that have moved to restrict or prohibit hydraulic fracturing within its limits.
The Syracuse Common Council approved the ban this afternoon.
Like bans in Albany and Buffalo, the move is largely symbolic. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed banning surface drilling within the Syracuse watershed, and geologists and gas companies don’t anticipate much gas coming out of the northern portion of the Marcellus Shale.
But the ban still sends a message, one that the gas industry didn’t take too kindly.
“The city of Syracuse’s ban on hydraulic fracture stimulation does not consider the safe history of natural gas exploration in New York, the strict regulatory structure of local, state and federal governmental bodies that regulate our industry, and the 60-year record of success in this country,” Brad Gill, executive director of the state’s Independent Oil & Gas Association, said in a statement.
Environmental and anti-fracking groups, however, disagree. They point to accidents and incidents in Pennsylvania that have led to methane-contaminated water wells, as well as various spills and blowouts, as a testament to the safety of the industry and practice.
Whether or not the municipal bans are legal will likely be decided in court. An attorney for Anschutz Exploration Corp. has filed a lawsuit challenging whether the town of Dryden’s ban is allowed under the state’s oil and gas law, which gives regulatory authority over the industry to the DEC. A landowner attorney has also filed a similar suit against the town of Middlefield, Otsego County.
| 
Email This
Advertisements
I am so happy, this practice is being banned! This is outrageous attempt to kill our environment! Let’s go solar instead!
Thank you so much for the voice of wisdom and banning this atrocious practice
Hopefully Utica will be moved by enough people to ban hydrofracking so we will not take the chance of having our water poisoned by cancerous chemicals like benzene and pesticides.
What’s a Utica?
Cant believe the HUGE corporations that operate these hydro fracking pits and wells in those states that were bought and paid for to allow it.
This has the potential to pollute our water supply.
We have so far heard NOTHING from Cuomo to indicate that he has any concerns for our drinking water supply and that he wont also be bought and paid for by the HUGE corporations who contribute to politicals campaigns
Syracuse and other cities are smart in deciding what we all need as a safeguard for our water supply.
We cant have water from our taps that will ignite when we drop a fork in the sink and cause a spark because our tap water has gas in it from fracking operations
I think it is a pseudonym for a uterus.