State may extend deadline
WARWICK — Although the agenda for the town’s regular meeting on Nov. 8 included scheduling the public hearing to consider a zoning amendment that would preclude fracking in the Town of Warwick, Supervisor Michael Sweeton, skipped the item citing the lack of a draft ordinance.
The board heard a presentation about hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, by members of Sustainable Warwick and Community 2000 at its regular meeting on Oct. 11.
And at that meeting Dan Duthie, chairman of the town’s conservation board, said his board would study fracking and give a report before the end of the year.
On Oct. 25 Duthie urged the board to exercise home rule and ban fracking before Nov. 29 when New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation is scheduled to issue its final amendments to the state’s oil, gas and clean drinking water regulations.
Large swaths of Warwick sit atop the Utica Shale formation.
Much is at stake in the issue. Proponents argue the fracking will reap economic benefits by processing formerly inaccessible hydrocarbons for fuel.
Opponents cite a variety of environmental and health issues, including contamination of ground water, risks to air quality, the migration of gases and hydraulic fracturing chemicals to the surface among other complaints.
Duthie also suggested that Warwick look to the Tompkins County community of Dryden as a model in crafting a local zoning ordinance that both bans fracking and withstands a legal challenge. In February, a New York Supreme Court ruled that Dryden’s ban on fracking did not violate state laws.
According to Sweeton, Duthie has since been in contact with the DEC’s general counsel Steven Russo and local officials now believe that the DEC will either extend its own deadline by up to three months or allow the regulations to expire.
Either scenario would give the town additional time to review fracking in the context of Warwick’s Comprehensive Plan and determine the best way to use zoning to either contain fracking within the relatively small office-industrial zone, for example, or ban it outright.
Warwick has a history, for example, of banning the extraction of fissionable materials and any drilling requires an application to the planning board to which the supervisor is the liaison.
Sweeton said he is investigating such options as amending existing zoning and adding a special chapter for fracking. Any action requires a public hearing, which likely will take place in mid-December.
Until then, Sweeton said wants to hear more from both the public and the conservation board.
- Birgit Bogler