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The Lansing Town Board is planning to vote on a law that would ban hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) within town borders.  Town Attorney Guy Krogh has crafted a law that is currently under review by board members and the Town Drilling Committee.  At a working meeting Wednesday, Supervisor Kathy Miller said there could be a law in place before the end of June.

"This was authorised back in October or November," Krogh said.  "There was a lot of discussion that as long as it wasn't some type of heavy industry ban, and didn't affect our existing businesses, and as long as it was specific to this type of gas drilling and not other types of fracturing operations like water wells, salt mining, etcetera, that it was fine."

Councilwoman Ruth Hopkins said the proposed law has already been reviewed by the drilling committee, saying they didn't find anything they wanted to add to it.

Lansing's neighboring township of Genoa is also about to vote on a ban.  Both Genoa and Lansing passed moratoriums on fracking in effect, and extended their moratoriums for an additional 12 months in 2013.  Genoa Supervisor Lorie Sellen-Gross received a letter from Cayuga County last month saying there was no need for county involvement in a ban, and told the Genoa board there may be a Public Hearing at its June 10th meeting.  Krogh said the Genoa law is similar to the one to be proposed in Lansing, but dissimilar in that Genoa does not have zoning.

Krogh said he is repeatedly asked why a local ban is necessary when a state moratorium is in place.  In December of 2014 Governor Andrew Cuomo made a speech in which he said he would ban hydrofracking state-wide based on the Health Department Commissioner's recommendation.  But Krogh said no action was ever taken to legally enact a ban.

"The Governor made a speech," Krogh said.  "It was widely acclaimed, lauded in some circles and cursed in other circles.  He declared that there was a ban in New York.  There's not.  That's a legislative act."

Krogh summarized that the Health Department said it couldn't effectively evaluate the environmental impacts of hydrofracking because the industry hasn't yet produced a viable plan to deal with its own waste products.  The long term health effects could not be known because of hydrofracking's infancy as an industry.

"Again, you can debate whether that industry is genuinely in its infancy," Krogh said.  "But what he basically did was say we are not going to go forward with a regulatory scheme tacked onto the solution mining rules by going back to a 1984 solution mining environmental study, saying 'we'll update that and it will give us what we need to go forward.'  So it was a house of cards. It fell."

Krogh said there is nothing stopping drilling companies from opening a High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHF) mine anywhere in New York State.  He noted would have to go through a full environmental review, but there is no law prohibiting it, and no regulatory system to govern hydrofracking.

Miller noted that New York State Senator Mike Nozzolio has been attempting to create a protected zone exempting the Fingerlakes from any hydrofracking.  In 2011 Nozzolio asked the state Department of Environmental Conservation to extend the natural gas drilling ban the agency wanted to establish for the Skaneateles Lake and New York City watershed regions to all Finger Lakes watersheds.

Miller said the Board will set a public hearing time and date in two weeks.  The public hearing will most likely be set for June 17th, after which the Town Board is expected to vote on the ban.

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