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Lansing Drilling Committee Chairman Larry Beck told the Lansing Town Board Wednesday that they should enact a one-year moratorium on gas drilling to give the Town time to prepare for possible consequences of drilling in and around the town.  Beck said the Town needs the time to revise its comprehensive plan, review and update local ordinances, and undertake impact assessments on roads, aquifers, the environment, and emergency services.

"The Town needs to ensure that it is financially, legislatively and physically prepared to deal with these threats," he said.  "This will take time and effort.  A moratorium will give us the time."

Beck said that a moratorium will protect the community while a permanent response is developed in a thoughtful way that will be defensible in court.  He said an outright ban may not be defensible, but blocking out a year to formulate ordinances and laws to best protect the town would prevent others from deciding Lansing's future.

He identified specific items that the community should want to protect, noting that a survey in November showed the majority of Lansing residents oppose drilling in the town.  Among concerns are threats to water and air quality, availability of affordable housing, decreased property values, threats to the tax base, damage to farm land, drilling impact on geologic faults and the Cargill salt mine, recreation, scenic views, and the tourism industry.


He said that Lansing has no road use law and the Town should introduce one, as well as updating zoning, noise, air, and light pollution ordinances.

Beck noted that now that the dSGEIS comment period is finished it is likely that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will allow the issuing of drilling permits, possibly within a year.  He said that once permitting begins it will be more difficult and expensive to institute a moratorium, and he urged that the board put it in place as soon as possible.

Beck also said that existing templates for postponing drilling are available and could be used as the basis for a Lansing moratorium, saving on legal costs.

Lansing Town Supervisor Kathy Miller said there is a sequence of events that would lead to passing a moratorium.

"We'll be discussing this and where we go from here at the working session on February 1st," said Miller.  "It's a working meeting so we'll discuss all of these things.  Our intention is not to pass legislation at working meetings, but rather to use them to get information that will pertain to when we do pass legislation."

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