COOPERSTOWN -- Brewery Ommegang is warning that it would have to consider relocating if the town of Middlefield's ban on gas drilling is struck down and horizontal gas drilling begins.
The ominous warning is contained in a new legal brief filed in support of Middlefield's recent zoning law.
"If its water were to be contaminated, the Brewery could be forced to move its business elsewhere," the court papers state. "Its Master Brewer and Quality Control chemist agree that even if Brewery Ommegang wished to do so, it could not remove many of the toxic chemicals commonly used in hydrofracking, should they be released into the Brewery's water supply."
Ommegang, the village of Cooperstown and four environmental groups -- Otsego 2000, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Riverkeeper and Catskill Mountainkeeper -- are asking for friend-of-the-court status so they can be in Middlefield's corner as it defends its ban from a legal challenge mounted by Cooperstown Holstein Corp.
Cooperstown Holstein has leased tracts of land to the gas industry and contends the town overstepped its authority when it prohibited heavy industry, including drilling for gas and oil. The lawsuit maintains that only the state is empowered to regulate gas drilling.
According to the legal brief filed by Earthjustice in state Supreme Court, a non-profit environmental law firm that is representing the brewery and the other would-be parties to the case, what drew Ommegang to Middlefield was the "readily available and plentiful amounts of clean water."
Ommegang spokesman Larry Bennett told The Daily Star the brewery currently employs 83 people.
He noted about 50 percent of the land that borders Ommegang's acreage is leased to drilling companies. The health-threatening chemicals that would be used in fracking fluids, he said, would pose a severe threat to the brewery's wells, which supply Ommegang with more than a million gallons of high quality water a year.
"You can't build a filtration plant that would get rid of (the toxic chemicals used in fracking)," Bennett said. He also noted that trucking water into the plant would be too expensive.
The only options for Ommegang, he said, would be "shutting down or moving."
"We're really not threatening anybody," Bennett continued. "That is just the reality of the situation. It's a worst-case scenario at this point; but as we all know, these things can happen."
An attorney representing Cooperstown Holstein, Michael Wright of Vestal, said he will be filing a legal brief arguing that the application for friend of the court status for Ommegang, the village of Cooperstown and the environmental groups be rejected.
"We just don't think it's of significant import," he said of the brief, noting the central issue in the case involves whether Middlefield exceeded its authority in regulatory matters when it banned gas drilling in June.
Deborah Goldberg, the Earthjustice attorney representing Ommegang and the other parties seeking friend of the court -- or "amicus" -- status said in her 20 years of experience as a lawyer she had never encountered a litigant who spent so much effort trying to thwart such briefs.
"The gas industry is just scorched earth (in its approach) and is going to do whatever is necessary, including trying to prevent the judge from having another perspective," Goldberg said. In the end, though, she said it will be up to the court to determine whether or not the arguments being made by Ommegang and the other parties will be considered.
The Middlefield case has been assigned to state Court of Claims Judge Donald Cerio, who is based in Madison County and who will be handling the matter as an acting Otsego County state Supreme Court judge. No hearing date has been set.
Goldberg said Cooperstown Holstein has lined up as co-counsel a lawyer representing Anschutz Exploration Co. in its lawsuit seeking to toss out a similar drilling ban enacted by the town of Dryden. The judge handling that case has blocked requests from environmental groups seeking to have their arguments also be given consideration, she said.
Otsego County Chamber of Commerce President Rob Robinson said his group is divided on hydrofracking and has not taken a formal stance. However, if a major employer such as Ommegang was considering pulling out of the region, the chamber would work towards helping it stay, he said.
"Anything that would force a company to think about moving out of the region is a problem that we would need to deal with," Robinson said.
The village of Cooperstown, in seeking to have the Middlefield zoning rule upheld, also pointed to potential economic consequences for the region and the importance of allowing municipalities determine their own character through local zoning laws.
"The economic devastation to our historic village and our world class attractions -- the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, The Farmers' Museum, the Fenimore Art Museum, the Glimmerglass Festival, the historic Otesaga Resort Hotel, Bassett Healthcare Network, and Otsego Lake -- would be incalculable," the legal brief stated.
It went on to say: "The Village has an interest in this case because the preemption challenge filed against local bans on gas development and infrastructure threatens to undermine the longstanding power of towns to use zoning to protect community character."
At issue in both the Middlefield and Dryden cases is whether state statute trumps local attempts to zone out gas drilling.
The gas industry, in its court papers, argues the state Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law, enacted in 1981, "supersedes all local ordinances relating to natural-gas drilling, subject only to two limited exceptions for the exercise of jurisdiction by local governments: local roads and property taxes."
Local News
Related Photos
-
Benjamin Patton | The Daily Star Brewery Ommegang is seen on Monday, November 14, 2011.
Discussion
Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.
Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.
Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.
For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.
Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.
RULES OF CONDUCT:
We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:
1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.
WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:
1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:
1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.
WE WELCOME:
1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.
MONITORING:
We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time (including weekends) will be sporadic.
Ommegang: Fracking may force us to leave
- Local News
-
-
Judge upholds Dryden gas drilling ban
COOPERSTOWN - Advocates for home rule in setting energy policy won the first round of a major battle with the natural gas industry Tuesday when state Supreme Court Judge Phillip Rumsey upheld the town of Dryden's law that zones out drilling operations.
-
Oneonta council OKs hiring of 5 officers
ONEONTA _ The Common Council on Tuesday approved the hiring of five police officers, but not without dissent.
-
Woman held at knifepoint
COBLESKILL -- Village police, after a tense standoff, rescued a woman who was being held at knifepoint Sunday night by a 23-year-old local man, authorities said Tuesday.
-
Proposed gas pipeline could run through Schoharie, Delaware
COOPERSTOWN -- Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., one of the companies involved in hydrofracking operations in Pennsylvania, announced Tuesday that it is teaming up with a second company to run a large-diameter natural gas pipeline to Schoharie County from Susquehanna County, Pa.
-
Crime briefs
A Springfield man was sentenced Feb. 15 in Otsego County Court, following a guilty plea last month on a burglary case, court officials said.
-
'Land Ethic' documentary to be screened Friday
A free screening open to the public of the documentary film "Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time" will be at 7 p.m. Friday in the Instructional Resource Center on West Dormitory Road at SUNY Oneonta.
-
Owner: Softball camp will open again this summer
COOPERSTOWN -- The owner of the Diamond Dreams of Cooperstown softball camp, which has been enmeshed in court battle initiated by its neighbors, said Tuesday he is confident the business will open again this summer despite a recent legal setback.
-
Teen receives Eagle Scout rank with ramp project
Nathan Curtin of Sidney Center is certain he would not have attained the rank of Eagle Scout with BSA Troop 99 of Sidney if it had not been for his parents _ and the parents of fellow scouts.
-
Water quality meeting set
The Otsego County Water Quality Coordinating Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday will feature presentations by area businesses with expertise in water quality improvement and protection projects, a media release announced Thursday.
- Tuesday, February 21, 2012
-
Schumer: Flood relief held up
SCHOHARIE -- The federal spigot for disaster aid that could spark sorely needed business growth has become gummed up by congressional inaction, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said Monday.
-
Local artist to show Gettysburg images in exhibit
A local artist will share images of Gettysburg in an exhibition at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown starting this spring.
-
Court: Town exceeded authority in granting permit to baseball camp
COOPERSTOWN -- A youth baseball camp has been caught off base -- with a state appellate court ruling that officials in a Herkimer County town exceeded their authority when they issued it a building permit.
-
Fly Creek man sues over road abandonment
COOPERSTOWN -- A Fly Creek resident who has obtained a building permit for his property off Honey Joe Road in the town of Otsego has initiated a lawsuit against the municipality after local officials declared the street abandoned.
- Monday, February 20, 2012
-
Polar Bear Jump leaps to record donations this year
There may have been fewer people than in the past few years taking the ultimate plunge into icy-cold water Saturday during the Goodyear Polar Bear Jump, but more money was raised than ever.
-
Teen honored for giving students reality check on tobacco
Samantha Johnson at 17 already has award-winning experience fighting for a cause: Just say no to tobacco and smoking.
-
Supermarkets to again support annual food drive
Two supermarkets again will support the annual 6th Ward Athletic Club Ani P. Colone Food Drive, which starts Wednesday, organizers said.
-
News Briefs
Internship fair to be Wednesday A new internship coordinator at the State University College at Oneonta in collaboration with Hartwick College will present a "Summer Opportunities Fair" from 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Hunt Union Ballroom at SUNY Oneonta.
-
Winning regional O.M. teams advance to state competition
Students from across the region met in Sidney Center on Saturday to compete in the Region 13 Odyssey of the Mind tournament.
- Saturday, February 18, 2012
-
Area drivers face rising gas prices
Gasoline prices are on the rise again, making motorists dig deeper into their pockets to pay the total on the pump.
-
On the Bright Side: Cornell helps area school's project come to fruition
Students at Roxbury Central School are on their way to becoming self-sufficient locavores, at least when they're at school.
-
Judge upholds Dryden gas drilling ban
