Dueling moratoriums debated at hearing

Local News

Related Photos

CSS88CE.jpg

Discussion

COMMENTING ON STORIES:

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.

comments powered by Disqus

February 14, 2012

By Jake Palmateer Staff Writer The Daily Star Tue Feb 14, 2012, 02:30 PM EST

WEST ONEONTA _ A public hearing on competing gas drilling moratoriums Monday night in the town of Oneonta was the latest battleground in the debate over hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.

More than 150 people crammed into the town hall's meeting space, with dozens more spilling into a hallway.

Supervisor Robert Wood prefaced the hearing by saying the board would take no action at the meeting.

The board would vote on either a five-month and more limited moratorium or a more expansive 12-month moratorium only after a town Board of Ethics reviews the background of all board members, including Councilman Bill Mirabito, for conflicts of interest, Wood said.

What followed was nearly two hours of pleas against drilling, and more specifically hydrofracking, for the sake of the environment and public health. A minority spoke of a local economy in near ruin because of a lack of business development and the need to keep an open mind toward drilling.

There were also words of caution from some who said the debate is tearing the town apart and pitting neighbor against neighbor. But not all who spoke were from the town of Oneonta. Anti-drilling activists from Butternuts and Fly Creek addressed the board from the same floor as drilling supporters from Maryland and Otego.

Early speakers targeted Mirabito, who has a 21 percent share of Mirabito Holdings and is on the board of directors of Corning Natural Gas. A jointly owned company of those two firms, Leatherstocking LLC, is working to develop pipelines in Chenango County.

One man, Howard Hannum of Sidney Center, asked for Mirabito to be removed from the meeting room and to have the door shut behind him.

"Even if he sat and said nothing, his mere presence in the room would be that of a lobbyist," Hannum said.

Others defended Mirabito, including Christine Amos.

"I'm not pro-frack. I'm not anti-frack. I'm pro-business," Amos said. "Many have been forced out of business. Others are struggling to survive."

Some speakers pointed to a petition drive that garnered 1,753 signatures as a reason for the town to vote in favor of the 12-month moratorium, which was brought forth by Wood. It is an amalgamation of earlier moratorium drafts by Town Attorney Richard Harlem and one by anti-gas drilling lawyer David Slottje. The 12-month moratorium proposal focuses on all forms of drilling and associated activities, such as the storage of drilling-related materials.

A competing moratorium was drafted by Harlem and brought forth by Mirabito. It would impose a five-month moratorium on hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling only. Vertical drilling would still be allowed.

The 12-month moratorium would allow time for the town to look at its zoning laws, which town officials have said already includes a gas drilling ban, according to Maria McMullen, an architect of the petition drive.

Those town laws are "outdated and weak" and also do not address activities related to the gas drilling industry that could also have harmful impacts, she said.

But Brett Holleran of Oneonta said those who were using the petition drive as justification for supporting the 12-month moratorium didn't speak for him.

"I signed the petition as well when I was under the impression it was just for fracking," Holleran said. "Maybe not everybody understood completely what they were signing, me included."

Holleran shifted to another aspect of the issue and lamented what he said he was seeing around him.

"I have never seen the town so divided," Holleran said. "We are pitting neighbor against neighbor. I think a lot of bullying is going on in this room in both directions."

Bill Whitaker, who said he was an 18-year town resident, said he had just one question.

"Why is the New York City watershed exempted from all drilling if it is so safe?" he asked.

But he got no answer and was not entitled to one under the rules regarding public hearings. There was little interaction between the board members and the public aside from Wood banging a gavel to signal the end to each speaker's three minutes.

"Are we really saying we are going to let the boys with the big money tell us what to do?" Whitaker said.

Edward Zaengle of the town of Maryland urged the board to hear both sides of the issue.

"People have been in economic ruin because of what's been going on with our economy," Zaengle said.

The Rev. Craig Schwalenberg, pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Society in Oneonta, said he has tried to keep an open mind and said he was aware of the need to revitalize the area's struggling economy.

"Sacrificing our environment, sacrificing our future of our children is not the way to do that," Schwalenberg said.

Dick Downey of the Unatego Area Landowners Association said his organization represents a dozen landowners in the town of Oneonta.

Downey, of Otego, said the opposition to drilling was being led by "propaganda from an ideologically-driven elite and a lazy, prejudiced press."

"The economy has run roughshod over the environment for 50 years and its time for us to tip the scales in favor of the environment," said Teresa Winchester of Butternuts.

While some used their full allotment of time, others had more blunt statements.

"We're not going to be here if there is no water," town resident Irene Curley said.

No one spoke directly in favor of the 5-month moratorium and some, including Virginia Lee, a leader of the petition drive, said it was flawed because by singling out hydrofracking and still allowing vertical drilling, it left it more susceptible to attack.