Environmental advocates filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against a small town in Broome County, N.Y., whose board of supervisors has blocked discussion of fracking at public meetings.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy argue that the board of the town of Sanford violated citizens? right to free speech when it voted unanimously last September to block any further discussion of the controversial natural gas extraction technique during the public comment sections of town board meetings. (See the video above.)
?This resolution unlawfully bars plaintiffs? members from speaking at Town Board meetings about a matter of substantial public interest that has generated significant political activity,? the suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, states. It asks the court to declare the ban unconstitutional and to prevent the board from enforcing its vote.
Sanford, with a population of about 2,400, sits atop a section of the gas-rich Marcellus Shale that extends across the border into Pennsylvania.
While New York State officials deliberate over whether to lift a statewide moratorium on fracking for natural gas, some communities, including Sanford, have leased substantial amounts of land to gas companies in anticipation that the ban will be lifted. Some residents have fought moves to allow fracking in the area.
Kate Sinding, a lawyer with the resoruce defense council, said that to her knowledge, no other town in New York state had formally acted to cut off discussion of fracking. ?I believe it?s a unique situation,? she said.
According to the lawsuit, the town leased land to XTO Energy 2008 and later issued a permit allowing the company to use a road to enable it to withdraw water for use in natural gas extraction. Sanford?s town board also approved a resolution calling on the New York Legislature to ?stand aside? in the fracking debate and allow state officials to issue permits allowing fracking, the suit noted.
The township supervisor, Dewey Decker, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Around two-thirds of the land in the town has been leased to the gas industry, according to Melissa Bishop, a resident who opposes fracking and the town?s vote to stop discussion on the subject. She accused the board of failing to allow the democratic process to unfold on matters of public interest.
?It?s outrageous,? Ms. Bishop said in an interview. ?They really didn?t think it was necessary for public input to be part of their job.?
Ms. Bishop, 63, said she retired to Sanford because of its natural beauty and that she feared that its character would be destroyed if the gas industry is permitted to begin operations there. ?Fracking threatens to destroy everything that is good and beautiful about this area,? she said.
Critics say that horizontal hydraulic fracturing, which involves injecting vast amounts of water and chemicals into underground shale formations to release natural gas, risks contaminating groundwater and surface water.
The industry counters that there is no evidence that fracking contaminates water. It also points out that the technology has led to a boom in production that generates jobs and that has reduced reliance on coal, a dirtier fuel that produces more carbon dioxide emissions.
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