City Bans Fracking on Municipal Land

City Bans Fracking on Municipal Land by Liz Camuti, November 3, 2011, Cornell Daily Sun
During the meeting, Common Council voted to amend the resolution — which was recently passed by the city’s Economic Development and Planning Committee — to state that hydrofracking “is likely to have severe adverse impacts on communities and the environment” by damaging the city’s drinking water resources and forest habitats. Such language replaces previous wording that stated hydrofracking “may” have these effects. Rosario also said a resolution banning hydrofracking on all land in the City of Ithaca, regardless of its ownership, would likely be passed by Economic Development and Planning Committee in the next month. … With the passage of this resolution, the City of Ithaca has become the 52nd municipality in New York State that has either changed its zoning regulations or passed a law to ban hydrofracking. The nearby Towns of Ithaca, Danby, Dryden and Ulysses have all recently moved to ban hydrofracking. The Town of Dryden is currently preparing to defend its own ban on natural gas drilling before the Tompkins County Supreme Court on Friday, after The Anschutz Exploration Corporation, a Denver-based gas drilling company, filed a lawsuit against the town. The company is seeking to challenge the town’s hydraulic fracturing ban, asking the court to rule the ban “invalid, unlawful and unenforceable,” according to court documents.