FAQ About Our Petition to Ban

Q: We’ve got a hold on drilling now—why do we need a ban?

A: In short, a moratorium is a temporary prohibition, and a ban is a permanent prohibition, though both are in effect land usage regulations. For more information, see FAQ on Gas Dilling Ban in Caroline:
http://www.townofcaroline.org/2012/04/18/faqs-on-gas-drilling-ban/

Q: Are there other towns doing this?

A: Yes. 120 municipalities in NY State have passed bans or moratoria so far.

Q. Will an ordinance that prohibits either gas drilling or high impact uses in the Town hold up if challenged in court?

A. Bans enacted in the towns of Dryden and Middlefield were recently upheld by the State Supreme Court.

Q: How is this different from zoning?

A: Since our country was founded, the law has said that a person cannot use his property in a way that harms or interferes with the enjoyment of his neighbor’s property. This is the law of ‘nuisance’; it existed before anyone ever heard of zoning, and it applies whether or not a town has zoning. Zoning is a broad concept, but what comes to mind for many when they hear the term are laws focused on limiting residential development, or setting minimum lot sizes, or restricting the number of families that may live on one lot. People who sign this petition are simply asking the Town Board to recognize that high-impact uses, such as gas drilling by high-volume hydraulic fracturing, have many negative impacts on neighboring properties, and to pass a law prohibiting those uses within the town. We are not asking for traditional zoning that sets forth a situation in which some uses are allowed in one district but not in others. We simply are asking for one type of use to be clearly prohibited within the town.

Q: If I sign this now, can I still sign a lease at some point if I change my mind?

A: Yes.

By signing this petition you do not, in any way, give up your right to sign any lease or petition in the future.
This is merely a statement that you would like the Town to act.

Q: Who will see the names on this petition? I don’t want to cause trouble with my neighbors. A: The petition will be presented to the Enfield Town Board. ENSAW and the people gathering the petition will not publicize or post the names anywhere. Once the Town Board has the petition, the names of the signatories become public information. Anyone who went to the Town Clerk’s Office could view the petition and names of signers, and anyone could obtain a copy via a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request. The petition signers’ names will not, however, be posted publicly anywhere.

Q: We don’t have zoning in Enfield. Can this still work?

A: Yes. A town does not need to have zoning to ban an activity, but it does need some kind of publicly-reviewed and approved statement of the community’s goals, called a comprehensive Plan. The Town of Enfield does not have zoning, but it does have a Comprehensive Plan that meets this requirement. The environmental and community impacts of gas extraction using high-volume hydraulic fracturing would be in direct conflict with the Comprehensive Plan, so this petition is helping to carry out the Plan’s goals.

Q: I keep hearing that there have been no cases of contamination or accidents from fracking.  Is this true?

A: Since 2008, there have been more than 40 reported cases of fracking accidents or contamination in the Marcellus Shale alone. There are several other shale plays in the United States and the documented number of "fracidents" in the Marcellus play equals 2/3 of the total number documented. Our climate and terrain offer a challenging environment for this process to be done. Couple that with the lack of regulation on the gas industry, and this presents a perfect situation for irreversible damage to be done to our homes, our environment, and our community water supplies.

This is one reason an aquifer study will be an important part of our Town's process moving forward. Knowing where our precious fresh water sources are, how they travel, and how many people they serve will be imperative in the event of any industrial accident in the Town of Enfield. Any accident in a small town such as Enfield could be devastating to the very survival of our community. For a full list and interactive map of the documented fracking accidents, please visit this link:
http://earthjustice.org/features/campaigns/pennsylvania-and-fracking