Emotions ran hot and high both inside and out Wednesday as dozens in Sharon Springs demanded an end to hydrofracking--before it begins.
Most of Schoharie County’s natural gas leases are located in the Town of Sharon, where fears include contaminated water, ravaged roads, and a crushed local economy.
An overflow crowd of more than 75 took those fears to Supervisor Sandra Manko and councilmen Wednesday, but frustrated by the answers they got, they took the discussion outside, where they called for more aggressive action.
“Our number one concern is the safety of the people who live here,” Supervisor Sandra Manko said.
“This is our home too. You need to trust us to do the best we can legally. No one wants to see this community ruined by hydrofracking.”
Karen Cookson, who has neighbors with gas leases—some who signed without realizing what they were getting into—pointed to the town’s Comprehensive Plan and its emphasis on rural character, promoting agriculture, and a smalltown atmosphere.
“I don’t know how much clearer that can be,” she said.
Lisa Zaccaglini, who with her husband, Mike Shuster, is leading efforts to prohibit fracking, said much the same thing.
Ms. Zaccaglini passed on a petition of 250 signatures opposing fracking that she’d collected at the transfer station—“It was very easy,” she said. “No one wants it here”—and 300 comments from Facebook from people she said won’t be visiting or retiring to Sharon if fracking comes in.
Ms. Zaccaglini also said that by the gas industry’s own admission, most of the natural gas drilled in the United States will be shipped overseas.
Doug Plummer, one of the owners of the American Hotel, said a National Grid employee who stopped in to make a dinner reservation warned him that with Sharon’s karst—limestone—soils, “we are going—he said going, not might—to poison our aquifer.”
“This will destroy my businesses,” Mr. Plummer said, also pointing to estimates of 1,000 18-wheelers traveling through the village for every well.
Bonita Klemm said when she had a new well drilled, she, too was warned that Sharon’s water runs straight to Cobleskill.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to find a way to ban it,” she said.
Paul Van Amburgh farms the old Mereness Farm—a living he said is incompatible with hydrofracking.
“Every dime we have is tied up in that farm,” he said. “Let’s protect it.”
Speakers quickly grew frustrated by the town’s unwillingness to move more aggressively, even as Joint Planning Board Chairman Ray Parsons urged them to “let the government work.”
“We’re not going to turn our back on anybody,” he added. “Let us do our job.”
That didn’t sit well with the crowd, that poured out into the parking lot to continue the discussion as Ms. Manko and councilmen turned to other business, which included ways to regulate fracking if it does come in. (See related story.)
Town Attorney Mike West followed the crowd outside, but quickly returned to avoid a shouting match.
“I’m here to help you protect the community and its water and its citizens,” he said.
“I’m not here to be bullied.”