NORWICH – A law written to protect Chenango County’s roads from damages caused by heavy trucking, as in the case of natural gas development, has been in the works for three years.
It was one of the first pieces of business before the county’s Natural Gas Advisory Committee when it was created back in 2008 and one of two controls – the other being taxation – that municipalities could wave over the then impending gas industry.
According to Chenango County Department of Planning and Development Director Donna M. Jones, members of the gas committee now say they hope to have the proposed ordinance ready for adoption in January.
An actual draft law has been passed back and forth from the advisory committee, the Public Works Committee and the county’s attorney over the past 12 months, at least. PW Committee Chairman John Phelan, R-Conventry, said in November that a resolution would come before the board for consideration this month, but it didn’t.
With Phelan voted out of office and the retirements of County Attorney Richard Breslin and Public Works Director Randy Gibbon, the chances of adopting such a proposal in January seem slim.
Many town boards in the county have been pressured by opponents to drilling and hydraulic fracturing to outright ban water and fracking trucks, if not control where and how often they can travel. A year ago this week, a majority of council persons on the Afton Town Board – led by long-standing Green Party member Mary Jo Long – pushed through their own road use ordinance. It was rescinded a month later, however, at an emotionally charged, standing room only board meeting because the board decided it targeted drilling companies unfairly, leaving other businesses’ heavy truck traffic for fuel, septic, garbage, propane alone. 
Since then, a special committee has been at work rewriting Afton’s law. Newly-elected Afton Supervisor John Lawrence said yesterday that the five member bi-partisan group finalized their recommendations in October for a road use maintenance agreement as well as a usage law. The town board proceeded to adopt the new maintenance rule last month.
But as far as a road usage law goes, the committee and board has decided to wait until such time as the county finalizes its regulation.
“We came up with a road use law, but recommended not doing anything with it until the county finalized their law. We felt that the county having one and the Town of Afton having one and maybe come other towns around adopting one, that everybody working with a different one makes it pretty cumbersome for the trucking industry,” he said.
Shale gas development has been banned since New York state officials called for new permitting regulations in 2008, but sandstone drilling has continued in Chenango County. The Canadian-based company GasTem is active in Guilford, and plans to drill an Oneida gas well just off Route 8 in early January. The company is preparing the site now.
Some town highway departments that were working with the drilling company Norse Energy developed their own informal bond or road use agreements. With the widespread development of shale gas looming in the future, other towns, such as Afton, attempted to get out in front with regulation. 
Nevertheless, time has been on the county’s side. The state Department of Environmental Conservation is collecting comments on its current draft of permitting rules and is gathering taxation input from an advisory panel. The latter, of which Town of Smyrna Supervisor James Bays is a member, met in Albany yesterday with NYSDEC Commissioner Joe Martins.