Carlisle councilmen are considering a local law that would restrict heavy trucks on town roads, a move that would limit the potential for hydrofracking.
Meeting last Wednesday, town board members agreed to examine the proposed law after hearing more than a half-dozen residents speak against hydrofracking.
Several said they attended the meeting because a neighbor signed a lease with a gas company.
Hydrofracking--forcing water and chemicals into a shale formation to release natural gas--can also damage water supplies, and that was the message residents brought to the town board.
Laurell Tyler said that hydrofracking in Pennsylvania made some landowners wealthy. But it destroyed water supplies of others, damaged roads and divided communities.
"Do our farmers want to farm in an industrial zone?" Ms. Tyler asked.
She also pointed out that the medical staff of Bassett Healthcare issued a statement condemning hydrofracking as unhealthy.
"We have no recourse if our wells are destroyed," Ms. Tyler said.
Fred Barnes agreed, adding that people "in the whole county" should be better educated about hydrofracking.
"Very few people become rich, and an area gets destroyed," Mr. Barnes said.
"Once you contaminate water, you've basically had it."
The adjacent Town of Sharon has the most gas leases in the county. Carlisle Supervisor Larry Bradt said his town has "just a handful."
The map of gas leases publicized by the county Planning and Development Agency shows 15 parcels under lease in Carlisle.
Even having just a few of those parcels hydrofracked could damage water over a wide area because much of Carlisle lies over the porous Karst formation.
"It could damage water miles away," one man said.
Noting that several towns in nearby Otsego County had done so, at least two in the audience of 30 called for the town board to ban hydrofracking
Town attorney Raynor Duncombe, however, noted that the state Department of Environmental Conservation has jurisdiction over hydrofracking.
He said gas companies could sue those towns and would almost surely win.
"They'll win right away, and towns will pick up the legal costs," Mr. Duncombe said.
Instead, he suggested Carlisle examine the model law that would protect the towns from heavy water-hauling trucks necessary for hydrofracking.
"This is one control towns have," Mr. Duncombe said, adding that the Town of Summit has already passed the law and others are looking at it, too.
"Road issues turn out to be huge for those drillers. This will have an impact," he said of the law.
When one resident pointed out that many of the leases lie along county roads, Mr. Bradt said the county Board of Supervisors is considering a similar road law.
Another avenue for Carlisle could lie with the Karst formation, Mr. Duncombe said.
Before a gas company drills, it must contact DEC, he said. DEC then notifies the town and asks whether there are any unusual environmental concerns.
"I think they would look at the Karst seriously," Mr. Duncombe said.
"Whether they listen to us is a question. I hope they would."
Mr. Bradt also pointed out that Carlisle has time. The state doesn't plan to issue any permits for hydrofracking till next year, he said.