Dryden, NY, is a small town located between Ithaca and Cortland, just south of the easternmost of the Finger Lakes. This part of New York State is a popular summer tourist destination, not least of which is due to the New York Wine Trail. (Some New York State wines, in this writer’s opinion, rival those of Napa and Sonoma.) There are also many other scenic attractions (“Ithaca is Gorges” is an oft-seen bumper sticker up around this way) in Central New York and the Southern Tier. There is also a not-unsubstantial amount of farmland in this part of the state. This part of the state is also becoming Ground Zero in the hydrofracking debate. The New York Times’ Green blog takes up the story:

the town board last year passed a ban on hydrofracking. But Dryden’s town lawyer for more than 30 years, Mahlon R. Perkins, said the court victory this week upholding the ban was more about land use rights than natural gas drilling. “It’s about the ability of cities, towns and villages to determine what the appropriate use of land is in their respective jurisdictions,” Mr. Perkins said. “The real issue is whether a town can say, ‘not in this town.’” Both the gas industry and landowners who have leased their lands for drilling have vowed to continue challenging in court this and other similar bans around New York. The company suing over Dryden’s ban, the Anschutz Exploration Corporation, had already paid leaseholders $5.1 millions for access to more than 22,000 acres in the town of 14,000 people.

I know of some homeowners in the area who, with dollar signs in their eyes, are happy to let the drillers in, and in this struggling economy, it’s hard to begrudge them that. But. Is it worth the risk, not only to one’s own current health and safety and/or future property values, but to sacrifice the overall health of all the other resources that contribute to this area’s economy? If nothing else, think of the wine!