Fracking scares the bejesus out of us.

From our first introduction to this new way to harvest natural gas in the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Gasland,” to our continued review of this method of horizontal drilling and its potential for groundwater contamination, we have been opposed to its implementation anywhere but the middle of some desert far removed from population centers.

In one previous editorial, we listed the known chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) process, and concluded it was in the best interest of humans everywhere that ingestion or exposure should be avoided at all costs.

That’s just common sense.

So we were encouraged last week when New York’s highest court — the state Court of Appeals — ruled that New York towns could decide for themselves whether fracking was in their best interest. Two New York towns — Dryden in Tompkins County and Middlefield in Otsego County — were sued over their passage of zoning laws that prohibited fracking.

They were found to be well within their rights. The problem is other communities, lured by potential riches, passed zoning ordinances that welcome fracking.