There Will Be Blood: Natural Gas Drilling in Upper Delaware Valley

[eelweir]

Hi,

I'm pasting in the below info from the Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition. Please read the natural gas drilling stuff. Guys: it's scary and could directly affect the watershed and fisheries. Stay informed on this one (Google News Alerts is a good way). It's not going away anytime soon...

EW



Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition


NYRI, Gas Drilling and Environmental Responsibility


Gas Drilling and Oil Exploration
On the surface, this may not look like it would have much of an impact on the Upper Delaware River until you begin to research the processes used to extract the gas and oil. It becomes apparent the laws, meant to protect public health, were altered to allow companies to drill with complete disregard for public well-being. The reports of industry meetings with Vice President Cheney that took place to create the Energy Act of 2005 read like a conspiracy theorist best seller and would be hard to believe if it wasn't based in fact. Here is an excerpt from a recent edition of the River Reporter (riverreporter.com)

"Another provision of the 2005 energy act is helpful to companies that want to drill for gas in New York and Pennsylvania, as well as other parts of the country. Through the energy act, the process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which water laced with sand and chemicals is forced into rocks deep underground, was exempted from the jurisdiction of the Safe Water Drinking Act of 1974. This makes the process, which was developed by Halliburton, much less expensive to pursue and, critics charge, allows gas companies to pollute ground water with impunity."

That statement alone should cause panic in any region considered for gas exploration and with tens of thousands of acres of State Game Lands up for grabs, gas drilling may be coming to an area near you. Many of the chemicals the 2005 Energy Act now allows to enter our water supply are proven cancer causing agents such as benzene, toluene and many others. Visit (DamascusCitizens.org) for a complete list of the chemicals used in the fracking process.

This is a hard battle for those opposed to gas and oil drilling, neighbors are pitted against each other based on economic need and the money offered by the gas companies to lease properties can be significant. Over the past few years, many people have said, "well if it affects me, I will just move". It is clear this is a nationwide phenomenon and there is no where to run. It is time to take a stand, protect our communities and offer alternatives such as food cooperatives, organic farming/markets and new biodiesel techniques as options for family farms that face growing operating costs.

Battles like NYRI and opposition to gas drilling are often referred to as "David and Goliath" fights. We prefer to think of it in this way, if we have a million David's all able to cast a small stone, each stone may not hurt the giant but all the stones together will bury it.

 

[Catskill Mountain Man]

how can i help? I will do everything in my power to help

 

[Future Fanatic]

how can i help? I will do everything in my power to help

Stop using gas and oil.

 

[eelweir]

"Stop using gas and oil" is a bit of a non starter, though I do think that everyone is quickly coming to the realization that energy conservation is now a personal financial necessity, not just some "green" lifestyle choice.

At least I am.

Back to the issue at hand: I urge all users of the Upper Delaware to stay educated on this issue, be they property owners, visiting anglers, etc. Wyoming's Green River Valley and surrounding areas have gone through a similar energy boom that has left much of the region one giant field of drilling pads. Much of this was BLM land, so the public had little choice in the matter (even though it's technically public land). Here in NY/PA, landowners have the unique opportunity to tell the oil and gas propspectors to go away if the drilling activities are as polluting as they sound.

Bottom line: I think clean water (for drinking and for trout) trumps a quick buck anyday.

 

[Trout Nazi]

"Stop using gas and oil" about sums it up actually, since as long as you use a motor vehicle to get from point A to point B, you have to burn some sort of oil based fuel. "We need to find alternative sources of energy" is the real weak statement since we are limited by technology, and are many, many years away from a real solution (I know that the conspiracy theorists have other ideas), despite all of the media hype. Gas is actually one of the "alternatives". We're stuck with gas and oil for a while, thats the reality.

I would also hold off on the "Panic" until we all become a little more educated on any of this. Hydraulic fracturing is not a new technique, its been around since before Halliburton was around, and is used in alot of other industries also. This is how most of the worlds oil is pulled out of the ground actually. Oil does not exist as a gigantic "lake" under the Earths surface, but suspended between layers of rocks and a matrix of gravel, sand etc. and has to be pushed out. Most companies use water, because its cheap. Thickeners like xanthan gum (which is found in 99% of the food and cosmetics out there) is often mixed with the water to make it thicker, give it some more pressure. Yes sometimes diesel fuel is used (hense all of the toxic chemicals listed in the previous thread), but not that often. Most off-shore platforms use salt water for example. And no, extracting oil and gas is not always clean.

But where do you expect oil and gas to come from, outer space, Uranus (could't resist)? As long as you drive a car, you are contributing to the problem. And I guess its ok to drill and polute other countries, but not ours? I guess people in other parts of the world don't fish and enjoy the outdoors?

 

[Kilgour Farms]

There have been many lease signings. Going to be very hard to stop.
The most one could hope for is to oversee the process.

There are alot more chemicals used then you think, read the earth works action site if you want to know what they really use. They will be drilling into the Marcellus shale and run verticle then horizontal. Halliburton has greatly enhanced the ability to drill directionally.

Info:

Environmental:
http://www.earthworksaction.org/pubs/colorado_analysis_1-15-08.pdf
http://www.earthworksaction.org/Chemicalsandhealth.cfm

NYDEC web site:
Oil and Gas, Mining And Reclamation Laws - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation

PADEP web site:
Bureau of Oil and Gas Management

That should be good for starters. In have much more info if interested.

The gas companies are offering $1750.00/acre with 15% royalty for 7 years. That is a lot of money to people who live here!

 

[Corndog]

The gas companies are offering $1750.00/acre with 15% royalty for 7 years. That is a lot of money to people who live here!

Now that's alot of money!

Maybe they will build Casinos and Resorts along the river so we will have something to do at the end of the fishing day.

Cdog

 

[Trout Nazi]

I know more than you think, and for reasons I won't go into, and no, I'm not a shill for oil and gas companies, I just happen to know alot about that field.

The endocrine exchange? Are you kidding me? Am I supposed to take that seriously? I took the time to read some of those abstracts in their references, the link to prenatal cancer is pretty tenuous. The theory itself, while interesting, has not much to support it. But I guess they don't expect a lay person to go through those references.
Do you think that this is going to destroy the Delaware? Unlikely, since the proposed area probably is not going to yield that much gas (relatively speaking). How about focusing on whats real and preventable? Like development and non-point polution? Like very housing development, condo complex, Walmart, Target, etc. that they build within the drainage. The fertilizers from the lawns, the oil and antifreeze from the parking lots, where do you think its all going to go? Next time it rains, go look at that oil spot in your driveway, and your neighbors driveways. Where do you think that nice rainbow colored wash is going to end up?

 

[Future Fanatic]

The gas companies are offering $1750.00/acre with 15% royalty for 7 years. That is a lot of money to people who live here!

Kilgour... do you happen to have a phone number for this gas company?

120 acres...
$1750 per...

I ain't to good with figurin' but I bet I could buy me a new set a tires for the four wheeler(and a can or two of snuff)!

(Have no fear boys... I won't hurt your Delaware trout(I'm in the Susquehanna drainage)).

 

[Catskill Mountain Man]

you watch nazi, its going to be a disatser. Look at the zinc mine on the upper lehigh, devestated the river for eons and for miles around

 

[Trout Nazi]

You're comparing apples to oranges here. Zinc mining and gas production are completely different. Mining leaves a bigger footprint.

 

[Kilgour Farms]

What needs to be done is to have effective oversight. Right now they are exempt from the drinking water act and that is disturbing.

The DEC and DEP(PA) have to few inspectors to do an adequate job. The local townships are also cash strapped to do any oversight work.

I sold plastics and adhesives for many years as well as selling industrial chemicals and I can tell you that these chemicals are not good.Toulene for example is absorbed into fatty tissue and can have an effect many years after use. Cynoacrylate, crazy glue, is a carconogenic.

It's going to happen, no one can stop it. I just want close oversight as to how it happens.

 

[Kilgour Farms]

duplicate post

 

[Trout Nazi]

I agree, there should be oversight, but I think that people are missing the forest through the trees. I think that drilling is the least of our problems, since they are most likely going to pump water down those wells (cheapest and most effective option), which is what is done most of the time. As we argue these points more and more land is being quietly developed.

Toluene is just everywhere and in almost everything. And cyanoacrylate is not a proven carcinogen, it is FDA approved as a wound closure, and used all of the time in that application, I carry a tube with me just for that. I too have been in the industry for a long time.

 

[eddavidson9]

FYI, hydrofrac is also used to help develop potable water wells in poorly producing aquifers. First return from google search of hydrofracture...
Hydrofracture : Residential Wells : Eastern Water Development

in my opinion (and experience), the best thing is to keep everyone you can informed and ask/argue/write your legislators for oversight. it's cheap, easy, and usually better received than (often marginally informed) angry complaints and actions.

Can't say I have been following any of the issues, but the examples from this site of NYRI powerlines, FFMP, and rusty spinner's dam removals seem to be following an informed and sensible approach. all very impressive...at least to someone as unfamiliar with the surely complex and contentious history as I.

 

[eddavidson9]

oh yeah...and toluene is nasty stuff. and according to GE, PCBs aren't carcinogenic either unless they changed their tune.

everything is bad for you...but you gotta die of something. i have to agree with Nazi...on face value, there are many issues out there that should upset people more than this one.

 

[Future Fanatic]

Does anyone happen to know how DEEP these "wells" are? At what depth would any liquid be pumped in? Thanks.

 

[dcabarle]

What's wrong with drilling?

 

[Kilgour Farms]

The Marcellus Shale seam is estimated to be 5000' vertically and then they drill horizontally up to 5 miles in any direction along the seam.

The water by itself doesn't fracture the rock. Chemicals loosen the rock so the gas can escape. Only 70% is recovered. Makes you wonder were the other 30% goes. There should be no settlement ponds either.They should require all waste to be transported off site.

 

[eddavidson9]

The water by itself doesn't fracture the rock. Chemicals loosen the rock so the gas can escape.

huh? do you have a source for this? that just doesn't seem to make sense to me.

There should be no settlement ponds either.They should require all waste to be transported off site.

I'm not sure I understand your reasoning behind the first statement. The second is something that you should certainly push for.

 

[eddavidson9]

also, hydrofrac us used to increase the effectiveness of groundwater remediation wells (eg, cleaning up chemicals from the groundwater).

obviously techniques and implications will vary depending on the industry, but it pays to understand that the method itself is not harmful...unless of course you are drilling above a salt mine as DC pointed out.

 

[Kilgour Farms]

Quote:

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by Kilgour Farms
The water by itself doesn't fracture the rock. Chemicals loosen the rock so the gas can escape.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>My mistake. I should have said water alone doesn't release the gas. Thanks.


Oil & Gas Accountability Project (OGAP)​

Hydraulic fracturing

(also known as fracing, which rhymes with cracking)
is a technique used to create fractures that extend from the well
bore into rock or coal formations. These fractures allow the oil or gas to
travel more easily from the rock pores, where the oil or gas is trapped, to
the production well.85 Typically, in order to create fractures a mixture of
water, proppants (sand or ceramic beads) and chemicals is pumped into
the rock or coal formation. Eventually, the formation will not be able to
absorb the fluid as quickly as it is being injected. At this point, the pressure
created causes the formation to crack or fracture. The fractures are
held open by the proppants, and the oil or gas is then able to flow
through the fractures to the well.86 Some of the fracturing fluids are
pumped out of the well during the process of extracting oil, gas and any
produced water, but studies have shown that anywhere from 20-40% of
fracing fluids may remain underground.

​

 

[eddavidson9]

​

​

​

​

​

Typically, in order to create fractures a mixture of
water, proppants (sand or ceramic beads) and chemicals is pumped into
the rock or coal formation. Eventually, the formation will not be able to
absorb the fluid as quickly as it is being injected. At this point, the pressure
created causes the formation to crack or fracture. ​

It is the pressure exerted by the fluid, not degradation by a corrosive chemical (which is what I thought you were saying) which fractures the rock (or coal in this case). Chemicals (intentionally) added are more likely to be standard thickening agents commonly used in drilling, and unlikely to be harmful to groundwater. Therefore, 20-40% left behind, if it contains only water and a thickening agent, is not an issue at all.

FWIW... Hydraulic Fracturing | UIC | US EPA

"Based on the information collected and reviewed at the time, EPA concluded that the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids by CBM wells posed little or no threat to USDWs and additional studies were not justified. EPA retained the right, however, to conduct additional studies in the future. As a precautionary measure, the Agency also entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with companies that conduct hydraulic fracturing of CBM wells to eliminate use of diesel fuel in fracturing fluids."

Should there be oversight from, and potentially more authority given to the regulatory agencies, certainly. There's no reason it should have been precluded from SDWA coverage in 2005. But I haven't seen any science yet that it poses a significant threat...just keep a watchful eye.
​

 

[Trout Nazi]

You are correct. The pressure exerted by the fluid is what causes the fracture, and to keep it open, pressure must be continually maintained. Also, as mentioned before, a standard thickening agent is xanthan gum, which is in almost all of the prepared food and consumer products that we eat/use. Not harmful, and its cheap.

There should be oversight and lots of testing. Testing is relatively easy to perform also (I used to do it) and is a relatively cheap way to monitor water quality around the site.

 

[Kilgour Farms]

Since when has the government been up front with information when they really want something?

Articles relating to drilling and drinking water.

http://www.earthworksaction.org/pubs/DrinkingWaterAtRisk.pdf

As usual not all seems what it actually is. Oversight, oversight, oversight.

In their rush to line the pockets of the Energy Barons, Cheney has made it easier to get the gas to market without infringing upon the Energy Baron's bottom line, just like NYRI.

 

[Joe D]

From: Local agencies allow gas drilling exemption

Local agencies allow gas drilling exemption
State could force companies to name chemicals
By TOM KANE
REGION — The environmental agencies of New York and Pennsylvania are not requiring gas drilling companies to list the fluids used in the drilling technique called fracturing or fracking, even though there has recently been a groundswell of criticism of the practice across the nation.
Geologists and engineers are saying that toxic fluids are being used and that they have contaminated the drinking water in many areas of the country.
The reason the agencies are not requiring disclosure is that the Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempts the procedure from the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act that regulates other drilling techniques. Fracking is a method of forcing fluids under great pressure to fracture rock formations deep in the ground, which, it is claimed, contain large quantities of natural gas.
The energy bill followed a closed-door meeting held by Vice President Dick Cheney with a number of people from the energy industry professionals and lobbyist who sought the adoption of the exemption over gas drilling, claiming that regulations of the new method would hurt the industry.
With the help of Cheney, Halliburton and the other major gas producing companies have successfully gotten the EPA to declare the patented formula for the fluids as “proprietary” and therefore private.
EPA study deemed flawed
According to an EPA study that was released in June of 2007, it was concluded that “the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids into coal methane wells possess little or no threat” to drinking water supplies and “does not justify additional study at this time.”
The EPA study has come under sharp attack within the agency. One of the environmental engineers on the study, Weston Wilson, a 30-year veteran of the EPA in Denver, stated that, the “EPA produced a final report that I believe is scientifically unsound and contrary to the purposes of the law.” Wilson, who sought whistle-blower protection, also stated before Congress that “this study was hijacked.” The EPA’s ruling “may result in danger to public health and safety,” he said.
In addressing the recent complaints from landowners in Texas, Colorado, Alabama and other parts of the country, U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), who chairs the Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, has been conducting hearings to investigate the allegations of contamination to the drinking water caused by toxic fluids that are added to enhance drilling.
“Many people who live near oil and gas operations experience symptoms resembling those that are caused by the toxic substances found in oil and gas or the chemical additives used to produce them,” said Amy Mall, of the National Resources Defenses Council (NRDC) at the Waxman hearings.
At the hearings, scientists from the communities and from the companies have come down on opposing sides on the contamination issue, one side stating that there is, and the other that there isn’t contamination.
According to Karen Lightfoot, a staff member for Waxman’s committee, the states may require hydraulic fracturing companies to disclose the chemicals they use in the fracturing fluids if state law allows it. “It is my understanding that there are no states that require this,” she said.
Regulating agencies
Neither the DEP nor the DEC gas and oil bureau’s staff are aware of any interest in passing such a law in either state. “If there was any movement to pass such a law, we would have to be contacted about it,” said Jack Dahl, director of the DEC’s Bureau of Gas and Oil Regulation. “So far, we have received no indication that there is interest in passing such a law.”
The DEC said it had no regulation requiring the drilling companies to list the fluids they use in fracking before they begin drilling.
“The drilling companies in our area do not use the toxic fluids mentioned at the Waxman committee hearings,” DEC’s Dahl said. “The companies we talked to said that they use only water and sand.”
“If we find evidence that they are using things like diesel, our inspectors will stop them,” Dahl said.
Some landowners have objected that the agency has to wait until the drilling has begun and are relying on a finite number of inspectors. “I can tell you that our experience has been that the companies in our state do not use these toxic fluids. I know these companies well and I don’t believe they are lying to us.”
The DEP says that the agency has laws and regulations in place to protect water supplies.
“We will investigate every water-supply complaint and if the results of that investigation are that an oil and gas company is responsible, they will be ordered to replace the water supply,” said Joseph Umholtz, DEP engineer of the Bureau of Oil and Gas Management (BOGM) in an email statement.
Umholtz wrote that the agency has drilling and casing regulations in place in the regulations that are designed to protect the fresh water zones from contamination using the vertical drilling process. The DEP has not required the companies to list the fracking fluids before drilling starts.
“No one, to the best of my knowledge, is using diesel fuel to frack in PA,” Umholtz wrote.
“As to what additives are in the fracking fluid, the company’s PPC [Preparedness, Prevention and Contingency] plan is really the best source of information on that at the moment. We are gathering our own samples to see if anything unusual turns up,” he wrote.
Opponents’ reaction
“It’s outrageous that this exemption for fracking is granted by the EPA,” said Pat Carullo, spokesman for the Damascus Citizens for Self Government and Friends. “All the protections that our government has assembled over the last four or five decades have been dismantled by corporate interests. Look what Rachel Carson had to do to have DDT outlawed. She was vilified by the industry even though birds, like the American bald eagle, were becoming extinct. In a culture like ours where checks and balances have been dismantled, it is the responsibility of the people to speak out and defend the environment.”

<table><tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="top"></td></tr> <tr><td align="right">[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-3]PADEP photo[/SIZE][/FONT]</td><td>
</td></tr><tr> </tr><tr><td>[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-2]This drilling rig is using unnamed fluids to fracture subterranean rock formation to [/SIZE][/FONT]</td></tr></tbody></table>

 

[Joe D]

[FONT=Verdana,]From the Weekly Almanac

Gas-drilling misinformation causing unnecessary anxiety in Wayne County[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,]Peter Wynne
<cp10.5,11,10.5>When it comes to gas drilling and what it might mean to Wayne County, rumors and misinformation are causing a lot of unneeded anxiety, and we�re not focusing here on money or aesthetics.

A basic problem is tracking down good information, which often is contained in technical articles that can be hard to find and even harder to fathom. Furthermore, gas producers operate in a highly competitive environment, which makes them unwilling to reveal data they�ve collected over years of work and at considerable cost.

Something called �fracking� is at the heart of much of the concern. �Fracking� or �fracing� is drilling industry shorthand for �fracturing,� specifically �hydraulic fracturing,� and it�s a process used to increase the amount of gas the well will produce. The process was developed in Texas in the mid-1980s for wells drilled into what�s called the Barnett Shale, which is said to be very similar to the Marcellus Shale that lies beneath Wayne County.

As the technique has evolved, the driller pumps fluid down the well at a pressure of something like 5,000 pounds per square inch to fracture the gas-laden shale that surrounds the bottom of the well.

The fractures or cracks can extend 600 to 800 feet and sometimes farther from the well bore, and the fluid contains coarse sand that�s driven into those cracks to hold them open after the pressure of the gas has pushed the fracking fluid back up the well bore to the surface of the earth.

Pennsylvania regulations require that the fracking liquid, once it has returned to the surface, must be loaded into tank trucks and carted to a licensed disposal site.

Fracking fluid does not force gas out of a well, as some have suggested. The weight of the stone above the gas-bearing shale provides most of the pressure, in effect squeezing the gas out of the stone. Fracking the shale simply makes lots of tiny channels through which the gas can seep more easily to the well bore.

Heat, which helped form the gas in the first place, also supplies some of the pressure: At a depth of 10,000 feet, the temperature underground is usually approaching the sea-level boiling point of water (about 212 degrees F.).

What has alarmed Wayne residents particularly are reports that well drillers add toxic chemicals to their fracking fluids to make them more effective and that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, began hearings late last October on the use of diesel fuel and other chemicals in fracking fluids. This allegedly has caused contamination of the drinking water in several locations around the country.

The contamination of drinking water is a serious issue, to be sure, but the wells that worry Rep. Waxman and his colleagues are coal bed methane gas wells, according to the committee�s preliminary report. Pennsylvania doesn�t have coal bed methane gas wells, the state Bureau of Oil & Gas Management says. Moreover, such wells are very different from those drilled into a shale formation like the Marcellus.

For one thing, coal bed methane wells are typically very shallow, and frequently the coal bed being exploited is associated with or lies within a drinking water aquifer. Weston Wilson, an engineer and whistleblower in the Denver office of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, pointed that out in a scathing 20-page letter he sent to the EPA in October 2004.

�In Colorado, coal beds that produce gas occur within aquifers that are used for drinking water supplies,� Mr. Weston wrote, and his letter was one of the things that spurred Rep. Waxman into scheduling hearings. Coloradans have complained that their wells have been contaminated by gas-drilling activity and their health adversely affected, sometimes severely.

However, in Wayne County, the Marcellus Shale lies anywhere between 7,000 and 9,000 feet underground, while the deepest drinking-water aquifer tapped in the county lies at 1,500 feet, area well drillers say, with the typical well 200 to 400 feet down.

In this county, stone more than a mile thick will lie between the deepest water well and the Marcellus Shale, where any fracking will take place. And the likelihood of fracking fluid�s percolating up through the rocks from the Marcellus region is nil, petroleum engineers say.

One of the reasons there�s gas in the Marcellus Shale is because it�s held there by impervious layers of limestone that lie below and above the formation: the Onondaga Limestone below the Marcellus and the Tully Limestone above. Stone dense enough to hold in gas won�t let liquids pass through.

And, under Pennsylvania regulations, the bore of any gas well has to be entirely cased with steel pipe and within the zone where aquifers lie, the area around the casing must be sealed with cement to keep anything in the gas-production zone at the bottom of the well from seeping up to aquifers lying many thousands of feet above.

In Pennsylvania, contamination of a drinking-water supply by a gas- or oil-drilling operation is a rarity, according to figures supplied by the Bureau of Oil & Gas Management. During the years 2006 and 2007, the most recent for which data are available, Pennsylvania issued 14,543 drilling permits and only 15 �water supply orders,� which indicate that a drilling operation had some sort of adverse impact on a drinking water supply.

Aquifer contamination may be the most serious issue around which rumors swirl, but there are others.

One story circulating is that drilling a well requires 3 million to 5 million gallons of water and that the same amount is needed in addition to frack the well. Well drillers say the amount of water needed for these operations can vary tremendously, but that 6 million to 10 million gallons for a single well struck them as far fetched.

Dennis LaRue, a farmer in Susquehanna�s Rush Township, says that when Turm Oil of Butler, recently drilled a well on his property, the company had two semi-trailer tanker trucks at the site for the drilling procedure. Each would hold somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 gallons, industry people say, and Mr. LaRue said he didn�t see the tankers constantly leaving the site for refills.

For the fracking, the driller had some 30 �frac tanks� on site, each holding 20,000 gallons. All this would suggest that the entire operation used much less than even 1 million gallons of water.

This may sound still like a tremendous amount, but if someone took 1 million gallons of water out of a 100-acre pond, the level of the pond would be lowered by less than 3/8ths of an inch. In a similar vein, take an area the size of Damascus Township, which is 79.1 square miles or 50,624 acres. If Damascus gets � inch of rain, that�s just a little shy of 674 million gallons of water.

Another story going around is that Damascus Township, in particular, could end up with as many as 2,000 gas wells within its borders, about one well for each 25 acres. And while it�s impossible to say what actually will happen, 2,000 seems extremely high, if information coming from Susquehanna County, which is also a Marcellus Shale area, holds true here.

Mr. LaRue, who has a 687-acre farm, said he was told that he might have nine wells on his property, one well for each 76 acres. Jim Greenwood, who owns a farm in Dimock Township, where Cabot Oil has drilled a well and intends to drill more, says he was told that the so-called �production units� on his farm would range from 80 to 120 acres.

The production unit is the size of the area the gas producer expects to drain of gas with a well, and gas drillers won�t put more than one well into such an area. Imagining one well for every 75 acres in Damascus, that would be 675 wells, which would make the 2,000-well estimate off by a factor of three.

Other concerns revolve around things like the possibility that water coming up from Marcellus Shale gas wells could be contaminated with radioactive sediments and whether the state Department of Environmental Protection will have enough staff to monitor well drilling in our region.

The radioactivity question is one that cannot be answered at this point. The Barnett Shale in Texas produces significant amounts of what are called �technologically enhanced normally occurring radioactive material,� a result geologists and engineers hadn�t expected.

If the radioactivity is intense enough, the materials have to be contained and taken to a proper disposal site. But whether the Marcellus Shale will also produce radioactive materials just isn�t known yet. Moreover, the experience with the Barnett suggests that the amount can vary from place to place. In any case, elevated levels of radioactivity are easy enough to detect.

In regard to monitoring by the DEP, Ron Gilius, the head of the department�s Bureau of Oil & Gas Management, believes the personnel needed will be available when the actual need arises.

�I expect we�ll be well ahead of the curve. This is not going to happen overnight,� he said.

We�re not going to wake up one morning and find that a thousand gas wells were drilled the night before. The gas companies have to bring in the drilling rigs � and the number of those is limited � plus frac tanks and the supplies they need. All of this takes time, not to mention that pipelines have yet to be negotiated and built.

Wells have to be monitored regularly during the drilling and finishing stages. At the LaRue farm in Rush Township, for example, DEP inspectors visited five times between the end of October, when work on the well began, and the end of February, when the work was completed.

Similarly, the DEP logged seven visits to the Greenwood farm in Dimock Township between late September and the end of February. However, once wells are in production the need for monitoring declines.




Special Writer</cp10.5,11,10.5>[/FONT]

 

[Kilgour Farms]

It's now $2000.00/acre @ 15% for a 7 year lease.

It's almost to the point where the upfront payments are equal to the assess value of the land. Almost makes drilling inevitable. Even if the value of the land decreases because of the impact of drilling, they've already made their money and any sale value will be above and beyond the actual price of the land.

 

[babyblue]

KF,
$2000 an acre plus 15% of proceeds for 7 years. If you sold only 10 acres and the proceeds are 15% of, say, $100,000 a year, over 7 years that's $125,000. I don't see how most in the area would say no.

 

[Joe D]

It's now $2000.00/acre @ 15% for a 7 year lease.

It's almost to the point where the upfront payments are equal to the assess value of the land. Almost makes drilling inevitable. Even if the value of the land decreases because of the impact of drilling, they've already made their money and any sale value will be above and beyond the actual price of the land.

What will that do to the assessed value? Will peoples real estate taxes increase?

I've seen land listed for $2,300 to $2,500 per acre on larger parcels. Why wouldn't the gas companies just buy it outright and save paying any royalties? When they were done with it they could sell it and recoup their initial cost.

Must be a lot more to it...