Today's Altoona Mirror reports that the Tyrone Borough Council is now contemplating a second attack on the Tyrone Borough watershed: an industrial windplant and GAS DRILLING!
Down in Texas the big gas companies are talking about Pennsylvania. Much of PA sits on top of Marcellus Shale, which lies under much of northern Appalachia 6,000 to 8,000 feet below the surface; the pores in the shale contain large quantities of natural gas. The shale layer becomes thicker from west to east beginning at about 50 feet in Ohio to more than 100 feet thick in central PA. Geologists have known about the gas here for years but now with the new technologies of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, recovering the gas is now the big new "Shale Play" as the industry refers to it. We are seeing the "land men" knocking on doors to obtain gas leases for various companies: see
http://plummershollow.wordpress.com/200 ... /#comments
The price of leases has gone from a few dollars per acre to over $2000. The number of permits issued by DEP has increased from about 1500 several years ago to more than 7000 last year. Major environmental concerns associated with these operations include erosion from land disturbed by access roads and drilling areas, disposal of rock cuttings resulting from drilling, and disposal of brines associated with the formations. The Federal Energy Act of 2005 specifically exempted oil and gas exploration from the Clean Water Act's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. DEP is attempting to address drilling through best management practices, which includes guidelines on how to comply with requirements for erosion control and wastewater discharges. These practices include applying the general erosion control requirements, encapsulation of drill cuttings, and testing of generated wastewater. Wastewater that meets discharge requirements can be discharged to a stream, while brines may be hauled to treatment facilities, injected into deep wells, or spread on dirt roads for dust control.
Wells drilled into the Marcellus employ two technologies that are relatively new in the Appalachian Basin. One is horizontal drilling, in which a vertical well is deviated to horizontal so that it will penetrate a maximum number of vertical rock fractures. The second is "hydrofracing" in which a portion of the well is sealed off and water is pumped in to produce a pressure that is high enough to fracture the surrounding rock. The result is a highly fractured reservoir that is penetrated by a long length of well bore.
Natural gas extraction from the watershed would involve the following:
• Hydraulic Fracturing: "Fracking” as it is called within the industry involves injecting water, sand and special chemicals into the shale layer at extremely high pressure. This then separates the pores in the rock and the sand particles "hold" the cracks open so the gas can flow back to the drill bore. Some of the injected fluids remain trapped underground. A number of these fluids qualify as hazardous materials and carcinogens, and are toxic enough to contaminate groundwater resources. There are cases in the U.S. where hydraulic fracturing is the suspected source of impaired or polluted drinking water. In Alabama, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, incidents have been recorded by people who have gas wells near their homes. They have reported changes in water quality or quantity following fracturing operations.
• Fragmentation: The Tyrone Borough watershed and adjacent lands contain some of the largest contiguous forest blocks in PA. This area acts as an important species corridor between the PA Wilds area of northcentral PA and West Virginia. The number of roads and increased heavy truck traffic and cleared swaths for pipelines to connect the drilling pads to pipelines will dissect these important forest blocks and corridor.
• Air and Noise Pollution: Drilling for gas is a highly industrial undertaking which includes numerous truckloads of equipment, chemicals, sand and water along with generators, pumps, drilling rigs and hoists. All of which are running at all hours of the day producing noise and exhaust fumes. When gas is found there can be a release of the various gases in the formation.
• Normally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORMS): NORMS are found in many geological formations and can be brought to the surface on drilling equipment and in fluids. Once at the surface it can accumulate as sediments in holding tanks and ponds.
Do you think that this type of activity is appropriate in a municipal drinking water watershed?
WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
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Woodrat
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Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
Wow, what an awe-inspiringly stupid idea! 
I'll bet the Borough Council geniuses who spawned it are already calculating whether they can afford to buy all the town's water from Roaring Spring with the proceeds from the lease sale. And no doubt their forester is already drawing up a list of the ways in which this will benefit the forest.
I'll bet the Borough Council geniuses who spawned it are already calculating whether they can afford to buy all the town's water from Roaring Spring with the proceeds from the lease sale. And no doubt their forester is already drawing up a list of the ways in which this will benefit the forest.Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
Drilling carries a hefty environmental price
Work can erode water sources, roads, home life
By Tom Wilber
Press & Sun-Bulletin
The quest for riches in the Marcellus Shale Formation is off to a rocky start -- at least in parts of northern Pennsylvania.
There, companies drilling into the massive natural gas resource have drained streams and spilled diesel fuel on pristine countryside.
Drill operators working for Range Resources and Chief Oil & Gas last month illegally diverted tens of thousands of gallons of water a day from rural streams to large-scale drilling operations in Lycoming County, west of Scranton, according to a report form the state Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP partially shut down the operation.
"We hope to have it resolved soon," Kristi Gittins, vice president for Chief Oil & Gas said Friday. "We fully comply with all regulations."
And in Susquehanna County, about 800 gallons of diesel fuel -- dyed bright red to help track it in the event of a spill -- leaked from a storage tank at a Cabot Oil drilling site, threatening a nearby stream. Emergency responders were containing and cleaning the mess last week.
For local property owners giddy about the prospects of their own lucrative land deals, it has been a sobering vision to see heavy equipment diverting stream beds and bright red diesel fuel flowing through ditches.
Yet the allure of staggering riches has many landowners lining up to cash in. In Broome and western Delaware counties, hundreds of landowners recently signed five-year leases with energy companies, taking the current offer of $2,411 per acre for mineral rights, plus 15 percent royalties. Others are holding out for more.
They sign away their property, knowing that with the rewards come environmental and safety risks.
In rural Daisetta, Texas, last month, a stadium-sized sink hole opened up, swallowing everything in its path. Geologists suspect intensive drilling operations in the area triggered the massive implosion.
Spectacular explosions at gas-drilling sites, shooting churning orange and black fireballs into the air and leaving columns of soot visible for miles, are not unheard of. One blast near Fort Worth, Texas, in April 2006 killed a worker and forced evacuation of nearby homes. Another blast in 1996, near Dime Box, Texas, killed two workers.
Explosions and sink holes are extreme and uncommon examples of what can go wrong, according to regulators and independent experts interviewed for this report. But they do happen.
More routine problems include noise and dust from intensive around-the-clock operations, and risks to water sources on and under the ground.
Susan Obleski, spokeswoman for the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, said Friday the agency has received only a handful of permit applications from 23 companies actively pursuing gas in the Marcellus Shale in this region. The commission oversees water resources and consumption in New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
"One of the issues is there are so many companies, and there are a lot more coming, given the interest," she said.
Commission Director Paul Swartz cited "mounting concern over well-development practices in the Susquehanna watershed" on Friday as part of a public notice to the drilling industry to comply with permit requirements.
Extracting gas from the Marcellus Shale requires drilling horizontally through bedrock, sometimes for a mile, and forcing cracks open with high pressure blasts of water. Each well requires an average of 1 million gallons.
The process, called hydraulic fracturing -- or "frac'ing" -- requires resources and equipment on a scale far surpassing vertical wells traditionally drilled in the area. Drilling operations drawing on headwaters in the upper tributaries of the river "will suck them dry," Obleski said.
Roger Downs, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, expressed similar concerns.
"We're seeing what is happening in northern Pennsylvania," he said. "We don't think the state is ready."
Industry sources characterize impacts from drilling operations as short term. While the development of infrastructure and well pads may be disruptive, the landscape is restored after drilling is completed.
"It's like a construction project," Gittins said. "When you finish building, you put your landscaping in and after that, things look good."
Downs co-authored this warning for the Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Catskill Mountainkeeper: "Many citizens who entered into these agreements are unprepared for the five-acre staging areas, drilling fluid-collection ponds, reduced air quality, noise pollution, traffic, temporary road networks, and the pipelines that come with a hydraulic fracturing operation."
The warning, part of a broader statement lobbyists issued to state lawmakers, comes at a critical time, as legislation is introduced in the state Assembly that would effectively accelerate the permitting process.
"We are not opposed to natural gas drilling," Downs said. "But we want a comprehensive plan before wells go in."
Marchie Diffendorf, a Kirkwood landowner and member of the town planning board, said problems in Pennsylvania raise concerns locally. Landowners will have to be watchdogs over drilling operations on their land, and that begins with drafting lease agreements that give them control over important issues. He is confident the DEC will provide sufficient oversight of water resources and other operations, he said.
"I don't think the DEC will allow them to dam up any creeks," he said.
Risks different here
Because the Southern Tier's landscape and geology is different from Texas, sinkholes are not a threat over the Marcellus, said Terry Engelder, a professor of geosciences at Penn State.
However, the bedrock below the Southern Tier carries another kind of risk: radioactive ores.
Water extracted from a Marcellus well is typically contaminated with salt, metals and various agents used in the drilling process.
Additionally, it sometimes carries traces of radioactivity picked up from uranium and thorium. It's the same kind of geology that creates radon, which can become a cancer risk when it collects in basements.
Engelder said concentrations from drilling and frac'ing are typically so low he wouldn't be afraid to dive into a pool of contaminated water.
Others might hesitate.
Brad Field, director of mineral resources for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said certain conditions could lead to pockets of dirt or water with elevated concentrations. That means drilling sites will be subject to tests for radioactivity, at the discretion of DEC officials.
Because the exploration and development of the Marcellus is in its infancy, supplying and disposing of water is not yet an issue in New York, Field said. That could change with a potential explosion of the number of drilling sites attempting to harvest the largest untapped natural gas resource in the country.
After water used in the drilling process is pumped from the ground, it has to be trucked away and treated. Municipal planners will have to be ready for the possibility of significant burdens on wastewater treatment plants.
"With the full development of the (Marcellus) resource, it could be an issue," Field said.
Additionally, if proper precautions are neglected to encase well shafts, drinking wells can be contaminated from turbid or salty water pushing up from deeper layers. Regulators will be kept busy as more wells begin to come on line in eastern Broome County.
Planners also can expect an influx of traffic by trucks and rigs far exceeding current weight limits of town and country roads.
Broome County officials are working with officials in Chemung -- an area with a legacy of gas wells -- to better understand issues related to drilling, said Leigh Ann Scheider, a Broome County spokeswoman. That includes drafting regulations ensuring energy companies are accountable for repairing roads damaged by drilling equipment.
Landowners lose control
The development of the Marcellus, called a play, has been moving north from the heart of Appalachia with increasing momentum, pushed by the relentless demand for energy and rocketing prices.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is hiring and training staff to help monitor a growing number of drilling sites, said Mark Carmen, public information officer for the DEP. Environmental issues in Pennsylvania and areas south, where drilling efforts are intensifying, are leading to questions about how prepared New York is to handle the impact on roads, water treatment and production, noise and unforeseen problems.
Bonnie and Don Beagel, of Kirkwood, have some experience in the unforeseen-problem department. They leased their land off Old State Road to Triana Energy in 2002. After developing a horizontal gas well there, Triana sold it to Chesapeake. The Beagels thought their headaches were over when the drilling stopped and the well was capped in 2003.
The quiet didn't last long. Chesapeake is now redeveloping the well in an attempt to tap the Marcellus.
"We didn't know they could do that," she said.
The noise of heavy equipment pounding the earth, clouds of dust settling over their house and swimming pool, and loss of control of their property are too much, Bonnie said.
"It's been frustrating," she said. "We would be happy to give it all back and go back the way it was before they came ... It used to be our private back yard. Now, there is always truck activities and men down there. I miss my privacy."
Town officials seem to be helpless in controlling booming noises coming from the site day and night. After a string of sleepless nights, Beagel complained to the operators, she said, and was told this:
"I know your neighbors aren't happy with us, ma'am. One came out of the woods at 2 o'clock last night swearing. But my orders are to keep this operation going."
Gas drilling stirs up question of water risks
Answers on wastewater impact slow in coming
By Tom Wilber • Press & Sun-Bulletin • June 15, 2008
The process to crack open the Marcellus Shale and extract its treasures might make some people rich, and it could boost the local economy.
There's also a good chance it could strain area water supplies.
As energy companies lease land and ready equipment to put the region on the map as a national energy producer, the impact from natural gas drilling on roads, waterways and the landscape remains the great unknown.
Not for long, though, if money seeding the effort is any indication.
Prospectors are already paying hundreds of millions of dollars to landowners to stake out access to the Marcellus Shale. Farmers in Tioga County are being offered $1,500 per acre, while the going rate east of Binghamton is $2,500 per acre.
Conventional wisdom says prices -- less than $100 per acre a year ago when the potential of the Marcellus was unknown -- will continue to rise sharply if lawmakers pass a bill this session designed to streamline the permitting process in New York state.
In Harrisburg, Pa., regulators from the Department of Environmental Protection met with 150 oil and gas industry leaders on Friday to make sure they understood Pennsylvania laws governing drilling operations. The first-of-its-kind summit came after operators illegally diverted streams and spilled diesel fuel at several sites.
Meanwhile, Southern Tier planners, water officials and sewage treatment operators interviewed for this report could not forecast the impact of the massive drilling rigs, each requiring one to three million gallons of water and producing a similar amount of waste. Nor did they know of plans in the works to accommodate them.
"It's like a road covered in fog. It's hard to see which way it turns," said Chip McElwee, executive director of the Broome County Soil & Water Conservation District, an agency that works with landowners to preserve water resources.
Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, is asking lots of questions as she researches a bill to streamline the permitting process and speed up development.
The answers, so far, are slow in coming, she said.
"What kind of water treatment is necessary? What are the penalties of dumping it? There are so many questions," she said. "I'm always hearing 'It's part of the permitting process.' We're trying to get a handle of what's in this stuff."
Complicating the problem is the fact that drilling companies are exempt from federal laws requiring disclosure about additives to water -- called frac' fluid -- injected into wells to fracture the Marcellus and release natural gas.
It also is hard to know what comes out of the ground -- salt, metals and radioactive particles -- that may differ from site to site.
"The composition of frac' fluid is an important issue, and we are going to be looking at that," said Brad Field, director of mineral resources for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
While the additives may be considered proprietary, the state can demand a chemical analysis before frac' water is accepted by treatment plants.
With that in mind, officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection recently sent a letter to sewage treatment plants warning wastewater from Marcellus drilling operations "may cause operational problems that will make it difficult to meet your .... permit effluent limits and may require changes."
Field said the DEP letters were a good idea, and the DEC might send the same message to water treatment operators in New York.
The Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Water Treatment Facility, the largest treatment operation in Broome County, has not been approached by waste haulers from frac'ing jobs. If that happens, capacity will likely be a problem, said plant Superintendent Catherine Aingworth.
"That is an issue, We would have to take a look at how much we are talking about and what's in it," she said, adding she could not think of an instance where anybody hauled a million gallons of waste to a treatment plant.
Frac'ing (short for fracturing) the Marcellus involves drilling horizontally through the bedrock for up to a mile and cracking it open with high-pressure blasts of treated water. While regional development of horizontal wells is still in its infancy, traditional vertical wells drilled in western New York have produced lesser but still significant volumes of waste water.
Officials interviewed last week from the DEC, the DEP, the New York Farm Bureau and local wastewater plants could not say exactly where it goes.
For that, DEP officials will ask Ashur TerWilliger, a 71-year-old Chemung County farmer and landowner advocate. He has witnessed companies spreading wastewater on roads to keep down dust, he said. He also has followed trucks hauling the waste from New York sites into Pennsylvania.
Mark Carmon, a spokesman for the DEP, said Friday that agency officials plan to contact TerWilliger and others with similar stories to investigate.
In Endicott, energy firms have proposed drilling under the Tri-Cities Airport and the En-Joie Golf Club. Officials are trying to determine risks from the operation to the nearby municipal well that feeds 45,000 customers in the village and the Town of Union. They have not yet considered where the wastewater would go.
"The simple answer is, I don't think that has been discussed or planned very much at all," said Thomas Johnson, clerk-treasurer for Endicott. The village runs a treatment plant at the site, a point of interest to the drillers, Johnson said.
Johnson's assessment is similar to others in municipal government. Many of them point to state regulations overseeing the process.
Ultimately, though, responsibility will come back to local officials, who are responsible for handling issues related to roads, noise, runoff and water treatment.
Local ordinance officials will be on the receiving end of complaints ranging from noise from heavy equipment and explosions from the drilling effort that runs around the clock, to erosion, mud and runoff from sites, to caravans of tankers and flatbeds hauling water and equipment on town and local roads.
Leigh Anne Scheider, a spokeswoman for the county, said questions about frac' water and its disposal should be directed to energy companies working in the area.
Representatives from two of the gas companies -- XTO and Range Resources -- said they weren't up to speed on frac' water disposal practices for New York because they don't yet have wells in the state.
Considering how fast things seem to be moving, that's just a matter of time.
Work can erode water sources, roads, home life
By Tom Wilber
Press & Sun-Bulletin
The quest for riches in the Marcellus Shale Formation is off to a rocky start -- at least in parts of northern Pennsylvania.
There, companies drilling into the massive natural gas resource have drained streams and spilled diesel fuel on pristine countryside.
Drill operators working for Range Resources and Chief Oil & Gas last month illegally diverted tens of thousands of gallons of water a day from rural streams to large-scale drilling operations in Lycoming County, west of Scranton, according to a report form the state Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP partially shut down the operation.
"We hope to have it resolved soon," Kristi Gittins, vice president for Chief Oil & Gas said Friday. "We fully comply with all regulations."
And in Susquehanna County, about 800 gallons of diesel fuel -- dyed bright red to help track it in the event of a spill -- leaked from a storage tank at a Cabot Oil drilling site, threatening a nearby stream. Emergency responders were containing and cleaning the mess last week.
For local property owners giddy about the prospects of their own lucrative land deals, it has been a sobering vision to see heavy equipment diverting stream beds and bright red diesel fuel flowing through ditches.
Yet the allure of staggering riches has many landowners lining up to cash in. In Broome and western Delaware counties, hundreds of landowners recently signed five-year leases with energy companies, taking the current offer of $2,411 per acre for mineral rights, plus 15 percent royalties. Others are holding out for more.
They sign away their property, knowing that with the rewards come environmental and safety risks.
In rural Daisetta, Texas, last month, a stadium-sized sink hole opened up, swallowing everything in its path. Geologists suspect intensive drilling operations in the area triggered the massive implosion.
Spectacular explosions at gas-drilling sites, shooting churning orange and black fireballs into the air and leaving columns of soot visible for miles, are not unheard of. One blast near Fort Worth, Texas, in April 2006 killed a worker and forced evacuation of nearby homes. Another blast in 1996, near Dime Box, Texas, killed two workers.
Explosions and sink holes are extreme and uncommon examples of what can go wrong, according to regulators and independent experts interviewed for this report. But they do happen.
More routine problems include noise and dust from intensive around-the-clock operations, and risks to water sources on and under the ground.
Susan Obleski, spokeswoman for the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, said Friday the agency has received only a handful of permit applications from 23 companies actively pursuing gas in the Marcellus Shale in this region. The commission oversees water resources and consumption in New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
"One of the issues is there are so many companies, and there are a lot more coming, given the interest," she said.
Commission Director Paul Swartz cited "mounting concern over well-development practices in the Susquehanna watershed" on Friday as part of a public notice to the drilling industry to comply with permit requirements.
Extracting gas from the Marcellus Shale requires drilling horizontally through bedrock, sometimes for a mile, and forcing cracks open with high pressure blasts of water. Each well requires an average of 1 million gallons.
The process, called hydraulic fracturing -- or "frac'ing" -- requires resources and equipment on a scale far surpassing vertical wells traditionally drilled in the area. Drilling operations drawing on headwaters in the upper tributaries of the river "will suck them dry," Obleski said.
Roger Downs, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, expressed similar concerns.
"We're seeing what is happening in northern Pennsylvania," he said. "We don't think the state is ready."
Industry sources characterize impacts from drilling operations as short term. While the development of infrastructure and well pads may be disruptive, the landscape is restored after drilling is completed.
"It's like a construction project," Gittins said. "When you finish building, you put your landscaping in and after that, things look good."
Downs co-authored this warning for the Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Catskill Mountainkeeper: "Many citizens who entered into these agreements are unprepared for the five-acre staging areas, drilling fluid-collection ponds, reduced air quality, noise pollution, traffic, temporary road networks, and the pipelines that come with a hydraulic fracturing operation."
The warning, part of a broader statement lobbyists issued to state lawmakers, comes at a critical time, as legislation is introduced in the state Assembly that would effectively accelerate the permitting process.
"We are not opposed to natural gas drilling," Downs said. "But we want a comprehensive plan before wells go in."
Marchie Diffendorf, a Kirkwood landowner and member of the town planning board, said problems in Pennsylvania raise concerns locally. Landowners will have to be watchdogs over drilling operations on their land, and that begins with drafting lease agreements that give them control over important issues. He is confident the DEC will provide sufficient oversight of water resources and other operations, he said.
"I don't think the DEC will allow them to dam up any creeks," he said.
Risks different here
Because the Southern Tier's landscape and geology is different from Texas, sinkholes are not a threat over the Marcellus, said Terry Engelder, a professor of geosciences at Penn State.
However, the bedrock below the Southern Tier carries another kind of risk: radioactive ores.
Water extracted from a Marcellus well is typically contaminated with salt, metals and various agents used in the drilling process.
Additionally, it sometimes carries traces of radioactivity picked up from uranium and thorium. It's the same kind of geology that creates radon, which can become a cancer risk when it collects in basements.
Engelder said concentrations from drilling and frac'ing are typically so low he wouldn't be afraid to dive into a pool of contaminated water.
Others might hesitate.
Brad Field, director of mineral resources for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said certain conditions could lead to pockets of dirt or water with elevated concentrations. That means drilling sites will be subject to tests for radioactivity, at the discretion of DEC officials.
Because the exploration and development of the Marcellus is in its infancy, supplying and disposing of water is not yet an issue in New York, Field said. That could change with a potential explosion of the number of drilling sites attempting to harvest the largest untapped natural gas resource in the country.
After water used in the drilling process is pumped from the ground, it has to be trucked away and treated. Municipal planners will have to be ready for the possibility of significant burdens on wastewater treatment plants.
"With the full development of the (Marcellus) resource, it could be an issue," Field said.
Additionally, if proper precautions are neglected to encase well shafts, drinking wells can be contaminated from turbid or salty water pushing up from deeper layers. Regulators will be kept busy as more wells begin to come on line in eastern Broome County.
Planners also can expect an influx of traffic by trucks and rigs far exceeding current weight limits of town and country roads.
Broome County officials are working with officials in Chemung -- an area with a legacy of gas wells -- to better understand issues related to drilling, said Leigh Ann Scheider, a Broome County spokeswoman. That includes drafting regulations ensuring energy companies are accountable for repairing roads damaged by drilling equipment.
Landowners lose control
The development of the Marcellus, called a play, has been moving north from the heart of Appalachia with increasing momentum, pushed by the relentless demand for energy and rocketing prices.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is hiring and training staff to help monitor a growing number of drilling sites, said Mark Carmen, public information officer for the DEP. Environmental issues in Pennsylvania and areas south, where drilling efforts are intensifying, are leading to questions about how prepared New York is to handle the impact on roads, water treatment and production, noise and unforeseen problems.
Bonnie and Don Beagel, of Kirkwood, have some experience in the unforeseen-problem department. They leased their land off Old State Road to Triana Energy in 2002. After developing a horizontal gas well there, Triana sold it to Chesapeake. The Beagels thought their headaches were over when the drilling stopped and the well was capped in 2003.
The quiet didn't last long. Chesapeake is now redeveloping the well in an attempt to tap the Marcellus.
"We didn't know they could do that," she said.
The noise of heavy equipment pounding the earth, clouds of dust settling over their house and swimming pool, and loss of control of their property are too much, Bonnie said.
"It's been frustrating," she said. "We would be happy to give it all back and go back the way it was before they came ... It used to be our private back yard. Now, there is always truck activities and men down there. I miss my privacy."
Town officials seem to be helpless in controlling booming noises coming from the site day and night. After a string of sleepless nights, Beagel complained to the operators, she said, and was told this:
"I know your neighbors aren't happy with us, ma'am. One came out of the woods at 2 o'clock last night swearing. But my orders are to keep this operation going."
Gas drilling stirs up question of water risks
Answers on wastewater impact slow in coming
By Tom Wilber • Press & Sun-Bulletin • June 15, 2008
The process to crack open the Marcellus Shale and extract its treasures might make some people rich, and it could boost the local economy.
There's also a good chance it could strain area water supplies.
As energy companies lease land and ready equipment to put the region on the map as a national energy producer, the impact from natural gas drilling on roads, waterways and the landscape remains the great unknown.
Not for long, though, if money seeding the effort is any indication.
Prospectors are already paying hundreds of millions of dollars to landowners to stake out access to the Marcellus Shale. Farmers in Tioga County are being offered $1,500 per acre, while the going rate east of Binghamton is $2,500 per acre.
Conventional wisdom says prices -- less than $100 per acre a year ago when the potential of the Marcellus was unknown -- will continue to rise sharply if lawmakers pass a bill this session designed to streamline the permitting process in New York state.
In Harrisburg, Pa., regulators from the Department of Environmental Protection met with 150 oil and gas industry leaders on Friday to make sure they understood Pennsylvania laws governing drilling operations. The first-of-its-kind summit came after operators illegally diverted streams and spilled diesel fuel at several sites.
Meanwhile, Southern Tier planners, water officials and sewage treatment operators interviewed for this report could not forecast the impact of the massive drilling rigs, each requiring one to three million gallons of water and producing a similar amount of waste. Nor did they know of plans in the works to accommodate them.
"It's like a road covered in fog. It's hard to see which way it turns," said Chip McElwee, executive director of the Broome County Soil & Water Conservation District, an agency that works with landowners to preserve water resources.
Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, is asking lots of questions as she researches a bill to streamline the permitting process and speed up development.
The answers, so far, are slow in coming, she said.
"What kind of water treatment is necessary? What are the penalties of dumping it? There are so many questions," she said. "I'm always hearing 'It's part of the permitting process.' We're trying to get a handle of what's in this stuff."
Complicating the problem is the fact that drilling companies are exempt from federal laws requiring disclosure about additives to water -- called frac' fluid -- injected into wells to fracture the Marcellus and release natural gas.
It also is hard to know what comes out of the ground -- salt, metals and radioactive particles -- that may differ from site to site.
"The composition of frac' fluid is an important issue, and we are going to be looking at that," said Brad Field, director of mineral resources for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
While the additives may be considered proprietary, the state can demand a chemical analysis before frac' water is accepted by treatment plants.
With that in mind, officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection recently sent a letter to sewage treatment plants warning wastewater from Marcellus drilling operations "may cause operational problems that will make it difficult to meet your .... permit effluent limits and may require changes."
Field said the DEP letters were a good idea, and the DEC might send the same message to water treatment operators in New York.
The Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Water Treatment Facility, the largest treatment operation in Broome County, has not been approached by waste haulers from frac'ing jobs. If that happens, capacity will likely be a problem, said plant Superintendent Catherine Aingworth.
"That is an issue, We would have to take a look at how much we are talking about and what's in it," she said, adding she could not think of an instance where anybody hauled a million gallons of waste to a treatment plant.
Frac'ing (short for fracturing) the Marcellus involves drilling horizontally through the bedrock for up to a mile and cracking it open with high-pressure blasts of treated water. While regional development of horizontal wells is still in its infancy, traditional vertical wells drilled in western New York have produced lesser but still significant volumes of waste water.
Officials interviewed last week from the DEC, the DEP, the New York Farm Bureau and local wastewater plants could not say exactly where it goes.
For that, DEP officials will ask Ashur TerWilliger, a 71-year-old Chemung County farmer and landowner advocate. He has witnessed companies spreading wastewater on roads to keep down dust, he said. He also has followed trucks hauling the waste from New York sites into Pennsylvania.
Mark Carmon, a spokesman for the DEP, said Friday that agency officials plan to contact TerWilliger and others with similar stories to investigate.
In Endicott, energy firms have proposed drilling under the Tri-Cities Airport and the En-Joie Golf Club. Officials are trying to determine risks from the operation to the nearby municipal well that feeds 45,000 customers in the village and the Town of Union. They have not yet considered where the wastewater would go.
"The simple answer is, I don't think that has been discussed or planned very much at all," said Thomas Johnson, clerk-treasurer for Endicott. The village runs a treatment plant at the site, a point of interest to the drillers, Johnson said.
Johnson's assessment is similar to others in municipal government. Many of them point to state regulations overseeing the process.
Ultimately, though, responsibility will come back to local officials, who are responsible for handling issues related to roads, noise, runoff and water treatment.
Local ordinance officials will be on the receiving end of complaints ranging from noise from heavy equipment and explosions from the drilling effort that runs around the clock, to erosion, mud and runoff from sites, to caravans of tankers and flatbeds hauling water and equipment on town and local roads.
Leigh Anne Scheider, a spokeswoman for the county, said questions about frac' water and its disposal should be directed to energy companies working in the area.
Representatives from two of the gas companies -- XTO and Range Resources -- said they weren't up to speed on frac' water disposal practices for New York because they don't yet have wells in the state.
Considering how fast things seem to be moving, that's just a matter of time.
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Bill Latchford
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Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
I think it is one thing to disturb the surface and about 10 feet down, but when you are doing that horizontal drilling where you are drilling maybe up to a mile away from where you are standing...That is a bit scary around the water supply. Who is to say that you would not hit a spring deep down and divert it somewhere else? Heck you may drill right through one and have it drain out into some empty pocket deep in the ground. Really it does not seem like there is any limit to where they can drill. You may say don't drill close to the Reservoir, but if they are a mile away they could still affect it... Cause some sink whole issue or something way underneath and cause the reservoir to drain out...Wouldn't that just be wonderful?...If you have water then your community can be self sufficient. Not sold on this, Way more unknowns than Wind Turbines on the ground's surface....Let the games begin
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Something to say
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Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
Statue of Liberty
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming s h o r e. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
Pennsylvania seems to be THE STATE that has taken Lady Liberty's invitaion literally and personally.
"Let us solve all the dirty, nasty problems in the country. We will proudly import all your refuse to our beautiful state. We're begging you to strip our mountaintops for the placement of windmills...we are determined to resolve the nation's energy crisis. We already enjoy the bragging rights for being the first state to Drill for oil. Please allow us to further pollute our water by drilling for gas on watersheds. We will sacrifice all. We are THE STATE that can fix the problems of the nation. We'll gladly give residence to your thugs, drug dealers, their women and children and supply them with all they need. We have many state prisons that can house them once they are convicted. We will stop at nothing for the almighty dollar so we can afford to get ourselves out of the messes we continually get ourselves into. Our motto is Rob Peter to Pay Paul."
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming s h o r e. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
Pennsylvania seems to be THE STATE that has taken Lady Liberty's invitaion literally and personally.
"Let us solve all the dirty, nasty problems in the country. We will proudly import all your refuse to our beautiful state. We're begging you to strip our mountaintops for the placement of windmills...we are determined to resolve the nation's energy crisis. We already enjoy the bragging rights for being the first state to Drill for oil. Please allow us to further pollute our water by drilling for gas on watersheds. We will sacrifice all. We are THE STATE that can fix the problems of the nation. We'll gladly give residence to your thugs, drug dealers, their women and children and supply them with all they need. We have many state prisons that can house them once they are convicted. We will stop at nothing for the almighty dollar so we can afford to get ourselves out of the messes we continually get ourselves into. Our motto is Rob Peter to Pay Paul."
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banksy
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Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
Tyrone Watershed not included, we better start drilling somewhere in the US. IF not, stop moaning about gas prices. I saw pounds the Gulf of Mexico and get the d*mn oil out of there.
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sandstone
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Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
x 2Something to say wrote:Statue of Liberty
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming s h o r e. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
Pennsylvania seems to be THE STATE that has taken Lady Liberty's invitaion literally and personally.
"Let us solve all the dirty, nasty problems in the country. We will proudly import all your refuse to our beautiful state. We're begging you to strip our mountaintops for the placement of windmills...we are determined to resolve the nation's energy crisis. We already enjoy the bragging rights for being the first state to Drill for oil. Please allow us to further pollute our water by drilling for gas on watersheds. We will sacrifice all. We are THE STATE that can fix the problems of the nation. We'll gladly give residence to your thugs, drug dealers, their women and children and supply them with all they need. We have many state prisons that can house them once they are convicted. We will stop at nothing for the almighty dollar so we can afford to get ourselves out of the messes we continually get ourselves into. Our motto is Rob Peter to Pay Paul."
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sandstone
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Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
Lots of the same forest wildlife impacts as industrial windplants. This letter to the editor was published in the Harrisburg Patriot-News 3 months ago:
To the editor;
The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' decision to open 75,000 acres of Pennsylvania's State Forests to deep gas drilling combined with that agency's decision to consider opening 45,000 acres of State Forest land to industrial windplant development indicate that the department's decision-makers have a poor understanding of the adverse effects of forest fragmentation. It is impossible to construct miles of roadway associated with gas wells or miles of roads and transmission lines associated with industrial windplants and not cause severe forest fragmentation.
These adverse effects of forest fragmentation include reduced habitat area, habitat isolation and loss of species from an area, disruption of dispersal, increased edge effects and loss of core habitat, and the facilitation of alien invasive species. Due to their linearity, roads and transmission lines have particularly pronounced fragmentation effects.
Because natural resource agency lands are among the last remaining large blocks of unfragmented land in Pennsylvania, these lands are particularly in need of protection. Ironically, a publication produced by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (Moyer 2003) emphasizes the importance of preserving these last remaining large blocks of unfragmented habitat in the state.
Forest conservation, not energy extraction, should be the overarching purpose of our State Forests.
Sincerely,
Stan Kotala, M.D.
President
Juniata Valley Audubon
RR 3 Box 866
Altoona, PA 16601-9206
814-946-8840
ccwiba@keyconn.net
To the editor;
The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' decision to open 75,000 acres of Pennsylvania's State Forests to deep gas drilling combined with that agency's decision to consider opening 45,000 acres of State Forest land to industrial windplant development indicate that the department's decision-makers have a poor understanding of the adverse effects of forest fragmentation. It is impossible to construct miles of roadway associated with gas wells or miles of roads and transmission lines associated with industrial windplants and not cause severe forest fragmentation.
These adverse effects of forest fragmentation include reduced habitat area, habitat isolation and loss of species from an area, disruption of dispersal, increased edge effects and loss of core habitat, and the facilitation of alien invasive species. Due to their linearity, roads and transmission lines have particularly pronounced fragmentation effects.
Because natural resource agency lands are among the last remaining large blocks of unfragmented land in Pennsylvania, these lands are particularly in need of protection. Ironically, a publication produced by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (Moyer 2003) emphasizes the importance of preserving these last remaining large blocks of unfragmented habitat in the state.
Forest conservation, not energy extraction, should be the overarching purpose of our State Forests.
Sincerely,
Stan Kotala, M.D.
President
Juniata Valley Audubon
RR 3 Box 866
Altoona, PA 16601-9206
814-946-8840
ccwiba@keyconn.net
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My2Cents
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Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
Whew, I'm still reading... just finished with sandstones initial post above, which included the letter to " BB." Obviously, I did not get very far, however, oh my... this is so unbelieveable !! I don't have time to read this gas thing right now.... I can only say from the little bit I have read so far.... so many things are starting to happen at once and so the confusion/distractions begin, as far as the general public is concerned. Getting the minds off one subject and on to another, then another !!!
Bottom line, thank goodness for you folks out there, who were not born yesterday, being able to read between those lines, knowing what is REALLY happening and why.... especially now.
Windmills went away last year around the end of May and never reappeared until October.... Is that happening now ?? Are we getting all this other stuff to sort out in the meantime ?? Who knows... I guess we can't let our guard down and/or put our shovels away.
Bottom line, thank goodness for you folks out there, who were not born yesterday, being able to read between those lines, knowing what is REALLY happening and why.... especially now.
Windmills went away last year around the end of May and never reappeared until October.... Is that happening now ?? Are we getting all this other stuff to sort out in the meantime ?? Who knows... I guess we can't let our guard down and/or put our shovels away.
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My2Cents
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Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
Forgot to mention they are also talking about drilling somewhere between the Grazierville Bridge and the I 99 Exit. There was a picture of the "spot" and a write up in one of the papers just recently.
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My2Cents
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Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
Interesting site...
http://www.wccongress.org/oilngas.htm
http://www.wccongress.org/oilngas.htm
Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
I'm amazed to read about drilling for oil in PA recently, although of course I knew they did in Titusville in the last century. I think we need to move away from oil completely, but if we can use responsible practices, perhaps we have to do something. It's hard to know what to do sometimes. Who is "BB" in the letter, My2Cents? I didn't get that. Anyway, a lot to think about. Thanks for the info.
watcher
watcher
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sandstone
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Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
From the Altoona Mirror: http://altoonamirror.com/page/content.d ... ml?nav=742My2Cents wrote:Forgot to mention they are also talking about drilling somewhere between the Grazierville Bridge and the I 99 Exit. There was a picture of the "spot" and a write up in one of the papers just recently.
GAS DRILLING PONDERED
The Altoona City Authority may allow drilling of natural gas wells on its watershed to earn tens of millions of dollars, a practice that could offset the cost of a mandatory upgrade of its sewer plants to clean up Chesapeake Bay.
The authority has 6,700 acres of watershed that could be available for extracting highly pressurized gas from tiny spaces and cracks in the 350-foot-thick layer of Marcellus shale more than a mile below the surface.
The high cost of energy and new techniques for horizontal drilling and fracturing rock by pumping in high-pressure fluids have helped make extraction of gas practical from the Marcellus shale in Appalachia, which holds 168 trillion to 516 trillion cubic feet of the substance, according to a Penn State University Web site.
About 20 oil and gas drilling companies from Texas are competing for leases on promising ground in Pennsylvania, said consultant Greg Myers of DMS Environmental Services of Bellefonte, who spoke to the authority Thursday.
A couple of firms already have approached the authority, which asked Myers to develop a plan that could lead to a public request for proposals.
The authority would receive payment through a bonus upon signing a lease and would receive royalties if wells produce.
Bonus prices in Pennsylvania typically range between $1,500 and $2,000 an acre, said Ken Balliet, member of the Penn State Cooperative Extension’s natural gas exploration team, which is helping landowners deal sensibly with the rush.
If the authority leases all its available land, it could earn $10 million to $13.4 million, tying up the land for five years — or if the company begins production, until production ends.
State minimum royalty payments are 12.5 percent of gross well revenues, with some payments as high as 15 percent, Balliet said.
If a company sets up 15 wells on the watershed, each one on a 400-acre tract, a modest output of gas could generate $6.6 million for the authority in initial royalties at the state minimum.
Over 20 years, with declining output, those 15 wells could generate $54 million — a number easily within the area’s potential, though “highly speculative,” Balliet said.
A 1972 test well drilled by Amoco not far from Bellwood Reservoir confirmed the Marcellus layer in the watershed is about as thick as anywhere in Pennsylvania, Myers said.
Initially, a company would clear five-plus acres for each drilling site, set up a rig, get utilities in place and bring in up to 45 big trucks and 75 workers, Myers said. The drilling to reach the Marcellus goes on around the clock, taking up to three weeks.
The hydraulic “fracturing” of the Marcellus requires large pumps and up to a million gallons of water and is loud and dirty, Myers said.
When the well is ready for production, transmission lines are put in place, smaller ones leading to bigger ones leading to major distribution lines.
The footprint of a well site and the width of the roadways needed to service it can shrink after the preparation phases are over.
Because the gas is under high pressure, it comes to the surface — expanding to 300 times its volume — without the need for pumping, Myers said.
The state Department of Environmental Protection regulates the operations, but the department hasn’t been able to handle the demands of the rush, so it’s important to build environmental protection into the lease, Myers said.
That may mean sacrificing some income, Balliet said.
The practice of horizontal drilling and the depth of the gas shale make it easier to minimize environmental harm, because it means more widely spaced well sites, strategically placed to suit the landowner, Myers said.
Drillers protect groundwater by double-casing around a layer of concrete through the water table near the surface, Balliet said.
The leases with the authority would need to stipulate that gas extraction wouldn’t interfere with windmill company operations.
The authority must complete $40 million to $60 million worth of sewer plant upgrades as early as fall 2011 to meet nitrate and phosphorus standards designed to improve Chesapeake Bay.
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My2Cents
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Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
Watcher... To answer your question, in sandstones initial post above, click on the "plummers hollow" word press site which is submitted within that post.
Re: WATERSHED GAS DRILLING
Okay...thanks, My2Cents, I didn't get the tie-in there, but I see it now. Sometimes, it's difficult to wade through all the sites. Thanks for clarifying! Appreciate it! 