By GLENN LINSENBARDT

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ONEONTA

Drilling for natural gas may be profitable. But the environmental impacts are imponderable, and perhaps devastating.
That is a synopsis of the testimony offered Tuesday evening, Dec. 2, when 250 people gathered at the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s one local hearing on regulations it is devising to guide exploration for natural gas in the Marcellus shale formation that undergirds Otsego County.
State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, captured that dichotomy in his testimony.
“The financial benefits associated with natural-gas drilling …could be enormous,” he said. “In addition, the benefits from an energy supply perspective are also important. We must ensure, however, that the utmost consideration is given to protecting our environment as we move forward in capturing the benefits of this resource.”
When last summer’s spike in oil prices generate intense interest in exploring for natural gas all along the Marcellus formation, which ranges from Utica to Tennessee, debate soon focused on a process called “hydrofracking,” where chemicals, water and sand are pumped into the ground from a single point far below the surface.
The DEC was operating under a Generic Environmental Impact Statement that had not been revised since 1992, so Gov. David Paterson ordered a Supplemental GEIS that would take hydrofracking into account.
The session in SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union Ballroom was one of several “public scoping sessions” on the new rules, which may be issued as soon as next spring, which should trigger action on what may be as many as 140 wells planned for Otsego County.
Several speakers mentioned that the GEIS is old and not relevant to current conditions. The statistics concerning population and farming are 20 years old or more and the study is irrelevant considering current drilling methods. One supplement to a 20 year old GEIS is not adequate.
The DEC must consider what has happened in other states where horizontal drilling has taken place. For example, in western Colorado a resident’s drinking water well exploded like a geyser, spraying mud and gray fizzing water into the sky. Fractures can run diagonally and vertically as well as horizontally. This can lead to potentially dangerous situations that were not expected.
The visual, noise and air quality issues must be considered. When the drilling rig goes away, the compressors come in and run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Noise is heard well beyond 1,000 feet.
There will also be a sharp increase in truck traffic for bringing in the water needed for drilling. Many county roads were not built with this volume of traffic in mind.

Labels: 12-05-08, Front Page, Natural Gas Drilling

COOPERSTOWN

The Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society today announced it has urged Governor Paterson to enact a moratorium on natural-gas drilling until environmental and health concerns are met in a Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement.
In an Aug. 25 letter, local Audubon President Tom Salo, Town of Burlington, wrote that “with the rapid pace of gas exploration ... major damage could be done to New York’s ground and surface waters, and other natural resources.”
The letter said, “without rigorous oversight and strictly enforced regulations, localities may be left with untreated waste lagoons, contaminated groundwater, and polluted streams and other waterways. Overdrawn aquifers and surface waters are also a great concern.”
Earlier this summer, the governor ordered the state Department of Environmental Conservation to update the GEIS completed in the early '90s.
Drillers may continuing submitting applications and can conducted their own environmental impact statements, but since -- without the GEIS -- they lack guidance on what to include in their EIS, it is unclear if that creates a de-facto moratorium. Otsego County Attorney Jim Konstanty has argued that it the case.
If Paterson were to act on the Audubon Society's letter, it would clarify the situation.
CAPTION: Local Audubon President Tom Salo, Town of Burlington.

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

Property owners who regret leasing land to energy companies too low a price plan to meet with two Albany attorneys at 5 p.m. Thursday in Hancock, according to today's Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin. For the full story, click here

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

American natural gas production is rising at a clip not seen in half a century, pushing down prices of the fuel and reversing conventional wisdom that domestic gas fields were in irreversible decline, the New York Times reports today. For full story, click here

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

An editorial in today's Albany Times-Union says wildcatters should be required to reveal what chemicals are being pumped into the ground to extract natural gas. The companies are saying that's a trade secret and confidential. For the full editorial, please click here

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

GARRATTSVILLE

Where the County of Otsego has expressed no interest in a moratorium on natural-gas exploration until the impacts are studied, the Town of New Lisbon is taking matters into its own hands.
“Lacking anyone else’s moratorium,” said Town Supervisor Robert E. Taylor, “we decided to do it ourselves.”
The town is consulting with its attorney, Martin Tillapaugh of Cooperstown, and if the wording is in place in time, the question may be voted on at the next town board meeting, the second Tuesday in September.
Taylor said the town board was responding to 20 people who turned out at its last meeting expressing concerns about natural-gas drilling, primarily in two areas:
One, how much damage would be done to town roads and bridges if big drilling rigs are going back and forth on them?
Two, what chemicals are going into the ground during the hydro-fracking process, and where will they end up?
(Under horizontal hydro-fracking, a vertical shaft is driven 10,000 feet into the ground, then pipes run out horizontally from that central point.
(Water and chemicals are pumped into the ground to break up the Marcellus Shale Formation, and sand to keep cracks from closing. Natural gas can then seep to the surface.)
Taylor said the town board’s intent is not to stop drilling, but to delay it sufficiently so the impacts can be understood and, perhaps, minimized.
Asked how many of New Lisbon’s 1,116 residents have been approached by companies seeking to lease natural-gas rights, the supervisor said, “I have no way of knowing the figure, but I would say it’s widespread.”
County Attorney Jim Konstanty declined to comment on powers relegated to towns, compared to those of a county, but he said the town moratorium may be “duplication.”
Gov. David Paterson has directed the state Department of Environmental Conservation to update its Generic Environmental Impact Statement and, until that’s done, a de-facto moratorium is in place statewide, Konstanty said.
The county attorney said he was unaware of any other town considering a natural-gas moratorium.
Howevrer, Adrian Kuzminski of Fly Creek, a Sustainable Otsego leader, said he proposed a moratorium to the Otsego Town Board, although he hasn’t heard back yet.
He said he’s heard similar rumblings in Otego and Cherry Valley.
Thursday, a Sustainable Otsego contingent planned to attend a meeting of the county’s Solid Waste and Environmental Concerns Committee to present the enabling legislation to establish a county energy authority.
James Andela, a Richfield Springs businessman, proposed the county establish its own authority to develop natural-gas resources for the maximum benefit of the county.,

Labels: 062708, Front Page, Garrattsville, Natural Gas Drilling

CHERRY VALLEY

Nik Pressly, the former Cherry Valley town board candidate and a foe of wind development, has is distributing an e-mail explaining why he signed a lease with a natural-gas drilling company.
Pressly said he concluded there would be "minimal risk of cumulative impacts to the community over a long period of time using the horizontal process with 640 acre spacing."
Here is the text of his e-mail:
/nik%20pressly.rtf

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

ALBANY

Natural-gas drilling presents "the potential for an untold level of social and environmental damage," Ron Urban, state chairman of Trout Unlimited, wrote today in the Albany Times-Union.
For the full article, please click here

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

Neighbors in the Gibbs Hill section of Hamilton, Pa., southeast of Erie, report tap water is causing a burning sensation in their mouths since exploration for natural gas began nearby.
For the story in the Ridgway (Pa.) Record, click here

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

The Cayuga County Legislature may begin drilling for natural gas on its own property.
For the story in the Auburn Citizen, click here

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

It wasn’t much of a confidence-builder in the DEC.
“We’re not giving interviews right now,” said a spokesperson for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, “because we’re getting so many requests.”
Presumably, if no one were interested in interviewing DEC’s various specialists, they’d be clamoring to be interviewed.
Shades of Joseph Heller.
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Which brings up a pet peeve.
Any newspaperperson used to be able to pick up the phone and talk directly to pretty much any government official.
In the 1990s, a new “communications” philosophy swept government.
Suddenly, all calls had to be siphoned through the “media relations” department, sometimes staffed by some knowledgeable people, but rarely as knowledgeable as the experts in the particular divisions and bureaus, who were now barred from talking directly to the press.
There you have it. A “communications” policy designed to limit communications. Joseph Heller.
When editorial writers start waving the Bill of Rights, don’t you always find yourself saying, There they go again?
That said, does a state agency have the authority to prohibit their employees from talking to anyone?
From a management standpoint, certainly, the DEC would be interested in training the rank and file to be clear on what’s departmental policy and what’s personal opinion, etc., what to watch out for when one of those sneaky reporters calls, etc.
But why shouldn’t any citizen chat with Bradley J. Field, director, DEC Division of Mineral Resources? His number’s (518) 402-8076. Or Jack K. Dahl, director, DEC Bureau of Oil and Gas, (518) 402-8056?
And if they can talk to citizens, is a reporter no less a citizen?
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All this is particularly troublesome because of the amount of reportage that’s going on surrounding the prospect of natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale Formation that underlies Otsego County -- yes, people do want interviews.
And the DEC is largely absent, except for the “media relations” people. It defies explanation that the DEC had planned to send an expert to that forum at Oneonta High School the other week, then changed its mind.
Natural-gas drilling, yes, is this year’s windmills. But, same as last year with the turbines, labelling a reaction NIMBY doesn’t mean an undertaking has merit.
Even if natural-gas drilling were a good idea in the Glimmerglass National Historic District -- it isn’t -- doesn’t mean it would be benign.
That report in the New York Times the other day about Attorney General Cuomo investigating big-wind developers in the North Country -- the tale includes bags of cash and quid-pro-quo jobs -- suggests that when big money meets poor communities, ethics can go out the window.
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Good for T. Boone Pickens, but put his windmills in one of the best wind corridors in the world that “we’re blessed with” -- in the nation’s ever-less-inhabited mid-section, the Dakotas to West Texas -- not the Northeast, which has so much more to offer. OK, that’s chauvinistic. But just because it’s chauvinistic doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
A moratorium is fine, and the Otsego County Board of Legislators should declare one, but the right attitude is no drilling, no way, no how in the Glimmerglass National Historic District.
If you don’t appreciate what you have, you lose it.

Labels: Editorial, Natural Gas Drilling, Opinion

COOPERSTOWN

Public concern about natural-gas drilling was expressed at two forums today: the county Board of Representatives' monthly meeting on upper Main Street, and a forum this evening at Oneonta High School.
But the county board made no move to either study the moratorium idea or to act on it.
Some 30 people attended the morning meeting; 300 were at the evening one.
In the morning, Don Barber, Democratic candidate for the 51st state Senate District, spoke in favor of a moratorium.
In the evening, incumbent Jim Seward, R-Milford, who has declined to support a moratorium, vowed the process going forward will be fully in the public eye.
For a full report, read this week's Freeman's Journal, on the newsstands in downtown Cooperstown by noon Thursday.
TOP CAPTION: 300 people listen to county Planning Director Terry Bliss introduce the session at Oneonta High School this evening.
BOTTOM CAPTION: Adrian Kuzminski of Sustainable Otsego asks the county Board of Representatives to "push back" against wildcatter. In the foreground are Charles and Dottie Hudson, Coopertown.

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

Seven environmental organizations have sent a letter to Governor Paterson asking for a moratorium on gas drilling until an environmental review has been completed.
The Governor's Office said the state is pursuing a new Generic Environmental Impact Statement on gas drilling. However, permits may still be approved before the process is complete.
The letter was signed by Catskill Mountainkeeper, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, Riverkeeper Inc., DelawareRiverkeeper Network, Natural Resources Defense Council, Catskill Center for Conservation & Development, the Wilderness Society and Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy.
"There is an opportunity for New York to be the first state to deal with this type of development in a safe and comprehensive way," said Catskill Mountainkeeper's Wes Gillingham. "To do that we need a moratorium on new drilling permits giving ... time to research the cumulative impacts of drilling."
CAPTION: Catskill Mountainkeeper's Wes Gillingham

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

ONEONTA

An informational hearing on government regulation of natural-gas exploration is planned at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6, at Oneonta Senior High School, East Street, the Otsego County Planning Department announced today.
Presenters will include Kathleen Sanford, DEC chief of the permit section, Division of Mineral Resources, and Theodore Loukides, mineral resource specialist.
Matthew Brower, a state environmental analyst; Erik Miller, Otsego County Conservation Association executive director; Don Zaengle, a geologist from Worcester,and Christopher Denton, a lawyer providing advice to a landowners coalition in central New York, have also been invited to speak.

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

COOPERSTOWN

If sufficient natural gas is found under and around Otsego Lake, wildcatters may sink up to 140 wells between Cherry Valley and Schenevus, according to Orville Cole, president of Gemstar USA of Montreal, a partner with Covalent Energy Corp.
Other stories in this week's Freeman's Journal, available in downtown Cooperstown at noon today, include:
• Petitions are circulating asking DOT to make safety improvements at the intersection of Day/Johnstons road and Route 28 on the way to Fly Creek after Andrew Ellis, 23, of Hartwick, died in a motorcyle crash there July 7.
• The Town of Hartwick has been asked to throw out its revaluation after anomalies were detailed at a town board meeting Monday night.
• Despite a 353-signature petition favoring action, the Springfield town board has been unable to agree on a development moratorium.
CAPTION: Get your Sustainable Otsego bumper sticker in this week's Freeman's Journal.

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

COOPERSTOWN

The village Board of Water Commissioners this morning passed a resolution, 3-1, recommending that the village trustees sell up to 99,000 gallons of water a day from the Mill Street plant for use in drilling test wells for natural gas in Cherry Valley, Springfield and the Town of Maryland.
Trustee Milo V. Stewart, Jr., the chairman, was the sole nay.
Voting yes were Doug Walker, Ron Streek and Neil Weiller.
Weiller said later he only voted yea to get the issue before the trustees, who meet at 7:30 p.m. next Monday. What he favors is the development of a policy governing sales of municipal water generally.
It was unclear whether the water would be sold to Covalent Energy Co., a subsidiary, Gastem USA of Montreal, or Barber & Deline, the well-driller from Tully.
CAPTION: Orville Cole, Montreal, Gastem USA president, listens to public input at this morning's meeting. Seat next to him at the table, from left, are water plant manager Dan Elliott, water board adviser Ted Peters, Deputy Mayor Jeff Katz, village Public Works Superintendent Brian Clancy, Mayor Carol B. Waller and Trustee Milo V. Stewart, Jr., water board chair.

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

Cherry Valley, Schenevus Tests Seek To Discover Size of Supply

By JIM KEVLIN

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COOPERSTOWN

Did Orville Cole say more than he intended?
The village Board of Water Commissioners was meeting Monday, July 14, to determine whether to sell Covalent Energy Corp. (through its allied company, Gastem USA of Montreal), three chunks of 99,000 gallons each by the end of August to bore three test wells for natural gas, one each in Cherry Valley, Springfield and the Town of Maryland (near Schenevus).
In the end, the commissioners voted 3-1 to sell the water, despite concerns raised about damage of heavy trucks to village streets. The village trustees will make the final decision when they meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 21, at 22 Main. More significant, perhaps, were the insights Cole, Gastem president, offered into what natural-gas wildcatters who have been scouting Otsego County for the past couple of years have in mind.
The goal of these three wells, he said, is to determine the scope of the possible natural-gas field under and around Otsego Lake. If the field is determined to be commercially viable, the idea will be to drive wells, two per square mile, all along the 18-mile stretch between the northern and southern ends.
That would add up to about 140 wells, he said. “If we are successful,” he said, “there will be more sites. If we are not successful, we’ll be somewhere else.”

Labels: Front Page, Natural Gas Drilling

COOPERSTOWN

Representatives of a natural gas drilling company will appear before the village Board of Water Commissioners at 10 a.m. Monday at 22 Main, seeking to buy 99,000 gallons a day of municipal water for a test well it plans near Schenevus.
The company, Covalent Energy Corp., is also planning to drill test wells in Cherry Valley and Springfield this summer, and drilled two last summer in those towns.
For details, read this week's Freeman's Journal, which is on the newsstands in downtown Cooperstown and most parts of Otsego County this afternoon.
This week's offerings also include the following stories:
• After 220 people honored him on a testimonial last Thursday at The Otesaga, Henry S.F. Cooper, Jr., founder of Otsego 2000, reflects on his life and career.
• Gov. David Paterson has signed "Chris' Bill," setting in motion a process to create a 21st Century driver's-ed curriculum for New York State schools.
...and much more ...

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling

COOPERSTOWN

Village Trustee Milo V. Stewart, Jr., chairman of the village Board of Water Commissioners, today expressed strong reservations about Cooperstown providing municipal water for a prospective natural-gas drilling operation near Schenevus.
Covalent Energy Corp., which has offices in Virginia and Salt Lake City, has applied to the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to use 99,000 gallons of water daily for prospective drilling in the Town of Maryland in the southeast part of Otsego County.
Stewart said he's concerned about the impact of the drilling on the environment generally, but -- more specific to Cooperstown -- the truck traffic required to haul the water from the village's Mill Street plant to the site.
The water board will be discussing the developments when it meets at 10 a.m. Monday in village offices at 22 Main.
For complete details, read the next edition of The Freeman's Journal, available at downtown newsstands at noon Thursday.
For more about Covalent, visit www.covalentenergy.com/

Labels: Natural Gas Drilling