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Signs Of Drilling To Come Emerge In Clearing On Crumhorn Mountain
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Sunday, August 2, 2009
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By JIM KEVLIN
MARYLAND
About a quarter-mile past the Boy Scout Camp, Walling Camp Road forks to the left.
As you cross from the Town of Milford into the Town of Maryland, the dirt track turns into Shutter Road.
Another quarter mile on the left, a dirt driveway – it looks freshly cut, and is – snakes up a hillside.
Over there, attached to a wooden post, is a 8 1/2-by-11 sheet of paper titled, “Permit to Drill,” from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, issued to Covalent Energy, Arlington, Va.
It had been raining over the weekend, and the mud was thick Monday, Aug. 10. Halfway up the half-mile entry road, recently logged trees were piled on one side. A drain was in place to diffuse the runoff.
The tracks indicated heavy equipment had been moving back and forth.
At the top of the hill was a red pickup truck. The lettering on the side read Barber & Deline, a drilling company from Tully.
Beyond it was a wide circle of open space. If you didn’t know otherwise, you might mistake what you’ve seen so far for a hillside condo development.
But John Ferris of Cortland, the drilling supervisor at the scene, pointed out orange surveyor’s tape in the middle of the circle.
That’s where, in early September, Barber & Deline plans to make the initial drilling on what may be the first or second natural-gas well in Otsego County.
“This is the first one in the whole area; in the whole region,” said Ferris, noting that since the DEC began revising its GEIS – generic environmental impact statement – a year ago, almost no permits have been issued.
This property is leased from Ronald and Alberta Ross and the well is called Ross #1.
Ferris said Ross, who is a subcontractor, got the contract to clear the site and build the road, something the company likes to do if a landowner is in that line of work.
The plan had been to begin drilling by now, the supervisor said, but this summer’s heavy rains slowed progress.
Barber & Deline’s role, he said, is to drill the initial hole, about 1,000 feet deep, below the water table. The company will line the boring with concrete and cap it.
For now, this is a traditional vertical well, designed to hit a pocket and allow gas to come to the surface; until a GEIS is approved, horizontal hydro-fracking – the big concern of gas-driling foes – can’t happen, although vertical wells can be converted down the road.
Once Barber & Deline’s work is done, Gastem USA, a Montreal-based natural-gas driller – it subcontracts Barber & Deline and, in turn, is subcontracted to Covalent – will extend the drilling another 4,000 or 5,000 feet.
When that starts, said Ferris – he has been in construction for 35 years, and involved off and on with drilling, primarily in western New York, for 20 – the drilling is constant, 24-7, until the target depth is reached.
While that’s going on – Ferris said the process creates a low-register drilling sound, not loud – a team of geologists will be at the scene, usually in an air-conditioned trailer, constantly testing the boring samples.
“They know where the gas is,” said Ferris, who recently has been involved in borings around Sherburne, in northeastern Pennsylvania and that state’s Montour County, near Williamsport.
A Barber & Deline drill recently hit a big pocket of natural gas near Horseheads, but that find is hush-hush for the time being, Ferris said.
It’s hard to know the status of wells proposed for Otsego County, other then to know there are a lot of possible sites out there: As of the first of the year, 300 landowners had granted 638 leases on 43,000 acres.
There is no requirement that anyone local be advised about projects, said county Planner Psalm Wycoff, who county Planning Director Terry Bliss has assigned to keep track of this issue.
While Wycoff said she believes Ross #1 will be the only well drilled this year, Covalent has also been active on Irish Hollow Road, Cherry Valley, across from Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School.
“It’s been drilled,” she said. “It’s been flared, and I believe there has been some testing for production.
“We, of course, aren’t privy to the results of that testing.”
The county has compiled a list of local permit applications from the DEC web site – follow the link from www.otsegocounty.com/depts/pln/ – and it shows Covalent was issued three permits June 1: on Crumhorn Mountain, and near Sprout Brook and East Springfield.
A permit was issued two years ago for one well in East Springfield – perhaps the Irish Hollow one – and the county data says that well was completed in August 2007.
Covalent has applied for two more East Springfield wells, although those permits have not yet been issued.
“Covalent seems to be the one that has the most interest right now,” said Wycoff. “I suppose that’s because Covalent has drilled wells in the Utica Shale in Canada.
“And that’s really what they’re targetting here.”Labels: 08-14-09, Front Page, Natural Gas Drilling |
posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:53 AM   |
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1st Gas Well To Be Drilled On Crumhorn
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Saturday, June 13, 2009
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Word was received this week that Gastem, the Montreal-based drilling company, has received a permit to drive a vertical natural-gas shaft on Crumhorn Mountin in the Town of Maryland.
Drilling opponents said they are fearful that, once the state revises its Environmental Impact Statement governing horizontal drilling – hydrofracing – such vertical wells can be easily converted.Labels: 06-19-09, Front Page, Natural Gas Drilling |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:35 AM |
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Natural-Gas Drilling Has Potential To Ruin Otsego County
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Monday, March 16, 2009
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On New Year’s Day, an explosion blew the concrete cover off a well in Dimock, Pa., a few miles from Scranton.
Early this month, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection reported that the cause was methane from a nearby well drilled by Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. The DEP charged the company with contaminating groundwater, according to a report in the Scranton Times-Tribune.
Coincidentally, three forums, “How The Dangers of Gas Drilling Affect You,” were held around Otsego County – in Cherry Valley, Cooperstown and Oneonta – in the days that followed, organized by Sustainable Otsego and other citizens groups concerned about a veritable plague of gas-drilling locusts expected to descend on this neighborhood when the price of oil inevitably begins to rise again.
The speakers – Colleen Blacklock of Oneonta’s Health Communities Campaign, Ron Bishop of Cooperstown, a SUNY Oneonta lecturer in chemistry, and Jim Herman, a Hartwick landowner – painted what, frankly, is a scary picture.
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 To set the stage, at issue is a new techology, hydro-fracking, whereby a vertical pipe is drilled several thousand feet into the ground; an “octopus” of horizontal pipes then fans out in all directions. Chemicals – and they are toxic – are pumped into the ground and cause explosions that create cracks in shale, allowing natural gas to seep through and come to the surface.
Here’s a sampling of the concerns Blacklock, Bishop and Herman expressed about hydro-fracking:
• Each well requires 3.8 million gallons of water, half of which stays underground, the rest, laced with poisonous heavy metals and petroleum byproducts, is brought to the surface and stored in pools until it can be trucked away to special treatment plants.
• Each well requires 1,000 tanker-truck trips to and fro to bring the water in and out along country roads.
• Since 54,000 acres in Otsego County are leased to gas exploration companies, and 16 wells can be sited per square mile, a potential 1,300 wells could be drilled locally. (An aerial photograph near Eunice, N.M., showed one pod after another as far as the horizon.)
• To relieve pressure, those 16 wells per square mile may be “flamed” – lit – a nice picture to contemplate.
• Each well will require an access road to the pad.
• Each well will have to be connected to the main Millenium Pipeline through a pipeline.
• Wells can be active for up to 40 years.
• Compressors at each well head emit 90 decibels of low-frequency noise 24 hours a day.
• The underground explosions create 8,000 pounds per square inch of pressure, or four times that inside a propane tank.
• Fracking can create fissures up to a half-mile (5,280 feet) long, and the shale in the Canadarago-Cherry Valley area are only 1,500 feet below ground. Even at Oneonta, the shale is only 3,000-3,500 below ground.
• Much of the leased land in Otsego County is along streams, near aquifers, the source of local drinking water. Once contaminated, aquifers – huge underground reservoirs – can’t be cleaned.
• After an EPA whistleblower raised issues of potential water contamination, Congress in 2005 exempted the gas-drilling industry from the U.S. Clean Drinking Water Act.
• Along with natural gas, radon can be freed to come to the surface. (In Marcellus, outside Syracuse, where there’s an outcropping of the Marcellus Formation, radon was found to be eight times the national average and twice the EPA “action limit” in every one of 271 houses tested.)
• Radioactive substances coat equipment and the inside of pipes, and have to periodically be cleaned.
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Even if half of this is true, or a quarter, or less, gas drilling could make the Otsego County we know today unrecognizable.
Granted, Blacklock, Bishop and Herman aren’t trained natural-gas-drill-ologists. They are just brainy individuals who have been researching the potential impacts of natural-gas drilling since the locusts began swarming last summer.
And all of the concerns expressed at the forums are apart from the whole land-leasing issue.
There was so much concern expressed about that – Are the drillers offering enough? Will landowners be stuck with any and all liability? – that state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford – no alarmist – has urged people to be wary and he set up a link on his web site (www.senatorjimseward.com) on that very issue.
But so many leases have been signed it may be too late for many property owners; they’re stuck.
New York City was able to extract a concession that no drilling or exploration can be done within one mile of its Catskills watersheds, but what about the rest of us? Who’s looking out for us?
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To date, no one in Otsego County government, regrettably, has shown much interest in this issue. The DEC in New York is underfunded and understaffed, even if the political will were there to make the gas drillers toe the line.
Speaking to the Cooperstown Rotary Club Tuesday, March 17, Senator Seward pointed out that 1,000 wells have been operating for decades in Western New York, safely contributing to the local economies.
But those are your grandaddy’s vertical wells – drive a shaft into the ground, and gas comes up. The so-much-more environmentally intrusive hydro-fracking is the issue today.
The people who packed the meeting at Templeton Hall in Cooperstown Sunday, March 15 – or at the Old School Cafe or St. Mary’s parish hall in Oneonta – to hear the presentations will be called NIMBYs, Luddites, hysterics and worse.
As has been stated in this space before, just because someone doesn’t want a loud, intrusive, dangerous, possibly disastrous use in his or her backyard doesn’t mean that use constitutes good public policy.
There are vast, vacant stretches of this great land of ours that may be suitable for this kind of environmental Russian roulette. Otsego County, which has so much going for it, is definitely not one of them.
If Blacklock, Bishop and Herman aren’t the ones to protect us, fine. But then who is?
Senator Seward’s office, or the county Board of Representatives, or our local universities, or the county Association of Supervisors need to marshal the expertise and credibility to create a level playing field for both regular citizens and the gas companies that have huge economic resources behind them.
Let’s not wake up a half-dozen years from now to discover we’re too late.Labels: 03-20-09, Editorial, Natural Gas Drilling, Opinion, Perspectives |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:43 AM |
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Map of Gas Leases Shows Huge Scope
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Saturday, January 3, 2009
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Land-Leasing Firms Control
43,000 Acres Of 300 Landowners
By JIM KEVLIN
COOPERSTOWN
Almost 43,000 acres are already under lease for natural-gas drilling in Otsego County, according to a map completed in recent days by the Otsego County Conservation Association.
In all, 638 leases are held by about 300 property owners, said Bennett Sandler of Fly Creek, who prepared the map with data collected from county property-tax records by OCCA President Martha Clarvoe.
Most surprising, said Sandler, a county resident since 1998 and OCCA board member since 2004, is that 86 percent of the landowners are local people.
“So this is not outsiders leasing their land,” he said. “This is county residents who are doing it.”
Nonetheless, he continued, “you’re still talking about one percent of the population receiving financial benefit – at what cost? It could be to the detriment of everybody’s water around here.”
The map, reproduced on Page 12 of this edition, shows colored swatches representing activity by five leasing companies, each concentrating in particular parts of the the county.
Elexco Land Services Inc. of Olean, for instance, is on the county’s eastern end, with significant chunks under lease on either side of Route 33 between Cooperstown and Cherry Valley.
Whitmar Exploration Co. of Denver, Colo., has tied up a large chunk north of Edmeston. Lenape Resources Inc. of Alexander, east of Buffalo, is concentrating on the Town of Otego.
Exterra Resources, Evansville, Ind., is focused on the Town of Hartwick. Western Land Services, Ludington, Mich., has leases on either side of Route 80 in the Town of Burlington.
Sandler, a landscape ecologist who has worked with GPS – geographic positioning systems – in the private sector, said this suggests the leasing agents have divided up the county.
“They’ve sat down and said, ‘You get this area,’ ‘You get that area’,” he said. “Otherwise you would have a mosaic of interspaced parcels.
“This shows a level of organization people may not be aware of.”
It’s been known for decades that some natural gas is present in the Marcellus Formation that stretches from Tennessee into Otsego County.
After a flurry of activity during the Energy Crisis of the 1970s, however, natural-gas exploration went into a hiatus locally until last summer, when gasoline prices over $4 a gallon caused it to intensify.
A technological advancement also made the Otesgo field more attractive.
Called hydro-fracking, it would pump unspecified chemicals and sand deep beneath the earth. The chemicals would break up the shale; the sand would prevent the cracks from closing to allow natural gas to seap to the surface.
Jim Herman, a Hartwick landowner who has been studying related issues since last August, said “seismic information” can show where natural gas is with some certainty – for instance, there’s a Cherry Valley outcropping about 400 feet below the surface.
Hydro-fracking – in effect, it causes an explosion beneath the earth – will assuredly locate the gas there, Herman said. “But what else it does to the existing geology is not predictable. And that’s from the industry information,” he said, citing Oil Field Review, Schlumberger Ltd.’s industry magazine, as his source.
The concern of OCCA and others is what so much underground activity may do to aquifers communities depend on for water.
“We have to be very thoughtful about putting gas drilling in any area,” said Clarvoe. “And especially ours, since so many towns use aquifers for water supply.
“If one gets contaminated: That’s the only chance you get.”
Two regulatory entities – the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission – are presently involved in overseeing natural-gas exploration.
A single hydro-fracking, Herman said, would require 3-5 million gallons of water that would have to come from Susquehanna tributaries, which is why the commission is involved.
The DEC has been updating the state’s Generic Environmental Impact Statement to take hydro-fracking into account, and is currently reviewing inputs received during public hearings on the draft revised GEIS.
However, Herman said, the regulations may be in place by spring or summer, which would allow the DEC to begin issuing drilling permits.
To assemble the maps, Clarvoe went through county records and was able to identify the parcels under lease. She then provided those parcel numbers to Sandler, who ran them through the county’s GPS system to get the image.
Clarvoe said OCCA will continue “to keep tracking and checking,”
Click here for full size image.Labels: 01-09-09, Front Page, Natural Gas Drilling |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:38 PM |
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Profit Vs. Environment Debated at Gas Hearing
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Friday, December 5, 2008
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By GLENN LINSENBARDT
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 |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:31 PM |
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Audubon Society Seeks Gas-Drilling Moratorium
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Monday, September 1, 2008
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 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, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:17 PM |
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Gas Lessors With Buyers' Remorse Consult Lawyers
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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
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| 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, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:21 AM |
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Drilling Boom Revives Hopes For Natural Gas
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Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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| 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, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 11:26 AM |
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Editorial: Drillers Must Reveal What Chemicals Used
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Monday, August 25, 2008
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| 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, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:15 AM |
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New Lisbon May Delay Wildcatters
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Wednesday, August 20, 2008
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Town May Act Where County Fears To Tread
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, 08-29-08, Front Page, Garrattsville, Natural Gas Drilling |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:15 PM |
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Wind-Turbine Foe Signs Lease Allowing Gas Drilling
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Tuesday, August 19, 2008
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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.rtfLabels: Natural Gas Drilling, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 11:00 AM |
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Drilling Threatens 'Social, Environmental Disaster'
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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 hereLabels: Natural Gas Drilling, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:33 AM |
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Report: Tap Water 'Burns' Since Gas Drilling Began
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Saturday, August 16, 2008
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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 hereLabels: Natural Gas Drilling, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:45 PM |
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Cayuga County Legislature May Explore For Gas
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The Cayuga County Legislature may begin drilling for natural gas on its own property.
For the story in the Auburn Citizen, click hereLabels: Natural Gas Drilling, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:03 PM |
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EDITORIAL
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Thursday, August 14, 2008
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No Drilling, No How, No Way, No Where Around Glimmerglass
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: 08-22-08, Editorial, Natural Gas Drilling, Opinion |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:14 AM |
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Debate, but No Decision on Gas-Drilling Moratorium
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Wednesday, August 6, 2008
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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 |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:31 PM |
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Environmental Groups Seek Gas-Drilling Moratorium
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Monday, July 28, 2008
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 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 GillinghamLabels: Natural Gas Drilling, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 5:50 PM |
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County Plans Informational Session on Gas Drilling
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008
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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, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 3:18 PM |
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140 Natural-Gas Wells May Pop Up, Developer Says
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Thursday, July 17, 2008
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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, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 11:12 AM |
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Sell Water for Drilling, Water Board Advises Trustees
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Monday, July 14, 2008
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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, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:31 PM |
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Natural-Gas Drillers May Tap 140 Wells
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Sunday, July 13, 2008
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Cherry Valley, Schenevus Tests Seek To Discover Size of Supply
By JIM KEVLIN
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: 07-18-08, Front Page, Natural Gas Drilling |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:16 PM |
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Gas-Drilling Company Asks Cooperstown for Water
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Thursday, July 10, 2008
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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, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:13 PM |
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Village Water Chair Worried About Drilling Proposal
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Tuesday, July 8, 2008
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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, News Updates |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 11:48 AM |
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