Summit of leaders discussed the hydrofracking juggernaut
“It’s absolutely huge in terms of the number of jobs and economic impact,” said Larry L. Michael, Pennsylvania College of Technology’s workforce and economic development director.
That said, a “rational analysis” needs to be done to gauge the effect of natural gas drilling on farming, tourism, recreation and other industries in the Southern Tier, an official with the Sierra Club opined.
The question that needs to be answered is, “will the cost be worth the benefit?” said Kate Bartholomew, chairwoman of the Finger Lakes Group of the Sierra Club, Atlantic Chapter.
Michael and Bartholomew were two experts who spoke Monday at a day-long summit at the Owego Treadway Inn on the development of the Marcellus, whose area includes the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions of New York and northern and western Pennsylvania. Organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension, the summit drew about 325 municipal officials, landowners, economic developers and other stakeholders who sat through a series of workshops on a range of topics.
via Summit of local leaders discusses pros, cons of gas drilling | stargazette.com | Star-Gazette.
Out-of-state drillers worry locals in PA
At Monday’s Conservation District meeting, Conservation Technician Fred Berry said there has been an increase in gas well drilling activity. He said some of the companies are from Texas, Utah and Louisiana and are not familiar with state and federal regulations.
Berry said he has been working to get these companies into voluntary compliance. He said some of these operations have more than five acres total of land disturbance. According to the state regulations, any operation which disturbs five or more acres of land must have an erosion and sedimentation control plan.
This total acreage of disturbance includes pipelines, well pads, and access roads. Berry said there were other regulations in place, such as setbacks for well pads and access roads from wetlands and streams.
via Courier-Express/Tri-County – Out-of-state drillers worry local staff.
Shale Drilling is Big Threat to PA Wilds
They call it the “Pennsylvania Wilds,” more than 6 million acres of relatively unspoiled forests and mountains in 12 northern Pennsylvania counties.
The area has long been known for its remnants of virgin forests, pristine mountain streams, abundant wildlife and magnificent vistas. More than 2 million of those acres are public land, an area equivalent to the acreage occupied by Yellowstone National Park.
Today, however, if you were to visit this part of our commonwealth, you would be greeted by a different environment. You would find a proliferation of new roads being cut into the forests, with semis and tanker trucks hauling tons of heavy equipment and water to remote destinations.
via Marcellus shale drilling is biggest threat to Pennsylvania wilds | Our Views & Yours -.
LA Roads Suffering Under the Weight of Drilling Traffic
Louisiana Oil & Gas Association President Don Briggs got a personal tour Monday of DeSoto Parish’s roadways that are disintegrating under the weight and volume of truck traffic generated by the Haynesville Shale play.
And he saw the complaints from parish officials are justified and magnified beyond what he expected based on what he’s been hearing at his Baton Rouge office.
“There’s no question that this is a major issue,” Briggs told DeSoto police jurors following his afternoon road trip with Superintendent Clinton Sharpley. “It’s much more so than I realized.”
via LOGA president pledges support for DeSoto road solution | shreveporttimes.com | Shreveport Times.
Schlumberger project receives state grant
New York State Division of Housing & Community Renewal has announced a $750,000 grant to Chemung County, on behalf of the village of Horseheads, for the Schlumberger facility planned for the village.
Schlumberger is an oil/gas-field services company that intends to build a service facility campus on 88 acres in The Center at Horseheads Industrial Park.
The proposed facility is phase one of an expected three-phase $40 million project that will create up to 400 jobs.
The state grant will be used to help reconstruct the access road leading from Interstate-86 to the industrial park. A portion of the road work jobs will be available to low and moderate incomes families.
via Schlumberger project receives state grant | stargazette.com | Star-Gazette.
Owego Town Planning Board to Patriot Water: You’ve Got Work to Do
Aside from the fact that this company is new, and that Andy gave what he called his “kindergarten” presentation [and clearly not enough details to satisfy the locals and the planning board], what really bothered folks was that he constantly said that the frack waste was “not hazardous” and “not toxic”. The other issue was the amount of truck traffic – 4 trucks/hour, 24 hours/day, 7 days a week – routed up and down a steep hill near through residential areas.
via The Marcellus Effect: Owego Town Planning Board to Patriot Water: You’ve Got Work to Do.
300 folks pack Sullivan fracking forum
…with all of the issues associated with what Callicoon’s Buck Moorhead called “the issue of a lifetime,” some speakers wanted more time to review the proposed regulations. The current 60-day comment period expires at the end of November.
Paul Rush, deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, called for 45 extra days.
Joe DiPane of Callicoon called for six months, since the shale “has been formed underground for eons,” he said.
via 300 folks pack Sullivan fracking forum | recordonline.com.
Who will pay to monitor gas drilling?
The state is asking local government agencies to regulate key aspects of the natural gas industry, raising yet more questions about who will pay for manpower to oversee multinational energy companies setting up shop in Southern Tier’s backyards.
The industry’s effect on water resources and roads are included in a report released Sept. 30 by the Department of Environmental Conservation outlining environmental concerns from full-scale Marcellus Shale development.
Risks to water, the report says, include turbidity, methane contamination and, to a lesser degree, potential for hazardous chemicals to breach well-bore casings or spill while being handled or disposed of on the surface.
To deal with those threats, the state is calling on local health departments to oversee a testing program of private wells in drilling zones. Testing would begin before drilling starts, and continue for a year after it ends.
DEC would also require drilling companies to work out a plan with local governments to minimize traffic problems and cover damage to roads caused by fleets of heavy equipment, water tankers and drill rigs caravanning from site to site.
Propane company wants to build storage facility in Reading Center | stargazette.com | Star-Gazette
Inergy LP, a Missouri-based propane marketing and distribution company, is making plans to build a $40 million storage facility in Schuyler County’s Reading Center that will include both rail and truck transfer capabilities.
Residents living in the area of the proposed project have concerns about the facility’s safety and also question its need. Meanwhile, the Reading Town Planning Board has scheduled a public hearing on the project for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the town hall, 3914 county Route 28.
via Propane company wants to build storage facility in Reading Center | stargazette.com | Star-Gazette.
Before drilling, plug some loopholes
It will be the new Gold Rush, and upstate New York will never be the same. Then, there indeed will be thousands of wells on five-acre pads with a criss-cross of unpaved roads leading to them across a vast geography, and for decades.
Is New York ready for this?
Wetzel County, WV struggles with drilling side-effects
This is a very rural area with only a few roads and those are narrow, about 10 feet wide. Because of all the drilling there is a lot of traffic as equipment and materials are hauled to and from sites. Twenty-four hours a day, as many as 47 trucks an hour.
The well sites are huge with pads covering acres and pits just about as large. Multiple horizontal wells are being drilled and fractured on each pad before the operator moves to a new site. Fracturing requires large amounts of water and sand.
The scale of everything and its effect on the community and environment is hard to imagine. A copy of the presentation as a PowerPoint document is available online but it is a large download, almost 50 MB.
Argyle figures out cost of gas drilling’s toll on roads | Denton Record-Chronicle | News for Denton County, Texas | Local News
ARGYLE — Engineers have come up with a figure for the town to rebuild its roads so that they can handle drilling traffic: $311,520 per lane per mile.
They gave the Town Council other advice during a work session Tuesday night on how they might collect that money from energy companies until they have enough to start rebuilding roads.
“These numbers are considerably more in line with what we felt the town should be going for all along,” said David Mayes, an engineer with Cheatham & Associates.
XTO Energy sued Argyle in September over its road remediation ordinance.
At the time, XTO was drilling in Bartonville and its driller and other subcontractors began using a 1 1/2-mile stretch of Frenchtown Road to access the site.
Some of that stretch lies entirely within Bartonville, but much of it is in either Argyle or its extraterritorial jurisdiction, according to county maps.
Argyle and Denton County worked together several years ago — before the drilling boom — to rebuild Frenchtown Road. But like most roads in smaller cities, Frenchtown was built for vehicles weighing 25,000 pounds or less. Such roads can’t handle the hundreds of trucks weighing 80,000 pounds or more required to drill and service the typical gas well, which can produce for 30 years or more.
Continued at: Argyle figures out cost of gas drilling’s toll on roads | Denton Record-Chronicle | News for Denton County, Texas | Local News.
Broome shapes strategy for use of roads by gas-rush trucks | pressconnects.com | Press & Sun-Bulletin
Broome County Attorney Joseph Sluzar has drafted a resolution that in its current form would require natural gas vehicles with a gross weight in excess of state traffic law to pay for a permit to use county roads. The resolution does not propose a dollar amount.
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