NORWICH – Those trying to keep up with the surge of interest in Chenango County’s natural gas stores are urging regulators and property owners not to let dollar signs shield their focus on protecting the environment.
Energy companies of all shapes and sizes have been targeting much of Pennsylvania and central New York over the past couple of years, wanting property owners to sign leases. Recently-invented horizontal drilling techniques coupled with discoveries of larger than realized quantities of natural gas in the Marcellus Strata located here have raised high hopes for better economic times.
One local landowner suggests, at the very least, that individuals who plan to lease their land and allow drilling should have their water tested before, during and after the process.
“Then you will have something to compare it to,” said Todd Barnes, the owner of Barnes Bluestone and several acres along county Rt. 32 in Norwich. “Once you’ve signed, you have no protection for your water. Who’s liable for it? If it does mess it up, who is going to take care of it and how long will it take?”
Barnes said he is particularly worried that the millions of gallons of water needed will drain nearby wells: “Where are they going to get all of this water?” he asked.
Three to five million gallons of water is needed to force enough pressure into a well’s bore hole in order to fracture the shale that lies 2,000 to 4,000 feet beneath the surface. That much water is again used each time the well undergoes the fracturing process. Local water sources are tapped, such as nearby ponds, streams, lakes, rivers and aquifers.
Onsite storage tanks recapture the water - which now contains some chemical additives and sand that was used in the drilling process. The water is either hauled off to treatment facilities or disposed of in impermeable containers.
Once the well begins to draw the gas seeping out of the fractures, pipelines are needed to transport it to interstate transmission lines.
In 2005, the Bush Administration’s Energy Act made the new drilling practice exempt from federal regulatory acts, such as the “Safe Drinking Water Act,” “The Clean Water Act,” “The Clean Air Act,” “The Right-to-Know-Act,” and other protections. No horizontal drilling has occurred in Chenango County as of yet, however a representative from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said New York’s regulations for permitting wells are “as strict or stricter” than the federal government’s.
“We feel confident that there are adequate regulators in place,” said Kathleen Sanford, chief of the permit section in the DEC’s Bureau of Oil and Gas Regulation. Environmental conservation law requires companies to complete applications for drilling permits, she said, and the DEC follows up with an ongoing, onsite inspection program.
Sanford said to hydrofracture the shale, engineers use 94 percent fresh water, a small amount of additives to control any naturally occurring bacteria, a friction reducer like canola oil, and soap.
“The additives should never come in contact with the soil,” she said, because the well bore itself is surrounded by a cement casing. Sanford also said no fumes would permeate the air.
Chenango County Green Party member Mike Bernhard, of Afton, disagrees. Bernhard writes in the ChenangoGreens online newsletter that there are “serious problems” accompanying gas drilling, such as illegal dumping of drilling wastewater, sediment runoff, erosion, road and property damage. He suggests that the chemicals used to fracture the shale “contain proven cancer-causing agents such as benzene, toluene and many others.”
The process of digging trenches and laying pipeline falls under the protection of the New York State Pubic Service Commission. Supervisor James Bays of Smyrna – where much testing and drilling activity has occurred – said while the state’s DEC’s oversight in his area has been adequate thus far, he said he has yet to see a PSC representative in Smyrna.
Bays is concerned that the sharp shale strata indigenous to the area might possibly cut transmission pipes carrying the energy. “The lines in Smyrna go through sharp shale. I would think they might be needing crushed stone to protect them from being cut, but I haven’t seen any being used,” he said.
In a recent incident, Bays said he was embarrassed to learn that once a company discovers the energy source, they inject hydrochloric acid into the well head before capping it. The acid is used to help open up pores within the substrata.
“I wonder why they had not mentioned that to me in the 2 1/2 years they’ve been here,” he said. “I looked like an idiot to my citizens. That’s a nasty substance. Not something you want to have laying around.”
The burgeoning industry here “shouldn’t be a process of discovery” for local citizens and governments, Bays said. Gas companies “are guests in our town going after our resource,” and they “should be sharing everything,” including how much natural gas is found below the surface. Bays said the process of reading and reporting meters on the wells should fall under the New York state Agricultural Division of Weights and Measures, not a gas company’s subcontractors.