NORWICH – Chenango County officials continued to educate themselves about enviromentalists’ concerns that natural gas drilling activity might possibly pollute the region’s drinking water and surface water.
Environmental Health Director Glenn Kaiser was on hand at a meeting of the Health and Human Services Committee last week to outline the county’s role in protecting its water sources. He said his office would begin more regular communication with the state’s environmental conservation department, especially as each well is permitted, and obtain baseline water samples from municipal water systems.
The natural gas company Nornew, Inc. has drilled about 13 wells in several towns, with one presently underway in Coventry. With new technology available to reach the highly profitable and abundant Marcellus Shale formation located under much of the county, some town supervisors have predicted the number of wells could number more than 150 in the not-so-distant future.
All of the drilled wells are into natural gas sources in the Herkimer, Utica, Oneida or other substrata. Only one well - in the Beaver Meadow region - is so far permitted to be drilled into the widely-publicized Marcellus.
Though state regulations prohibit drilling within 2,600 feet of a water source, Kaiser said he was concerned that private individuals could have leased land near a municipal well. “I have some concern. It hasn’t happened yet, as far as I know,” he said.
The area’s aquifer supplies and disposing of drilling waste water, he said, were “mostly a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issue.”
He also said DEC inspectors and the well permitting process itself regulate surface water problems, and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission oversees water supplies.
The depth dug for a typical natural gas well is from 7,000 to 9,000 feet; fresh water aquifers and municipal water systems are 200 to 300 feet deep. The DEC’s Division of Mineral Resources regulations call for wells to be cased in cement in order to protect the water table. Further regulations also require that wells be constructed and operated to prevent the movement of oil, gas or water from one zone to another.
A representative from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission said they are discouraging any withdrawal of groundwater for fracking the shale beneath the surface and have not received any requests from companies to do that, either in Pennsylvania or New York.
Nornew, Inc. respresenative Dennis Holbrook said state regulations require that the drill pipe is properly cemented off to prevent any communication between the drilling application and the acquifer. He said there was “no way” to access water from the acquifer and that water is usually hauled by truck to the well site.
“Clearly, a landowner could choose to contract with us to use ponds on their property. But, there are rules we follow about where you can take water from and the water amount,” Holbrook said.
More than one million gallons of water per well, sand, soap and a proprietary mix of chemicals is needed to fracture the shale to release the gas. While the amount of water seems excessive, Peter C. Flanagan, chairman of a special county committee charged with oversight of natural gas activity, said in an earlier meeting last week that the amount of water was the same used in the regular maintenance of most golf courses.
The mix of chemicals, which is protected by the federal government, is of more concern to both supervisors and environmentalists.
Committee member Robert Briggs, R-Afton, asked Kaiser whether the county monitored the city of Norwich’s sewage plant.
“How can anyone monitor the sewage plant in Norwich if they don’t have to tell you what’s in the drilling sludge?” he asked.
Kaiser said the county has no jurisdication over Norwich’s waste water treatment plant on state Rt. 12 or others. The plant has been taking in and processing drilling fluids, as has the treatment plant in the Village of Sherburne.
Town of German Supervisor Richard Schlag said even though the DEC is undergoing a review of its environmental regulations before permitting more wells, the department “is way understaffed with the explosion of what’s going on.”
Coventry resident Vanessa Warren wrote a letter to the Chenango County Board of Supervisors this month warning against “rushing into something that we don’t know the facts behind.”
She said the wells permitted to be drilled on county Rt. 41 were close to trout streams and wetlands.
“I’m worried about the water table. Even with all of the precautions you might take, accidents happen. Hopefully the DEC’s updated regulations will serve us well in the coming months, but I’m not totally convinced we are getting the full story from any side, from the drillers, the environmentalists, or the DEC.”