Gas game still on

Is Sullivan gas ‘overcooked’?

By FRITZ MAYER

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — On December 9, some Bethel residents received a letter inviting them to sign a membership agreement with the Rural Bethel Landowners Coalition. In joining, members agree to help pay attorneys fees if, and only if, the member signs a gas lease that is produced as a result of negotiations by the coalition’s steering committee.

The letter shows that interest in gas drilling in the county and the region is still active, despite the fact that there are no wells yet operating in Sullivan County. Al Larson, a member of the steering committee, said that the group represents about 10,000 acres and about 90 residents, mostly in the Town of Bethel.

In a phone interview, he said the coalition’s goal, like that of the Sullivan-Delaware Property Owners Association (SDPOA), which represents 70,000 acres and hundreds of families, was to get a favorable gas lease while protecting the environment.

Larson said that history shows that when a state or country needs something, in this case, the gas that is stored in the Marcellus Shale, eventually the government will get what it needs, and that if residents don’t negotiate now, they may lose the opportunity later.

He also said he hopes that an influx of money from gas leases would save some of the farms that are in danger of going under because of economic hardship.

Overcooked?

There is a rumor running in gas circles these days that posits that the gas below most of Sullivan County and southern Wayne County, PA is “overcooked,” meaning that the geology under the ground was not the right type to produce recoverable amounts of natural gas. Asked about this, Larson said that he has heard both sides of that debate, but said that no one will know for sure until some test wells are drilled.

Noel van Swol, one of the founders of SDPOA, responded to the same question saying that his group has had assurances from a representative of Chesapeake Appalachia as recently as a few weeks ago, that “there is nothing wrong with the geology” beneath the region in terms of the possibility of extracting natural gas.

Terry Engelder, professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, said in an interview that specific information about the geology beneath Sullivan County and Wayne County was not known yet. But, he speculated that the reason that Chesapeake Appalachia dropped its application for a permit to withdraw water from the Upper Delaware Valley was not because of geology but because the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) was making it too difficult for companies to proceed with drilling in the basin, which includes nearly all of Sullivan and Wayne counties.

In response to that assertion, a representative of the DRBC said it was Chesapeake’s decision to withdraw the application. William Muszynski, a DRBC water resources manager, added that the DRBC is currently working on a water withdrawal permit from Stone Energy from the Lackawaxen River, and that he expects the commission soon to be working on permit applications with Hess Energy, the company that has signed lease agreements with the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance.

Muszynski said that the permits will come with conditions that are necessary to protect the integrity of the streams, but that is the case with any industry wishing to withdraw water from the basin.