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BRADFORD COUNTY, Pa. - Morris Otten walks proudly along his 80 acre Bradford County property nearly everyday, a habit he formed since Chesapeake Energy began preparations to tap natural gas residing more than a mile below.
The retired school teacher enjoys watching his land get transformed into a domestic energy source day-by-day, always wearing a white hard hat on the drill pad.
Nobody minds his curiosity.
“Everyday I come they would shake my hand,” he said, of the so-called “roughnecks” who recently drilled two wells on his property in Asylum Township, a true mountain refuge with a population of barely 1,100 and more abundantly green wilds than anything else.
Otten is one of a growing number of Bradford County property owners that will soon experience - or already are - a windfall of royalties, as extracted natural gas pays as much as 10 percent or more of its market cost to the folks living among the endless mountain hollows and pristine land tracts here that bring Wayne County to mind.
But the two counties are on the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to natural gas drilling and its impact on local communities - at least today.
There are now perhaps two Morris Otten’s in Wayne County; one natural gas well is under development in Oregon Township, another one is on hold in Clinton Township, and a handful of drill applications are pending state Department of Environmental Protection approval.
Otherwise, a major period of land leasing activity last summer and fall, which gobbled up large swaths of Wayne County private land for possible exploration and drilling, has not been followed up with any noticeable industry movement here. All is quiet, thus far; very quiet.
Bradford County is an entirely different story where pickup trucks driven by a legion of industry contractors and sub-contractors careen through downtown Towanda on any given day, purchasing goods and services on their way to-and-from an ever-growing number of drill sites. Towanda is approximately 62 miles west of Honesdale, on US Route 6.
The rush is on, and so is the economic impact.
According to the Bradford County Commissioners office, 229 drill permits were approved up to April 2009, with many more coming down the pipe as 10 natural gas companies vie for gas. About 83 percent of the county’s land is leased to these companies.
“This area is the honeyspot,” said John H. Gordon Jr., project manager with Geokinetics, a underground mapping firm.
BRADFORD COUNTY, Pa. - Morris Otten walks proudly along his 80 acre Bradford County property nearly everyday, a habit he formed since Chesapeake Energy began preparations to tap natural gas residing more than a mile below.
The retired school teacher enjoys watching his land get transformed into a domestic energy source day-by-day, always wearing a white hard hat on the drill pad.
Nobody minds his curiosity.
“Everyday I come they would shake my hand,” he said, of the so-called “roughnecks” who recently drilled two wells on his property in Asylum Township, a true mountain refuge with a population of barely 1,100 and more abundantly green wilds than anything else.
Otten is one of a growing number of Bradford County property owners that will soon experience - or already are - a windfall of royalties, as extracted natural gas pays as much as 10 percent or more of its market cost to the folks living among the endless mountain hollows and pristine land tracts here that bring Wayne County to mind.
But the two counties are on the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to natural gas drilling and its impact on local communities - at least today.
There are now perhaps two Morris Otten’s in Wayne County; one natural gas well is under development in Oregon Township, another one is on hold in Clinton Township, and a handful of drill applications are pending state Department of Environmental Protection approval.
Otherwise, a major period of land leasing activity last summer and fall, which gobbled up large swaths of Wayne County private land for possible exploration and drilling, has not been followed up with any noticeable industry movement here. All is quiet, thus far; very quiet.
Bradford County is an entirely different story where pickup trucks driven by a legion of industry contractors and sub-contractors careen through downtown Towanda on any given day, purchasing goods and services on their way to-and-from an ever-growing number of drill sites. Towanda is approximately 62 miles west of Honesdale, on US Route 6.
The rush is on, and so is the economic impact.
According to the Bradford County Commissioners office, 229 drill permits were approved up to April 2009, with many more coming down the pipe as 10 natural gas companies vie for gas. About 83 percent of the county’s land is leased to these companies.
“This area is the honeyspot,” said John H. Gordon Jr., project manager with Geokinetics, a underground mapping firm.
Impacting Bradford’s economy
Geokinetics is engaging in the largest speculative natural gas survey in Pennsylvania of its type by tracing the extent of the Marcellus Shale and other rock formations beneath Bradford, Susquehanna and Wyoming Counties.
Gordon said about 250 employees will be engaged in the project in Bradford County, dumping approximately $4.7 million into the local economy by way of hotel fees, groceries, restaurant tabs, and payments to landowners for permission to survey, among other transactions that would have not occurred at this level short of miraculous labor market growth.
And that’s just one company.
“The big difference is that this activity is happening in rural Pennsylvania,” said Dave Messersmith, of the Wayne County Penn State Cooperative Extension, which has been monitoring aspects of the industry statewide. “The economic impact here is likely to be more noticeable, more significant.”
The new money being injected into this rural economy is far flung: from the inconspicuous, such as equipment part purchases at small dealers, to the most evident.
Harkness Family Restaurant sits atop a hill off Route 6, just outside downtown Towanda - one of the many obvious examples.
It’s a favorite of the industry’s workers who like the big, dirt parking lot for their big pickup trucks, said Mark Madden, of the Bradford County Penn State Cooperative Extension.
“Things are real evident in the morning” and night, said Madden. “They disappear into these hills during the day.”
Or they occupy office space all day long.
A once empty Ames department store is now a Chesapeake Energy field office; Geokinetics also occupies a once vacant floor in a small office building in Wysox Township, about three miles outside Towanda.
Economic activity indeed pervades to all corners. Local hotels are packed - availability limited. Some workers, who perform a contracted service such as drilling a well, only need a temporary place to stay before moving on to other areas or states.
“You won’t find anything until November” at some hotels, said Madden. “If you have a rental house, you can get them in quick.”
Same goes for the real estate market, which has seen an uptick of late as industry workers from Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia, among other places, dig in for the long haul.
“It’s just been an amazing shot in the arm” for the economy and also local employment, said Madden.
At Morris Otten’s drill site, three dump trucks pulled up during The Wayne Independent’s visit to remove site debris.
Two drivers, who are from Bradford County, were just hired.
