Interest in natural gas drilling, whether that be for it or against it, remains high with around 70 people gathering for a forum about the industry on Tuesday at the Park Street Complex in Honesdale.
Sponsored by the Wayne County Penn State Cooperative Extension office, two Penn State representatives versed in the economic and environmental issues of the industry and a Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) representative opened the forum with presentations, which was followed by a somewhat provocative question and answer session with the public.
David Kovach, a geologist and hydrologist with the DRBC, which is a major regulator of the nascent, generally stalled, drilling movement into Wayne County, received the brunt of the questioning - at times sharp and biting.
He was asked several times whether the commission will act as a “bottleneck” by preventing drilling permits from being approved in a timely fashion, thus halting the industry’s movement into the county.
The commission, along with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), can give the red light or the green light to companies who wish to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, a promising natural gas resource locked in a rock formation at least a mile beneath the county’s surface.
Kovach said that a single permit review - and the final decision - will take four to six months, adding that the commission needs to protect water quality and quantity in the basin’s 13,539 square mile, multi-state area.
“That’s why you aren’t seeing any activity in Wayne County,” said an audience member, regarding DRBC’s lengthy time for permit review. “You hear it around the gas companies.”
Another audience member defended the review process, saying that environmental considerations take precedence over hasty decisions.
Kovach gave reasons as to why the review takes time:
-if an active natural gas well is not properly sealed with concrete casing, it could contaminate an entire community’s drinking water, as it would pollute a water aquifer with chemicals and other substances, such as methane, associated with the production process.
-the commission needs to monitor the affects of millions of gallons of water being taken out of the basin - the water is needed to bust open the shale to extract natural gas - and the millions of gallons of water possibly being transported into the basin for the extraction process, both of which require DRBC water-use permits.
Ultimately, the basin commission is concerned with the large amounts of water used for Marcellus drilling, he said, highlighting that a stream could become literally dry, if too much water is withdrawn from it.
He was also asked if DRBC received permit requests from 20 gas companies, could the agency handle it?
“Yeah, we could. It’s a possibility - yes,” he said, adding that the applications would have to be fully complete, generally free of errors.
DRBC has two permit applications on file for Marcellus-related activity, according to a Wayne Independent review of agency records and also emphasized by Kovach as a defense for DRBC as not being a bottleneck - a prevailing opinion at the forum.
Stone Energy Corp., applied for a permit on February 13 to resume drilling operations on a natural gas well in Clinton Township.
Drilling work was halted by DRBC last summer, after the commission discovered that the company lacked a permit. DEP had already issued a permit to Stone Energy Corp., for that well.
The second permit, received by the commission last October from Chesapeake Appalachia, is a one-million gallon per day, for 30 days, water withdrawal permit from the East Branch of the Delaware River, near Hancock, NY.
Kovach said it is likely the permits will be considered at the commission’s May meeting. The next meeting is March 11 in West Trenton, NJ.
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Interest in natural gas drilling, whether that be for it or against it, remains high with around 70 people gathering for a forum about the industry on Tuesday at the Park Street Complex in Honesdale.
Sponsored by the Wayne County Penn State Cooperative Extension office, two Penn State representatives versed in the economic and environmental issues of the industry and a Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) representative opened the forum with presentations, which was followed by a somewhat provocative question and answer session with the public.
David Kovach, a geologist and hydrologist with the DRBC, which is a major regulator of the nascent, generally stalled, drilling movement into Wayne County, received the brunt of the questioning - at times sharp and biting.
He was asked several times whether the commission will act as a “bottleneck” by preventing drilling permits from being approved in a timely fashion, thus halting the industry’s movement into the county.
The commission, along with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), can give the red light or the green light to companies who wish to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, a promising natural gas resource locked in a rock formation at least a mile beneath the county’s surface.
Kovach said that a single permit review - and the final decision - will take four to six months, adding that the commission needs to protect water quality and quantity in the basin’s 13,539 square mile, multi-state area.
“That’s why you aren’t seeing any activity in Wayne County,” said an audience member, regarding DRBC’s lengthy time for permit review. “You hear it around the gas companies.”
Another audience member defended the review process, saying that environmental considerations take precedence over hasty decisions.
Kovach gave reasons as to why the review takes time:
-if an active natural gas well is not properly sealed with concrete casing, it could contaminate an entire community’s drinking water, as it would pollute a water aquifer with chemicals and other substances, such as methane, associated with the production process.
-the commission needs to monitor the affects of millions of gallons of water being taken out of the basin - the water is needed to bust open the shale to extract natural gas - and the millions of gallons of water possibly being transported into the basin for the extraction process, both of which require DRBC water-use permits.
Ultimately, the basin commission is concerned with the large amounts of water used for Marcellus drilling, he said, highlighting that a stream could become literally dry, if too much water is withdrawn from it.
He was also asked if DRBC received permit requests from 20 gas companies, could the agency handle it?
“Yeah, we could. It’s a possibility - yes,” he said, adding that the applications would have to be fully complete, generally free of errors.
DRBC has two permit applications on file for Marcellus-related activity, according to a Wayne Independent review of agency records and also emphasized by Kovach as a defense for DRBC as not being a bottleneck - a prevailing opinion at the forum.
Stone Energy Corp., applied for a permit on February 13 to resume drilling operations on a natural gas well in Clinton Township.
Drilling work was halted by DRBC last summer, after the commission discovered that the company lacked a permit. DEP had already issued a permit to Stone Energy Corp., for that well.
The second permit, received by the commission last October from Chesapeake Appalachia, is a one-million gallon per day, for 30 days, water withdrawal permit from the East Branch of the Delaware River, near Hancock, NY.
Kovach said it is likely the permits will be considered at the commission’s May meeting. The next meeting is March 11 in West Trenton, NJ.
