Seismic Permits going out for Bradford PA Phase 4 (lots of Sullivan County propertys included)
Happy April Fools Day! I wonder if it's significant that I got a certified request for a Seismic Permit in the mail today. I called the phone number at the top for Geokinetics at the top of the page for more info.
I'm sharing my information in the hopes that some of you will add yours so we can all make better decisions.
They are offering a fee for "reasonable and customary damages" that looks like it might be about $5 per acre. The permit came with an old inaccurate tax map which they marked up with colored dots showing the testing area.
Here are some of the responses I got to my questions to Geokinetics:
What is this about? They are creating a three dimensional model of the geology of a huge tract of land covering lots of Sullivan and Bradford county. (That's all I asked about because that's were I have land interests: Elkland Township, Forks Township in Sullivan County and Overton Township in Bradford county.) They then proceed to sell this model to the gas companies to use to locate the best drill sites. Chesapeake funded their survey start-up so they have already pre-paid to use the output.
Do we have a choice?
Yes but no. "It's your land" BUT if you have leased the gas rights, the lease you signed requires that you permit the testing. Since we are leased, we can say no to this permit, but they if we do the company that has the lease will force the issue in the end anyway. ( As an aside, I think we don't have to agree to their estimate of "reasonable and customary damages, particularly since the lease signed may have a lot of addendums that specify damages not included in standard leases.)
What will happen?
In my crude layman's understanding, they will drill a series of holes 20 feet deep (I counted 11 on my 90 acres) that they will fill with explosives (I think they said 2 pounds, but I have no idea what scale of explosive that is.) They lay a second series of cables on the surface of the ground that contains receiver sensors that will measure the ground vibrations as the explosions are set off underground.
What about protecting the water quality on site?
I asked this because I read on the internet that this testing can do damage to springs and water sources on the property. The responder at Geokinetics said that we should mark out all water sources on the property and they create a buffer zone around them where they do not do testing. Since the testing line they drew on the map basically goes down the creek bed, I'm not quite sure how this will work.
I have a lot of other concerns: marketable timber may be damaged, the property's huge vertical cliffs very steep slopes may pose a rock-slide risk now or in the future, a high quality trout stream crosses the property. All of this leads me to believe that $5 per acre may not be sufficient at the least, and that testing could cause potential human and animal and water injuries at the worst. I'm not sure but that the seismic testing may be more risky to this property than the actual construction of a well might be.
My question to you all is: how do we protect our properties to the maximum extent possible while still meeting our legal obligation to permit the seismic tests. Since we leased this land we have to accept the problems that go along with drilling, but that doesn't mean we cannot still to the best we can to keep the quality of the property intact, does it? Any clues on how to get more information?
I'm sharing my information in the hopes that some of you will add yours so we can all make better decisions.
They are offering a fee for "reasonable and customary damages" that looks like it might be about $5 per acre. The permit came with an old inaccurate tax map which they marked up with colored dots showing the testing area.
Here are some of the responses I got to my questions to Geokinetics:
What is this about? They are creating a three dimensional model of the geology of a huge tract of land covering lots of Sullivan and Bradford county. (That's all I asked about because that's were I have land interests: Elkland Township, Forks Township in Sullivan County and Overton Township in Bradford county.) They then proceed to sell this model to the gas companies to use to locate the best drill sites. Chesapeake funded their survey start-up so they have already pre-paid to use the output.
Do we have a choice?
Yes but no. "It's your land" BUT if you have leased the gas rights, the lease you signed requires that you permit the testing. Since we are leased, we can say no to this permit, but they if we do the company that has the lease will force the issue in the end anyway. ( As an aside, I think we don't have to agree to their estimate of "reasonable and customary damages, particularly since the lease signed may have a lot of addendums that specify damages not included in standard leases.)
What will happen?
In my crude layman's understanding, they will drill a series of holes 20 feet deep (I counted 11 on my 90 acres) that they will fill with explosives (I think they said 2 pounds, but I have no idea what scale of explosive that is.) They lay a second series of cables on the surface of the ground that contains receiver sensors that will measure the ground vibrations as the explosions are set off underground.
What about protecting the water quality on site?
I asked this because I read on the internet that this testing can do damage to springs and water sources on the property. The responder at Geokinetics said that we should mark out all water sources on the property and they create a buffer zone around them where they do not do testing. Since the testing line they drew on the map basically goes down the creek bed, I'm not quite sure how this will work.
I have a lot of other concerns: marketable timber may be damaged, the property's huge vertical cliffs very steep slopes may pose a rock-slide risk now or in the future, a high quality trout stream crosses the property. All of this leads me to believe that $5 per acre may not be sufficient at the least, and that testing could cause potential human and animal and water injuries at the worst. I'm not sure but that the seismic testing may be more risky to this property than the actual construction of a well might be.
My question to you all is: how do we protect our properties to the maximum extent possible while still meeting our legal obligation to permit the seismic tests. Since we leased this land we have to accept the problems that go along with drilling, but that doesn't mean we cannot still to the best we can to keep the quality of the property intact, does it? Any clues on how to get more information?
Views: 769
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Keith Billet on
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I would think if you wait until your leasing company requires you to do so, they would need to cover you for damage etc, based on the terms and conditions of your lease. If you sign the form from Geokinetics, their terms would prevail. I would wait until your lease company requires you to do so.
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Permalink Reply by Lynne S on
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As a followup, I called Chesapeake who has our gas leases and they said we don't have to participate if we do not choose to. Further they said they use all of the seismic data including but not exclusively Geokenetics'.
I also talked to a cousin of mine who has land in the Canton, Bradford County area and he said that the seismic study and had no problem. However the rock ledges, springs, and thick timber on my site lead me to think maybe I had better wait as Keith suggests. -
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Permalink Reply by thomas kitchen on
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Geokenetics did the same testing on 106 acre parcel I have in Colley Twp and did a very professional job for me and I heard they were very amicable with the farmers as far as working around the crops etc. No complaints as far as I know.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff on
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I was told by a Geokinetics Representative that they intend to do seismic testing on the rest of the county that was not done before.
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Permalink Reply by roland (Dave Gilmore) on
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Watch Out, the sky is falling?????? It means that somebody is paying $70,000 per acre to get a percise look at what is under your property. And why? They intend to drill. My advise is to not listen to those who are clueless, but continue to voice their thoughts which probably came from Elvis.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Ottaviano on
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We just received our letter from Geokinetics for the Bradford PA Phase 4 seismic survey. Our property is on Cookhill Road in Cherry Mills and the plat plan indicates that we are on the eastern end on this survey. Only a portion of our property is included in the survey with no sources (explosive charges) and only two receivers.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Bielinski on
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Lynne S.
We had seismic mapping done on our property last spring. Your main concern is your water. We had our water tested before they did any "shots" so that we had a baseline of what the water was like before any C4 went off. We only had one bore hole on our property but there were 2 holes on other property that were less than 500 feet from a cistern on our property. They actually moved the bore sites further away when told we had a well located nearby. The day of the shots (we didn't know when it was going to happen) it sounded like something a long ways away but we both heard something and the house vibrated several times that afternoon. We did get $5 per acre, I believe it is the standard, and we still have not signed a lease but are in negotiations this week.
Hope all goes well for you. -
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The explosives are really small. When they go off it just sounds like a soft thump. I heard that you can stand right over them safely. They are not loud enough where it would scare cattle or horses. They also won't make your house shake like an eartquake. The dots on the map are just hypothetical. They are laid over the aerial imagery in a pattern that will get the best results, but they know that they will have to be adjusted according to what's actually out there. That is the reason why the surveyors go out before the drillers and mark everything with the color-coded flags.
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