Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lynn Wigglesworth on November 19, 2009 at 9:41am

When I was considering signing the East lease (I didn't sign), I put in a 2 page addendum with a lot of environmental stipulations...testing my well water before and after, saving topsoil from any disturbed area and regrading/reseeding, no injection wells/waste on my property, no erosion or damage to streams (that's a law, anyway), and a few other things.

I think you have a much better chance of protecting your property if you are under lease. If you aren't, of course they can't come on your property and make a mess, but if they pollute a stream or mess up the aquifer where you get your water, it might be harder to pin them down. If you aren't leased, you could pay to do water testing to document the 'before' quality. If the water quality is degraded, you'd have proof.

Permalink Reply by N Bohl on November 19, 2009 at 10:31am

That's smart and if any given gas company says what they are doing is safe for your land then they should agree to such addendums. What are all of the angles - short term and LONG term? Hopefully after all of the thinking both outlooks can be covered somehow. I thought water tests would be helpful but it's like a blood test in that you can't just test for everything in the world at once easily. It helps if you zero in on specifics. I also wonder if it would help to do it somewhat often and ongoing. I'm not sure one test would do it because you cannot predict what activity may occur over time nearby. Maybe once or twice twice a year which adds an expense. So even if someone is leased they might want to think about it. With woodlands and wetlands it would be harder. Or hunting? If you are used to seeing so many Turkeys or Deer a season on your land and the numbers seemed diminished over time that would be tough if not impossible to demonstrate. It may not even relevant in any legal sense. It definitely raises issues that are new to Tioga County as well as the State.

Permalink Reply by Lynn Wigglesworth on November 21, 2009 at 7:26am

I think that's the downside of gas leasing or any kind of development. There will undoubtedly be changes; even if they regrade and replant when they are done, there will always be the well site and road leading to it. And it sounds like they dig up and repair/expand the pipeline periodically. That's why you get compensation for them using your land. As you say, Tioga County isn't used to that kind of disruption.

With water testing, I think it's pretty well known what kind of damages can happen. Most of the surface pollution is due to accidents during drilling/fracking, like the Cabot spills. I don't know much about what damage can happen to aquifers, but I would think that once the well is in place, there would be less chance of future damage...it's during the drilling and fracking that I'd worry.

Permalink Reply by N Bohl on November 21, 2009 at 11:48am

Definitely. Personally I am most concerned about the water. I am concerned about wildlife reaction and the ongoing health of the woods too. But water is the source of life, period. Our drinking water is just the tip of the mountain and trucking that in as a fix does not cut it. And the overall quality of the States water is dicey all ready. The best water I have experienced is in places like Tioga County. As far as knowing what to look for I think they will have to be more transparent with what chemicals they are using to frac with and that would help.

I reread my earlier post and after thinking about it more maybe the issues are not totally new to the County and State. I grew up in a heavy anthracite industrial scarred county and during my lifetime a lot of the damage had become less obvious. Industries, I think in Japan, figured out how to use the anthracite in the huge culm banks, which was considered waste, and so they began vanishing. The coal breakers are almost all gone now. I witnessed the beginning of the re-growth of the mountains around Palmerton the past years which has been pretty amazing. That area was devastated, a total waste land, and now the wildlife has begun to come back. I know there is a long history of oil drilling in Tioga County too.

But I witnessed the very end of those industries. What we are seeing here is the beginning. The very beginning of a what looks like a huge push toward new industrial activity. The amount of land involved is huge and much is privately owned and controlled. People are involved in a way that looks unusual to me, the State, Counties, and Townships too. In the past with mineral rights private citizens mostly had no involvement with making decisions. The other part is that this has come pretty much as a total surprise to these owners - as well as law makers and lawyers. I saw the first landmen coming around Tioga County in either late 2000 or maybe very early 2001 and overall people thought maybe something will happen , maybe not. I think we are beyond that point now. I am of the mind set that not only is this happening but it will continue to develop for decades. So the BIG picture is very important. Having the ability to test current water and land health in the ways we can now is also new. So I have been trying to look at it like I am making decisions that will affect generations to come. I think a lot of people are too but the focus is often on royalty rates. A one or two percent difference with a royalty over time is huge, like compounding interest. But that may be true for every other decision as well.

The addendums are really important but I don't think any of the lawyers are able to really look at it LONG term. They are still playing catch up and are overwhelmed mostly. Their ability to be objective is limited by their inexperience with this industry specifically. That's what I have observed. I would not completely trust what comes out of Penn State to be objective for some of the same reasons.

So I feel like using my imagination and doing whatever I can to explore all possible futures will be helpful. I definitely think private land owners should be documenting their land and water in a way that would be respected by the law if needed. I'm just not sure how that can be accomplished, or how often it should be done. I also think that if a lot of people were doing that it would help to keep this industry accountable for their actions. If they were aware of the awareness, so to speak, maybe they would be less likely to drop the ball. And if something happened you would have accurate documentation.

Permalink Reply by Lynn Wigglesworth on November 21, 2009 at 3:17pm

The Tioga County Conservation District has been doing a LOT of testing and documenting of soil and water for many years. They've taken samples from the larger rivers and tiny little unnamed streams, like the one that runs through my property (they were here 4 or 5 years ago...sampled water quality and the bug and plant life). You could contact them with your concerns and see what they've documented for your area.