Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on October 29, 2011 at 12:37pm

It's to be expected that there will be resistance in the upscale 'burbs around Pittsburgh.  Some owners have more to lose in property value by gas development than they would gain from bonus/royalty.

Permalink Reply by paleface on October 29, 2011 at 1:53pm

Would like to hear the D.E.R. give there opinion about this? Why did they bail out,maybe it was unfounded and Range paid off just to shut them up?

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on November 1, 2011 at 5:46am

A copy of a letter about the water well the PADEP sent to the Hallowich lawyer:

http://www.energyindepth.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/DEP-Respons...

A detailed National Geographic article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/101022-energy-marce...

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Shawn Smith on October 30, 2011 at 1:10pm

http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/story11/10-29-2011-hallowich-deed

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on October 30, 2011 at 2:27pm

Good find!

Permalink Reply by paleface on October 30, 2011 at 2:40pm

Matt Pitzerella from range described it I think correctly the people wanted to move because of the activitys in the area and Range bought the property,I think the land owners were trying to talk up the changes as effecting there property value so Range gave them an extra 50k for the property.The anties and nimbys tryed to make it into something it wasen't with the newspaper articles.

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on October 31, 2011 at 1:32am

"Western PA communities offer local drilling lessons  [June 23, 2010]
...
But Mr. Pitzarella is quick to try to discredit persistent critics, like Mrs. Hallowich and her husband, whom he said forced the purchase of their new property so they could benefit from royalties produced by the three Range Marcellus Shale wells drilled nearby.

The wells, the water impoundment, "all that stuff is already there," he said, when the Hallowiches filed suit to force the sale.

The newness of the Hallowich home also explains the unique proliferation of infrastructure around it, he said, because "a lot of those locations were selected because no one lived there."

But court and property records reveal a different timeline than the one Mr. Pitzarella explained.

The Hallowiches did file suit to acquire the property, but they did so in March 2006, a year before permits were issued for any of the Range gas wells and nearly two years before the adjacent property owner signed leases to allow the compressor and processing plant to be built.

Mrs. Hallowich said the royalties she receives from the gas wells are not enough to cover the cost of the water she buys for her family to use for bathing and drinking. She has gone back to work five days a week to pay for it."

http://citizensvoice.com/news/western-pa-communities-offer-local-dr...

Permalink Reply by Lynn Wigglesworth on October 31, 2011 at 8:10am

Mrs. Hallowich said the royalties she receives from the gas wells are not enough to cover the cost of the water she buys for her family to use for bathing and drinking. She has gone back to work five days a week to pay for it."

I don't know about the rest of the case, but this argument drives me crazy. I've heard this before; people complain that they have to buy water, and spend thousand of dollars on water, when there is a permanent, cheaper solution. I just put in a reverse osmosis system. Just for drinking water cost less than $200. For about $500, I could have put in a whole-house system. The only operational cost is replacing filters once in a while. Reverse osmosis will take almost any contaminant out of water.

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on October 31, 2011 at 2:51pm

Agreed.  Imo the main problem probably was that their primary mortgage was "under water" and/or in technical violation.  They refinanced their original credit union mortgage with NatCity in 2007.  NatCity was out of business by the end of 2008 and the mortgage ended up with PNC. It appears that in Oct 2009 they took out a second mortgage.  Their settlement with Range was reached this August and the Satisfaction of the PNC mortgage was recorded in September.

The first thing I noticed in the photos was that it appears the road to the frack water impound goes right along their property line. That doesn't seem very neighborly. 

 

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on November 1, 2011 at 6:40am

It's a plant for separating out the NGLs from raw "wet" gas.   Like the compressor station(s), it will be there indefinitely.

Permalink Reply by paleface on November 1, 2011 at 8:29am

Its used to freeze things I heard goes from -150c to -300c it freezes things so cold it almost stops all molecular movement.That liguid gas must be like a rock you could carry it in dump trucks.

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on October 31, 2011 at 6:15am

Perhaps Range didn't offer to buy the o/g rights?  Looking in Landex, the deed to the Hallowiches was recorded 11/2/2006.  (The lot was part of a subdivision.)  The party they bought it from leased to Great Lakes May 2, 2002.  So chances are it's a minimum royalty lease ... with no terms that are likely to cause Range future problems.