Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Robin Jackson on February 27, 2011 at 1:51am

Hi Ann, Thank you for posting..some may think that we complain to much about our water, but I for one appreciate articles, post, comments about both sides of the Marcellus Shale Operation.

 

When clicking on an area I found a well that is very familiar to me. The tag states Tioga Co. (a number) the well name, then it says Radium Federal drinking water limit (pCVL) 5 then right below it ,  it states Total at site (pCVL) 10,640..I'm not a pro at reading these reports or tags and can only best guess using common sense. However, am I thinking that their is radium in their water?

 

Next question I'd like to pose, why are the testing numbers so low for the stations that do this ?

 

I'm surrounded by wells and honestly this is a step I plan on taking this wk..It was a step I should of taken several months ago when I noticed a change in my water. I've been changing filters weekly. Then my husband got hurt, then life and then Grandma passed..I shouldn't have put it off..I did and I pray all is well. With prosperity comes other issues. We take the good with the bad and the bad with the good.

Permalink Reply by William Ladd on February 27, 2011 at 6:24am

After reading this report Ann, it looks as if we are damned if we do and damned if we dont! I suppose we could rush headlong into this new Pennsylvania drilling to the marcellus and just take our chances for our health and the health of out children. Or we could put aside every minus reason and just look at the plus side. It is like being trapped in a well and trying to climb out. The walls are collapsing as we try making our way out. Many of us will be buried by the debris from the garbage falling before we can get to the top.

Just like everything in life, We make choices. Some choices are very good and others are very bad. We sort thru all the information that is available to us and hope that information is not just BS.

To be honest with you, this marcellus is probably not going to help me personally. By the time all the wrangling and all of the rules have been approved The lease I have for life will have expired! It could expire at any time now.

Bill L.
aka Bummy

Permalink Reply by Lynn Wigglesworth on February 27, 2011 at 6:45am

Bill; it's not even us, the individual landowners, making these choices. I'm not leased, but my neighbors are, and drilling goes on all around me. If it's going to affect the ground water, it won't stop at my property line, just because I'm not leased. A friend of mine is so terrified of the consequences of drilling that she moved from Wellsboro to northern Maine, where, in her words, "they don't have anything worth ruining the environment to take".

Permalink Reply by William Ladd on February 27, 2011 at 10:52am

That's terrible Lynn to be so upset by the drilling activity that your friend moved away! I happen to be the forth generation of my family to own my 70 acres.  I am also a member of the sixth generation to own property in Westfield Township. ( look up Ayres Tuttle and William Ladd on the internet.....Also Westfield history. They are my Grandfathers about 6 generations ago )

 

My roots go almost as deep as the marcellus deposit. In fact my wife says she is going to have me cremated and scattered on the family farm.

 

Anyway I certainly will not pick up and leave by my own choice no matter what takes place!

 Bill L.

aka Bummy

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on February 27, 2011 at 2:47pm

I wouldn't have picked Maine, but certainly considered moving.   A year or so ago, there were speculators willing to pay more for land than it was worth ... without the seller taking back a mortgage.  And, since this is my primary residence, the tax bite would be a lot less than that on a lease bonus.  (Who knows when they would get around to drilling/marketing the gas from my property if I leased it, so I couldn't count on getting a royalty.)  And with real estate prices down, there were bargins available.  The main stumbling block was finding a place to move where there isn't any shale gas.

Permalink Reply by Lynn Wigglesworth on February 27, 2011 at 3:21pm

I've considered it, too. I love this place, but my kids are almost out of high school and will be taking off in the next couple of years. The house is way too big for one person, and the farm is getting to be too much (or I'm getting too old) to run by myself. I've thought if I could get a LOT of money for it and find a much smaller place, far away from the gravel trucks rumbling by all day....

Permalink Reply by Robin Jackson on February 27, 2011 at 3:51pm

Lynn, I underestand..Four of were blessed with 50 acres to split..now we have it and well I'm not liking the fact that my retirement which is just around the corner will be in a place full of wells and noise..I was told by a Seismic Guy "we've been blessed and our new property will be a blessing to us"..UM?? If he means money maybe so, if he means the "quiet life" I think not..

Permalink Reply by Robin Jackson on February 27, 2011 at 3:22pm

Bill L..You wrote "lease I have for life will have expired! It could expire at any time now"..what do you mean?

Permalink Reply by William Ladd on February 28, 2011 at 3:56am

Sorry Robin for confusing you.  What I mean is, I am 76 years old. My lease is the time that I have lived! If I die tomorrow, my lease for life will have expired.  It was just a term that I sometimes use when I'm talking about my life span.

 

With all the problems the marcellus drillers are having to solve and all the new rules the state is trying to deal with, it will probably take 15 or 20 years before there is any chance that I could actually hold  a few dollars in my hand from the marcellus gas deposit.  And by that time I will probably have died!

 

Does St Peter accept I.O.U's?

 

Bill L.

aka Bummy

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on February 28, 2011 at 6:10am

The main holdup now is the (low) price of gas.  Until there is some major new demand, I don't see the price improving much.  Add to that, TC has "dry" gas, which isn't as profitable as gas with NGLs (like in SW PA),  And within TC, some areas are more productive than others. 

 

Other considerations for the gascos in deciding where to spend money are (1) what additional land the PA DCNR may put up for bid and (2) when NYS will ok horizontal drilling and fracking.  

Permalink Reply by Chuck Reed on March 2, 2011 at 10:26pm

never to cheep to drill and tie up land.  NY has drilling at the moment, it's just not in the papers.

Permalink Reply by Lynn Wigglesworth on March 3, 2011 at 2:30am

But without high volume fracking (which is banned in NY state) it's difficult to develop any Marcellus wells.

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