Can These Two Environments Coexist?

By Drew Orient, Orion Consulting

With the increasing development of Marcellus Shale Gas in the Progress News area and  as the picture in Washington County near Hickory Pennsylvania illustrates a larger question emerges,  Can Marcellus well development and rural farm and community life coexist?

 Throughout the area in Clarion and Butler Counties there has been increased Marcellus leasing and well development. As reported Stone Energy Inc. of Lafayette, Louisiana, has recently drilled two horizontal wells in the Knox area. EQT (Equitable Gas Inc.) headquartered in Pittsburgh earlier in the year developed horizontal wells near Shippenville and Porter Township. Atlas Energy Resources now part of Chevron drilled one near Lucinda. BLX and affiliated companies drilled three vertical wells near Six Points in Butler County.
Numerous Land Owner Groups have also emerged, and are actively signing landowners. Some are organized by private companies like Whitelight Development, and MDS. Others are landowners joining cooperatively like the Fryburg Group, Foxburg Group, and ABC Mineral Group LLC. But all formed around the idea that the combination of many landowners will gain higher lease signing bonuses, paid out royalties, and more favorable landowner lessors terms.
 Yet along with all this increase of activity, comes the ever increasing debate of gas development benefits versus the real environmental impacts, with possible health and quality of life risks, we see Marcellus Gas wells bring to the greater community.
In the coming weeks the Progress News will attempt to provide information that will aid the reader in assessing the pros and cons of the debate, help clarify the risks, and voice concerns, as well as indicate potential and real benefits.
In this part of Pennsylvania it is said gas and oil drilling has been going on for 150 years so what is the big deal. Yes it is true all over the region the land is peppered with abandoned and active well locations, old and new pipelines crisscross the landscape, and fortunate the farmer or homeowner that has free gas. The leases were only a few pages with terms usually dictated by the gas company, and the bonus payments not so sweet, for land could be leased for a few dollars per acre.
 Marcellus is different. Drive along Route 208 east of Knox and it is apparent that at night it lights up the sky as the drill mast towers over trees and the rig runs  24 hours a day 7 days a week.. A drill pad is similar to a major construction site disturbing ten to fifteen acres, creating at some sites large geotexiled lined ponds for degraded frac water, and all the companion noise, dust, and visual impacts. The opinion of some say these temporary nuisances are the tip of an environmental catastrophe that will ruin ground water, pollute the air, and cause prolonged and irreversible underground contamination.
Proponents say the nuisances are temporary. The big rigs are in and out in 30 to 60 days, best management practices and responsible drilling techniques can assure no long term negative impacts underground, and frac water is contained and recycled. Further the lease bonus payments, as some members of the Fryburg Group are experiencing, are thousands of dollars per acre, possibly making them as reported on CBS Sixty Minutes Shalionaires. Thinking globally it is claimed the development of the Marcellus Shale  helps America  achieve greater energy independence and will be net positive in accumulating carbon credits.
Detractors counter we have heard all this before: big oil, big coal have been here and gone, extracting the finite resources and profits, leaving communities impoverished and messes to clean up. Now here come the gas companies, saying what they bring is jobs, prosperity, and clean energy.
In the debate it seems the media plays to the extremes, demonstrations against create drama and constant crisis, and the Gas industry often resorts to paid advertisements to present their filtered point of view. However coming back to the photo which now represents hundreds of Marcellus sites in western Pennsylvania, is there common ground for this gas formation and others like it, to be developed in a prudent and safe manner.
In the big picture the finite statement, made by many of those opposed, “lets develop alternative energy resources and encourage conservation” has been heard for decades, and for the most part given lip service or ignored. Part of the debate centers on what is the future energy policy determined in Washington D.C. and Harrisburg, in a world of $80.00 per barrel oil and how it impacts and manifests right here in Emlenton, PA. Does conversion from coal or oil to natural gas to generate electricity, power fleets of over the road trucks, public transportation buses, etc. as well as expand the use of gas to heat our homes create benefits that are worth the managed and unforeseen risks.
In the coming weeks there will be follow up articles to inform and discuss many of the issues and concerns that have been generated by the rapid development of the Marcellus shale. It is hoped this will serve as a constructive forum. Reader response and comment is welcomed.