PENNSDALE - It is possible to develop natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale while maintaining the region's quality of life, Richard Adams, senior regulatory advisor for Texas-based Chief Oil and Gas, told a group of conservationists Tuesday night.
Adams, who spoke during the Lycoming County Conservation District's 50th annual awards banquet at the Trinity United Methodist Church hall here, said it will take a concerted effort by the industry, regulators, conservation and watershed organizations and local citizens to make sure gas development is done in a way that improves, not diminishes, the area's quality of life.
"We can do it if we work together," Adams said.
According to Adams, the availability of affordable energy plays a major role in an area's quality of life. Also of importance is productive land and clean air and water, he said.
"Without any one of those, you can't prosper," he said.
"It is ironic with this equation, how it's been portrayed that these elements have to clash," he said, adding that the opposite can actually be true if the right approach is taken.
"Can (gas development) co-exist with farm and land protection? We say, 'yes,' and we are doing our darndest to make sure that happens," he said.
Impacts can be minimized by companies sharing pipeline and water and using good soil and erosion control practices, he said.
Marcellus Shale development can preserve family farms by creating additional revenue for farmers through gas leases and royalties, he said.
Adams said the gas industry consumed 300 million gallons of water last year - an average of less than 1 million gallons of water a day.
Even if the gas industry scales up its operations to the point that it triples water consumption by the end of 2010, the 3 million gallons of water used each day will be insignificant compared to power plants and the golf industry.
"Tonight, (300 million gallons of water) flows past us (on the Susquehanna River) in one hour," he said. "That's not a lot of water compared to our total water budget."
Adams said of the water used by the industry last year, half came from streams and rivers and half came from public water supplies. Water bought from public water systems provided authorities with additional revenue for improving and maintaining their systems, he said.
Adams also discussed issues with treating wastewater used in hydrofracturing gas wells.
"At some point, we'll be successful in taking the mystery out of this," Adams said. "Frack water is treatable."
Adams said the industry's focus on recycling gas drilling wastewater will result in less water being treated and discharged into waterways.
Displaying a map of the Marcellus Shale on a screen, Adams said the "mother lode" of natural gas contained in the shale is in Pennsylvania. That will pay big dividends because "the country is running out of energy," he said.
"Buying oil from countries that bear us little good will is not the answer," he said, adding that natural gas is the "transition fuel" that will take the nation from dependency on fossil fuel to clean, sustainable energy.
"We need this energy ... and here it is in Pennsylvania," he said. "It's a blessing, really."
Also speaking was Daria Fish, community affairs officer for Chief's Appalachia region. Fish talked about the company's presence in this area.
The company maintains a regional office near Pittsburgh and operates a field office in Montoursville, Fish said.
The company is privately owned and, with 560,000 acres under lease, is the fifth or sixth largest leaseholder in the Marcellus Shale, she said.
The company currently operates five rigs and has drilled or is in the process of drilling 50 wells, she said.
Fish discussed the seven steps in developing natural gas in the Marcellus Shale: exploration, leasing, seismic, drilling, fracture stimulation, extraction and transportation.
Well pads typically are 4 to 5 acres, but because multiple wells can be drilled from a single pad, a large area can be drained of natural gas with far less land disturbance than if traditional drilling had occurred, she said.
Fish showed a video of how horizontal drilling - a technique that allows far more gas to be extracted from a well - and hydrofracturing is performed.
The video can be viewed on the company's Marcellus Shale page at www.chiefog.com/marcellus_shale.html
