1. Gas companies recently have turned their sights on the Marcellus shale, shown in grey here, a vast natural gas reserve 6,000 to 8,000 feet below the Earth’s surface that stretches over 48,000 square miles from West Virginia and Ohio, touching Maryland, up through Pennsylvania and into New York State. Thousands of leases have been signed in New York and Pennsylvania since early 2008 (it is estimated that 200,000 acres have been already leased for gas wells in the Upper Delaware River Watershed alone in PA and NY; with prices ranging from hundreds of dollars to $6,000/acre or more, paying 12-25% royalties, and offering hopes of economic prosperity for landowners. The interest in the development of new domestic fuels and the use of new extraction methods have made the Marcellus shale attractive to investors, who now view the 380 million year old shale gas as a new “boom” for the petroleum industry.
Marcellus Shale

2. Marcellus shale is also extensive in New York State’s southern tier
Marcellus shale is also extensive in New York State’s southern tier. Much of this area falls into the Susquehanna or the Delaware River Basin, upstream of Pennsylvania. This map produced by New York state shows the boundaries of Catskill Park in blue and the New York City Drinking Watershed in light green. Due to the potential for water resource degradation, the DRBC has just embarked on the development of natural gas-specific regulations and New York State has a moratorium on new shale gas permits while it completes its Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement; the 800+ page draft of that study was released September 30, 2009 and the public comment period closed on Dec. 31, Over 12,000 comments were submitted, many calling for the withdrawal of the Draft SGEIS, including comments from DRN and our members, because it does not address the impacts of shale gas drilling in a comprehensive manner that is protective of human health or the environment. What NY does or does not do regarding the regulation and management of natural gas drilling will directly impact us here in PA. NY’s Draft SGEIS does not offer any regulations, just proposes permit conditions– and makes no attempt to assess cumulative impacts or adopt effective stream and water resource protections.

3. Delaware River Watershed by State New York State = 18.5% of land mass
Pennsylvania = 50.3% of land mass
New York (including NYC) –
largest water user
Pennsylvania – next largest user
The Delaware River is the largest free flowing river east of the Mississippi. The Delaware River Watershed represents less than a half percent of the US land area (13,539 square miles) yet it provides 5% of the US population with water. This includes 7 million (up to 9 at times) people in New York City and 8 million people downstream on the Delaware—at least 15 million people. PA comprises the largest land mass in the DR Watershed. New York is next to the smallest land mass but controls about 28% of the river’s flow with its water supply reservoirs in the Catskills, removing 292 bg of water per year from the River (up to 800 mgd), making it the largest single user of the 650 bg consumed by all users each year. This is significant because the consumptive removal of the headwater flows of the river by New York means that the amount of flow left is all the more important to protect in order to keep our water needs filled and water quality high. The less water available from the fresh clean upper reaches of the river, the less clean our water downstream will be due to pollution inputs along the River’s 330 mile journey to the Ocean.

4. Marcellus Shale in the Delaware River Watershed
36% of the DR Watershed is underlain by Marcellus Shale. Wayne and Pike Counties in PA and Delaware and Sullivan Counties in NY form the headwater region of the DR and are expected to hold large natural gas reserves. However, Carbon, Schuylkill, Lackawanna, and Luzerne and Monroe Counties are also underlain by Marcellus shale. This part of Kidder Twp, which flows to the Lehigh River, is in the Marcellus shale fairway. Counties in the southern parts of the Delaware River Watershed, including Bucks County, are underlain by other gas-producing shales (known as “tight shales”) (Lockatong formation, Newark Basin) that have attracted the attention of gas drillers, such as in Nockamixon Township where Arbor Resources has pending permit applications with the DRBC for an exploratory gas well and a groundwater withdrawal to develop the well. The Township has been fighting in court to control gas drilling within its jurisdiction for several years; the case is ongoing now. In PA, municipalities have been fought every step of the way by industry for trying to have some say over where and how drilling should proceed in light of local planning and regulations (PA Supreme Court). In fact, DRN and Nockamixon Twp have recently filed new gas well appeals; one of the reasons is the ingoring of municipal regulation by the agencies.
Marcellus Shale in the Delaware River Watershed