A lot has happened since I’ve first written about drilling for natural gas around the Greater Binghamton region. For one thing, groups of land owners have banded together and signed contracts worth millions. Yes, millions. Some local farmers who have struggled for years working the farm, paying high taxes and trying to hold on to their land, suddenly have no money worries. It’s like a fairy tale coming true. But like all fairy tales, this one has obstacles (and villains) to be overcome before the happy ending.

To recap where we are at: The United States has more natural gas deposits sitting under it than Saudi Arabia has oil reserves–if we can only get to it and get it out of the ground. Given that we are way too dependent on foreign oil, a fact nobody disputes on either the right or the left, it behooves us to figure out how to get those reserves out of the ground, and soon.

Enter something called the Marcellus Shale Formation. Shale is a type of rock that sits under much of New York State. The Marcellus Shale Formation (named for Marcellus, NY) is found as far south as northern Virginia, as far west as Ohio, and includes a parts of West Virginia and Maryland. But it seems its heaviest concentration is Pennsylvania and New York.

Marcellus Shale produces a lot of natural gas in and around Greater Binghamton. I know of two local instances where people who have drilled a bit too deeply for their wells (for water) have hit natural gas pockets and the natural gas has contaminated their water supply. One of them causes the homeowner’s water to have so much natural gas the water itself ignites if you hold a flame to it! No lie. Read it for yourself: Couple’s faucets spout fiery mix.

The only problem with the gas sitting below me right now is how you get it out of the ground. Drilling shale is costly, and in order to get it out, you have to drill not only down (vertically), but across (horizontally) to break up the rock. This involves using a great deal of water which a) has nasty chemicals used to break apart the shale, and b) after the water is removed, it has even nastier heavy metals and some radioactivity in it. Treating and disposing of that waste water is an issue. You can’t run it down a local creek or river as it is toxic. So you have to put it on a truck, or a train, and take it to a special treatment plant. Currently, the closest plant to us is near Pittsburgh about 280 miles away. Expensive.

When you read about these issues in the Press & Sun-Bulletin, like today’s article titled, Questions surround gas-drilling waste water, you’ll get the standard leftist line that “this can never work…it will destroy the environment…big bad companies like Halliburton will get involved…you’re going to die.” Typical. No doubt local Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo’s office is feeding much of this pap to the P&SB on a regular basis as she’s anti-anything that would destroy a single leaf or blade of grass (i.e., an enviro-nutjob).

What do I think? I think we need to be careful for sure. We need to understand how and where waste water will be treated. But we need to figure it out and move forward–quickly. The alternative of not drilling and not becoming energy independent is not the answer. We’re pretty smart, we Americans. I think we can figure out how to get the natural gas at a cost and in a method that will benefit everyone and not poison the local population.

What we can’t do is sit on our thumbs and let the naysayers like Lupardo and other lefty-loonies tell us “it can’t be done…it’s too hard…you’ll die.” Tell them to take a hike. And while you’re at it, be sure you don’t vote for them come November.

Technorati Tags: Marcellus Shale Formation, waste water, natural gas drilling, toxic byproducts, Donna Lupardo, Binghamton