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The Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance emphatically opposes the recent decision by the director of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to bar additional geological test wells in the watershed and will request a formal hearing on that decision.
On June 14th, DRBC executive director Carol Collier issued a "supplemental determination" reversing a May 19, 2009, decision that stated, "Wells intended solely for exploratory purposes are not covered by this [2009] Determination."
"The decision by Carol Collier to bar test wells is a complete abrogation of our property rights," says Alliance executive director Marian Schweighofer. "We have a right to know whether there's natural gas beneath our lands, and the method used to gather the information poses no threat to the watershed.
"In the determination she issued in May last year, Ms. Collier barred production wells in the watershed until the commission publishes regulations governing natural gas production in the Delaware basin. Her stated concerns involved water withdrawals for fracking operations, the fracking process itself and the storage and disposal of flowback water.
"None of those things are involved in test wells. Moreover, when Ms. Collier issued her determination in May 2009, the process of drafting regulations at the DRBC supposedly had been under way for a year. Now, more than another year has passed, and we still have nothing. How many more years will the DRBC need? The Susquehanna River Basin started drafting regulations at the same time and had them in place before the end of 2008."
Schweighofer added that she found one Ms. Collier's comments in her determination deeply offensive.
"She says her decision 'removes any regulatory incentive for project sponsors toclassify their wells as exploratory wells and install them without Commission review before the Commission's natural gas regulations are in place.' Is she suggesting that companies like Hess and Newfield routinely practice fraud and deception? Or that the Alliance and the DEP can't tell the difference between exploratory and production wells? Or was she unwittingly hinting that the DRBC really intends to permanently bar all gas exploration in the watershed?"
Schweighofer said that in addition to filing the hearing request the Alliance will ask that any hearing be conducted somewhere in Wayne County, rather than at the DRBC headquarters near Trenton, N.J.
"The people making decisions should be up here among the people affected by those decisions, not ruling from headquarters in a different state and more than 100 miles away."
The Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance emphatically opposes the recent decision by the director of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to bar additional geological test wells in the watershed and will request a formal hearing on that decision.
On June 14th, DRBC executive director Carol Collier issued a "supplemental determination" reversing a May 19, 2009, decision that stated, "Wells intended solely for exploratory purposes are not covered by this [2009] Determination."
"The decision by Carol Collier to bar test wells is a complete abrogation of our property rights," says Alliance executive director Marian Schweighofer. "We have a right to know whether there's natural gas beneath our lands, and the method used to gather the information poses no threat to the watershed.
"In the determination she issued in May last year, Ms. Collier barred production wells in the watershed until the commission publishes regulations governing natural gas production in the Delaware basin. Her stated concerns involved water withdrawals for fracking operations, the fracking process itself and the storage and disposal of flowback water.
"None of those things are involved in test wells. Moreover, when Ms. Collier issued her determination in May 2009, the process of drafting regulations at the DRBC supposedly had been under way for a year. Now, more than another year has passed, and we still have nothing. How many more years will the DRBC need? The Susquehanna River Basin started drafting regulations at the same time and had them in place before the end of 2008."
Schweighofer added that she found one Ms. Collier's comments in her determination deeply offensive.
"She says her decision 'removes any regulatory incentive for project sponsors toclassify their wells as exploratory wells and install them without Commission review before the Commission's natural gas regulations are in place.' Is she suggesting that companies like Hess and Newfield routinely practice fraud and deception? Or that the Alliance and the DEP can't tell the difference between exploratory and production wells? Or was she unwittingly hinting that the DRBC really intends to permanently bar all gas exploration in the watershed?"
Schweighofer said that in addition to filing the hearing request the Alliance will ask that any hearing be conducted somewhere in Wayne County, rather than at the DRBC headquarters near Trenton, N.J.
"The people making decisions should be up here among the people affected by those decisions, not ruling from headquarters in a different state and more than 100 miles away."
