Posts Tagged ‘Dalton’

by Laura Legere (staff writer)
Published: June 20, 2010

One natural gas well has been drilled into the Marcellus Shale in Lackawanna County, but much more development is on the county’s doorstep.

Already more than an eighth of the county’s land has been leased to companies planning to drill in the Marcellus Shale, according to deeds recorded with the county.

The total land leased – about 38,000 acres – amounts to an area roughly twice the size of Scranton.

Those leases carry a soft deadline for drilling: Many of them have a primary term of five or seven years, which means the companies have to make some progress to develop the gas within that time or renegotiate to extend the agreement and risk losing the lease to a competitor.

Because the vast majority of the leases in the county – 816 of them – were recorded in 2008, the incentive for developing the gas is approaching.

The land rush has touched a vast area of the county. Land in 20 of Lackawanna’s 40 municipalities has been leased, with the largest concentration of leases in northern municipalities, including Scott, Benton and Greenfield townships, as well as areas of the Abingtons.

Many of the county’s most prominent farmers, including the Manning, Eckel, Roba and Pallman families, have signed leases.

Although much of the land has been leased outside of the population centers along the Lackawanna Valley, leased parcels are not strictly on farms or in rural areas.

Baptist Bible College leased 114 acres on its South Abington Twp. campus.

The Abington Hill Cemetery Association leased 120 acres in South Abington along the Morgan Highway.

Leases have also been agreed to on land near residential areas. For example, 38 acres have been leased along the 900 and 1000 blocks of Fairview Road in South Abington.

Property owners with leases include private individuals, but also churches, golf courses, businesses and community associations. The Greenfield Township Sewer Authority leased 7.3 acres; the Fleetville Volunteer Fire Company leased 65 acres in Benton.

The Newton Lake Association and the Associates at Chapman Lake, two community associations that own their namesake lakes and the area around them, both signed leases.

Religious organizations have also signed leases, including the Harmony Heart church camp in Scott, a 59-acre parcel in Scott owned by Parker Hill Community Church, the Evangelical Free Bible Church in North Abington Twp., and Community Bible Church in Greenfield.

Three national energy companies, Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Appalachia, Texas-based Exco Resources, and Texas-based Southwestern Energy, hold nearly all of the leases.

The amount of Lackawanna County land leased for gas development surprised even people who have followed the subject closely for years.

Lee Jamison, a leader of the multi-municipal Abington Council of Governments, which has hosted educational events and speakers regarding Marcellus Shale drilling since 2008, did not know the extent of the leasing or its reach to areas outside of the rural northwest of the county.

He said despite educational events and active gas drilling in nearby communities, Lackawanna County municipalities have to do more to follow changing legislation and precedent-setting court cases to prepare for the coming development.

“I still think there’s quite a lack of preparedness on the part of the local municipal officials,” he said. “Often times you get conflicting reports and confusing stories.”

Mr. Jamison, who recently lost in the Republican primary race for state representative in the 114th House District, made Marcellus Shale a central part of his platform.

“Over 90 percent of the people I’ve spoken to are in favor of developing the Marcellus resource,” he said, “but they want it done correctly. With that caveat.”

Mary Felley, the open space coordinator for the Countryside Conservancy and a representative of Dalton in the Scranton-Abingtons Planning Association, said residents and municipal officials are “aware that it’s coming but not quite here.”

“I come to my local borough meetings, and people ask what can we do as a borough to regulate this, and we don’t know,” she said.

Because of unsettled case law regarding what role municipalities can take in regulated drilling, “we’re not getting a whole lot of clear guidance on what we can and cannot do here,” she said. “That’s kind of scary.”

There has also been a dearth of local training specifically targeting municipal officials on preparing for gas development. Even if there were such meetings, “my concern is people may not attend those until there’s a lot more activity in the county,” she said.

“This is the way we’ve evolved apparently: you respond to urgent threats you can see. You don’t respond to slow, impending threats that are over the hill somewhere.”

Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com

View article here.

Copyright: The Scranton Times

College in Williamsport preparing workers

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

WILLIAMSPORT – Like many of his classmates, Mike Harris already has a job in electricity-generation lined up for when he graduates this spring.

The only problem is it will require the Dalton native to relocate to Illinois.

Soon enough, though, future students in these same welding classes at Pennsylvania College of Technology could be in a curriculum that funnels them into local jobs with natural gas drillers working in the Marcellus Shale region.

The Marcellus Shale Education & Training Center at the college is in its early infancy, only envisioned late last year and opened earlier this year, but plans are for it to expand quickly.

A collaboration with the Penn State Cooperative Extension, the center will identify the industry’s work force needs and respond with education tracks that train people for those jobs, said Jeffrey Lorson, an industrial technology specialist at the college who’s running the training center.

“With the escalation and the things with the Marcellus, there was clearly a need in the work force,” he said. “We knew we had a tremendous fit to support the industry.”

The jobs are certainly here, Harris said, and there aren’t enough local workers. “They can’t find anybody,” he said about drillers.

Lorson’s family has a motel in Bainbridge, N.Y., near Binghamton, and the place is constantly packed. “There’s guys coming from all over the place” to work for the drilling companies, he said.

He felt Penn College graduates would be “competitive” for jobs in the industry, which could feed off the college for workers in fields from welding to heavy machinery operation.

“The center has the potential to provide very meaningful training options for local residents,” said Stephen Rhoads, the president of the Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Association. Certain skills, such as building and maintaining infrastructure and inspecting gauges and other moveable parts, “are all skills that could very easily find a home up in Northeastern Pennsylvania,” he said.

“If the industry grows as we expect it to, there will be long-term career opportunities.”

While he plans to enjoy traveling while starting his career, Harris said he’s looking ahead to hometown job security.

“I feel very confident, and I’d love to stay in Northeastern Pennsylvania, but right now as things are starting to take off, I think it’s easier for me to leave and get some experience,” he said.

The center could also help students outline career paths, an idea Harris has already considered. He’s planning to become certified in visual inspections.

“It keeps me out in the field, but it’s managerial,” he said. “You’re in the middle, which is pretty much where I wouldn’t mind being.”

See more photos of the Pennsylvania College of Technology Marcellus Shale Education & Training Center at www.timesleader.com.

Copyright: Times Leader