HONESDALE – Another 500 people turned out, this time in Wayne County, to get the details on what natural gas leasing entails, and to voice some significant concerns.  The session in Honesdale, sponsored by the Upper Delaware Council and National Park Service, comes a month after another gathering, of more than a thousand, in Tunkhannock.

Natural gas prospecting is rapidly spreading from western Pennsylvania, to the northeast corner of the state, and across the Delaware river to the western Catskills in New York.  One well reportedly is being drilled, already, in Wayne County.  There were 14 permits issued last year in neighboring Susquehanna County, compared to just one permit in 2006.

“Most land uses can support a certain amoung of oil and gas activity”, said NPS petroleum engineer Patrick O’Dell, from Colorado.

Attorney Harry Weiss, of Philadelphia, representing the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance, said the gas companies are actively looking to expand by signing leases with as many willing property owners as they can find.

“There is potential, if things are done right”, Weiss said.  He urged partnerships among property owners.  “A large group effort to make the gas companies follow all rules and regulations, and then some”, is the best way to do that.

Weiss: "Potential, if things are done right"

There are concerns with the Delaware River, itself.  The word from several, including the National Park Service, is they have little authority over what happens, other than actually on or in the river.  That could mean gas wells practically on the banks of the Delaware.  Wes Gillingham, program director for Catskill Mountainkeeper, said there is little, now, that would stop gas wells from being drilled practically on the banks of the river.  He adds there is little that restricts potentially devastating mining practices, anywhere the wells go. 

Gillingham agreed that if wells are to be a part of the scene, the concern is to make sure it is done in the least invasive way.

 “They’re not going to do it if don’t make them do it that way”, Gillingham said. 

Many of the people attending the more than two-hour session wanted little to do with unchecked natural gas extraction.  Among the concerns voiced during a question and answer session were what happens if one property owner is harmed by drilling on a neighbor’s property, what kind of chemicals are used in the extraction process and what recourses do anyone have, if there is damage by drilling companies.

One well is already being drilled in Wayne County, just across the Delaware From Sullivan County.  Several people on both sides of the river have been approached by drilling companies.