"Be proactive", urged Colorado activist Peggy Utesch

LIBERTY – Thursday night, some 300 people showed up in Walton for a panel discussion on natural gas drilling.  Friday night, almost twice that many filled the Liberty High School auditorium. 

They heard a member of the Western Colorado Congress and Grand Valley Citizens’ Alliance respond to one of dozens of questions submitted by the audience.  This question was about whether the economic benefits of leasing natural gas drilling rights outweighs the negative impact.

 “Yes, there will be some people who will make a lot of money from this industry, but, look at the people and the ways that your community is negatively impacted, and make sure that you’ve done everything you can to mitigate those things, so that everybody is a winner.”

While in some parts of the country, property owners have made as much as $20,000 a month from the leases, Peggy Utesch had strong advice for anyone concerned about balancing the potential gains and impacts.

“Be proactive, educate yourself and your community”, she urged.

Utesch was one of five panelists, three of them from other states, who addressed issues ranging from the legal technicalities of leases to citizen activism. 

Sullivan County Commissioner of Planning and Environmental Management, William Pammer, noted that based on statistics and experiences elsewhere, the high volume of Class 1 and 2 roads in Western Sullivan County areas where drilling would occur, could factor into a huge impact on infrastructure costs.  Expect an “80 percent degradation” warned Pammer.

Catskill Mountainkeeper Program Director Wes Gillingham, who moderated the program, said the growing activism is in itself a positive.

“If there are people who are in the process of signing leases, that they’ve done their homework and they are getting certain clauses.  They are doing surface damage leases that’s a separate negotiation from the drilling lease, and they are signing much better leases than they were six months ago.”

People at least are becoming better educated, Gillingham said. 

Another panelist noted that while some property owners have done well, financially, with the leases, there is no guarantee a well will be productive, or will remain productive for an extended period. 

When at one point in the program, the audience was asked for a show of hands on how many had actually signed leases, only one hand went up.

Department of Environmental Conservation Regional Director William Janeway assumes the pressure will mount to change that number quickly.

“With the energy issues being what they are now, it is likely this issue will continue.  We are focusing on making sure that any extraction that does occur is done in compliance with all environmental conservation laws.”

Janeway noted this is not a new issue.  The first natural gas well was drilled in New York State more than a century ago.