Firm could drill under EC reservoir
EVANS CITY — Bill Painter, borough council president, is not concerned about the safety of the borough’s water supply in the event that an energy company drills for Marcellus Shale gas underneath Evans City’s reservoir.
That drilling would take place if officials OK a contract with Rex Energy, an energy company based in State College that wants to lease more than 100 acres of borough-owned property near the reservoir.
Several members of borough council met with Rex Energy officials last week to continue discussions surrounding the plan. Painter said it will take several more months before any agreement is finalized.
While the drilling would take place under the borough’s reservoir, Painter said residents shouldn’t be afraid that “fracking” could contaminate the reservoir.
The fracking process involves the injection of water, sand and chemicals, like hydrochloric acid, into underground rock formations to open existing fractures in the rock. The process allows the gas to rise through wells drilled on the surface.
The company would drill more than a mile in to the ground, which is well below the borough’s reservoir.
The borough has an open water reservoir, Painter said, and not an aquifer system that draws water from deeper in the ground. Since the reservoir’s water is mainly on the surface, Painter said the main concern would be a truck spill or another surface-based chemical accident that could reach the reservoir.
“It’s somewhat of a concern but we’d make sure all our safety procedures would be followed and that the water would be safe,” he said. “Contamination isn’t as much of a concern since the borough has an open water reservoir.”
There wouldn’t be wells on borough property either, Painter said.
Rex Energy would use slant drilling, a process where wells are drilled at an angle as opposed to straight down into the ground. Because of that, the wells would be on land in Jackson Township but would drill for gas under land in Evans City.
Since no agreement has been finalized, council Vice President Paul Foster said he’s not sure how much money the borough would get for leasing its land.
Foster also agreed with Painter and said that any contamination concerns would likely come from above-ground accidents. Regardless, he said, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection would investigate the plan before giving Rex Energy the go-ahead to drill near the reservoir.
“The DEP will look at that pretty closely,” Foster said “The biggest problem is, we have more of a risk from the above-ground activity than the underground activities. There’s more of a concern with trucks with wastewater turning over or breaking open or a blowout at the well head. That stuff poses more of a risk than anything underground.”
