natural gas – Page 2 – Jay's Real Estate Blog

>Garrett County is Against Fracking

>Thanks to Crede Calhoun for sharing this letter with me. It was published in the Baltimore Sun. I couldn’t agree more – the fracking method with which ‘they’ intend to release the gas is HORRIBLE for the enviroment & Garrett County as a whole. Why not stick with the proven gas extraction methods that are safer for the environment? Oh…it’s more expensive and takes longer….

————–

I am the owner of Garrett County’s oldest land and water adventure company. Our eco tourism business will be a joke if everywhere we turn are trucks, smells, bad water, gas wells, compressor stations, and gas pipelines crisscrossing our forested mountains. My wife and I own a home in Garrett County and have lived in this home on the banks of the Youghiogheny River Wild and Scenic River Corridor for almost 20 years. One of the first fracking wells is scheduled to begin just outside of our small town and the first horizontal gas fracking shaft is coming within 500 feet of my front door and just across our beautiful wild and scenic river. Contrary to what seems to be the message conveyed by some who claim to represent us there is massive opposition on the local level to unbridled industrialized gas drilling.

Obviously our valuable fresh water resources, the quality of life in our area for residents, and our tourism and real estate values are in serious danger with this non-conventional and risky drilling practice. Everywhere gas fracking has happened land and real estate values have plummeted. Tourism does NOT and CANNOT exist in gas fracking areas and our entire county is a tourism area. Our area is a jewel of clean natural resources whose value will only increase as nearby states destroy their claims to natural beauty, peace and quiet by allowing destructive gas fracking.

People come to our area because of the environment and potentially unsafe and unsightly large scale industrial gas extraction is obviously not compatible with the health of our vibrant tourism economy. People and families come to our area to escape these intrusions not be subjected to them. Visitors will surely be disenchanted in making Garrett County their vacation destination or in choosing Garrett County for a real estate investment or personal retreat.

These very deep wells under enormous pressure must stay intact FOREVER and this I believe is beyond the knowledge, technical abilities and guarantees of the extraction companies at this time. Look what happened in the gulf oil disaster. The massive increase in truck traffic to haul the fracking water and toxic radioactive fracking overflow fluids will be dangerous to transport and dispose of. In nearby Pennsylvania serious environmental problems from gas fracking seem to happen daily. Once our area becomes known for methane smells, industrial compressor stations, loud noise, well flare offs, bad roads, deteriorating poisonous water quality and massive truck traffic the word will get out and Garrett County and its lakes, rivers and mountains will no longer be the wonderful ‘natural’ vacation destination or quality of life it is today. It will be Gas Land.

The Deep Creek Lake property values and the home and rural land values of our entire county are at serious risk. My town is important for river recreation. We enjoy decent land values in all corners of Garrett County and non of it is expendable including the health of its families. We cannot afford to murder the goose (our environment) that lays our golden eggs. The gas is not going anywhere and there is no hurry to get it started before all the EPA and MDE studies are complete and we have every safeguard measure and numerous inspectors in place. Further more recent revelations by LNG Gas Company that much of this shale gas is to be exported shoots down the spin that this is an issue of national energy security or to lessen coal burning for power production.

In addition we need massive region wide baseline water quality testing done to insure that if the gas companies destroy these resources we can hold them responsible immediately and stop further drilling as well as be compensated for these potentially irreversible damages without question. Supporters of gas fracking want us to believe that this is an emergency and want to begin drilling now. They want to scare local folks into believing that we have to act fast or lose the opportunity. This of course is false because the gas will only get more valuable as time progresses.

Without good water what good is a few thousand dollars a year? Is setting off giant subterranean bombs thousands of feet down and below our water table the sensible thing to do? I urge all Maryland residents to stand for a greener Maryland and not a browner one. Our children are counting on us.

Sincerely,

Crede Haskins Calhoun II
All Earth Eco Tours
Friendsville, MD 21531

————–

If you or someone you know is considering buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.

877-563-5350 Questions about ANY listed property? I can help! Call me!

Visit the ‘I Love Deep Creek & Garrett County group’ on Facebook! News, events, photos, real estate, community, info, more! 1,750+ members & growing!

>Gas rush hits Maryland, minus the rigs

>Washington (Platts)–16Mar2011/506 pm EDT/2106 GMT

While some meetings on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale have drawn raucous crowds and occasionally celebrities over the past 12 months, a Tuesday session held by the University of Maryland Extension Service attracted an audience of farmers and retired coal miners more interested in protecting their land and water through lease restrictions and capitalizing on mineral wealth they never expected.

While documentarian Josh Fox, director of the Academy Award-nominated film “Gasland” appeared in Western Maryland in February at a separate event, Tuesday’s extension educators talked with a more prosaic crowd of over 100 at the Pleasant Valley Community Center south of the town of Oakland in Garrett County, Maryland.

With a third of the crowd wearing the beards and bonnets that marked them as Amish, the atmosphere was entirely different from earlier presentations on gas leases and shale drilling on small college campuses and theaters in Maryland’s two westernmost counties, University of Maryland Extension educator Mikal Zimmerman said.

Read the full article here.

877-563-5350 Questions about ANY listed property? I can help! Call me!

Visit the ‘I Love Deep Creek & Garrett County group’ on Facebook! News, events, photos, real estate, community, info, more! 1,750+ members & growing!

>Mountain Lake Park passes ordinance banning natural gas drilling in town

>Mayor says town’s duty to ‘take action’ when other levels of government are not
From Staff Reports
The Cumberland Times-News Sat Mar 05, 2011, 08:00 AM EST

MOUNTAIN LAKE PARK — Residents of this small Western Maryland town are telling natural gas drilling companies to stay away, in no uncertain terms.

Town leaders approved an ordinance Thursday night that effectively bans the creation of new gas wells, a response to the gas industry’s increased interest in developing wells in the Allegany and Garrett County portions of the Marcellus shale reserve.

The ordinance, which had a first reading in January and public hearing in February, was unanimously approved.

“Our town government is responsible for the health, safety and rights of our citizens,” Mayor Leo Martin said in a press release. “When the county, state and federal governments fail in their duties it is our duty to take action.”

Called Mountain Lake Park’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance, the law was modeled after a similar ordinance adopted by the city of Pittsburgh in November.

Martin encouraged other Maryland municipalities to take a similar stand.

“If Pittsburgh can do it, we can do it,” Martin said in a press release.

But can Garrett County?

At a January public hearing that drew an estimated 300 people, Garrett County’s attorney Gorman Getty said that legally, the county doesn’t have the authority to ban drilling because it doesn’t have a comprehensive zoning ordinance.

The Marcellus shale issue has spurred controversy across the region as residents are weighing its benefits and costs.

While tapping into the vast natural gas resource could bring economic growth to the area and wealth to private landowners, concerns have been raised about whether the processes used are safe in terms of the environment and public health.

About 150 residents gathered at the Palace Theatre in Frostburg Thursday night for a panel discussion, which pitted gas industry representative Gregory Wrightstone against filmmaker and gas industry critic Josh Fox. A majority of audience members appeared to be against drilling in Allegany and Garrett counties.

Mountain Lake Park’s ordinance includes a local Bill of Rights that asserts legal protections for the “right to water, the rights of natural communities and ecosystems, the right to local self-government, and the right of the people to enforce and protect these rights by banning corporate activities that would violate them.”

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, headquartered in Chambersburg, Pa., drafted the ordinance.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Deep Creek Do It All specializes in cleaning services in Garrett County & @ Deep Creek Lake. Give them a call (301-501-0217) or visit the website – competitive rates and quality results from a locally owned & operated company!

>Two-year delay proposed in shale gas drilling

>Officials want more time to study risks in Western Maryland
By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun

8:48 p.m. EST, February 23, 2011

O’Malley administration officials told state lawmakers Wednesday that they need up to two years more to study the risks of drilling for natural gas in Marcellus shale deposits in Western Maryland before deciding whether to let the controversial practice go forward.

Testifying before the House Environmental Matters Committee, Robert M. Summers, Maryland’s acting secretary of the environment, said he and other administration officials plan a comprehensive evaluation of the potential health and environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing, the technique used to extract gas from shale layers far underground.

“We want to make sure we thoroughly understand what we’re doing, what the consequences would be, before we proceed,” Summers said. He and John R. Griffin, Maryland’s secretary of natural resources, spoke in favor of a bill that would impose a temporary moratorium on drilling until adequate safeguards are in place to prevent contamination of drinking-water wells, pollution of mountain streams and other problems.

Read the full article here.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

>U. of Md. Extension study values state's natural gas reserves at $5.9 billion to $49 billion

>CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) – A study of natural reserves in western Maryland puts the prospective lifetime value at $5.9 billion to $49.1 billion.

University of Maryland Extension workers who crunched the numbers said Friday that Garrett County has about twice the production potential of neighboring Allegany County.

The study was done to educate public officials and private citizens about untapped reserves of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, a mineral-rich geological formation that extends from New York to Virginia.

Read the full article here.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

>Natural Gas Extraction Debate Heats Up at the State House

>Posted February 9, 2011

By Kerry Davis
Capital News Service

ANNAPOLIS — A bill that would effectively impose a hold on natural gas drilling in Western Maryland until further studies are completed will be introduced Thursday in the House of Delegates.

It follows an opposing bill filed Friday that aims to force the Maryland Department of the Environment to approve or deny permits for a type of natural gas drilling known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in Garrett County.

Four applications for fracking permits were filed in October 2009 by Samson Energy, which is now concentrating on one potential drill site in Garrett County. Those were the first permits for natural gas hydraulic fracturing ever filed in the state.

The Maryland Department of the Environment has not granted or denied those applications, citing potential environmental effects.

Read the full article here.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

>Maryland county caught up in fight over energy extraction method

> Todd Owen of Sandusky, Mich., maintains a natural gas drilling rig for Range Resources in 2008 on farmland in Amwell, Pa., just southwest of Pittsburgh. Heavy industry has invaded the countryside because of drilling opportunities for the Marcellus Shale to extract natural gas. (Jahi Chikwendiu)

By Darryl Fears
Monday, February 7, 2011

In their sliver of western Maryland, Garrett County residents like to boast of night skies so clear that you can see satellites lumber across the heavens, a picturesque deep creek that is the state’s largest inland body of water, and adventure tourism that Indiana Jones types love.

But land speculators who showed up in the county in 2008 with offers to lease farm acres had other interests. Their eyes were set on a valuable resource deep underground: natural gas deposits buried in thick layers of Marcellus Shale, a black, organic-rich shale found under the Appalachian region.

And just like that, Garrett County, population 29,000, became fully engaged in the nation’s debate over hydraulic drilling for natural gas and its risk of contaminating drinking water, joining another Washington-area local government, Rockingham County, Va.

The American Petroleum Institute maintains that hydraulic drilling is safe, “a tried-and-true technology that promises thousands of new jobs and vast and indispensable supplies of clean-burning energy,” said Carlton Carroll, a spokesman.

Read the full article here.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Risk of shale gas drilling is miniscule – Baltimore Sun

Just shortly before Christmas, the op-ed section of this fine newspaper was used to perpetuate a message of fear and to spread half-truths regarding a real opportunity for Maryland. Del. Heather Mizeur, our esteemed colleague from Montgomery County, implied, as her central thesis, that if Maryland does not follow New York’s lead and pass a “moratorium” on a certain technique for natural gas drilling in the state, then the Chesapeake Bay would likely be set ablaze.

Putting a moratorium on natural gas drilling for fear that some may eventually find its way into the Chesapeake Bay would be akin to eliminating Maryland’s burgeoning bio-tech industry as a way to prevent bio-terrorism.

The Marcellus Shale rests under our homes, our family’s homes, and the homes of our constituents. It is not present in any other part of Maryland and is only found in Garrett and Allegany counties. Natural gas has been drilled in Garrett County since the 1950s. Though hydraulic fracturing technology has not yet been used, other more traditional methods of natural gas extraction have, to our knowledge, not caused any environmental damage. Further exploration into the Marcellus Shale could have a positive impact on our local economy by providing much needed jobs and added revenue.

For example, many of our local farmers are beginning to find they can no longer make a living selling their crops. They are often left with two options. They could either sell their land to developers, or just “keep on keeping on” and hope for the best. Yet, with increased governmental regulations and interference, these desperate farmers may never see that brighter day for which they hope.

Read the full article here.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Western Maryland Could See Next Fracking Boom

Jay’s note: This is one of the scariest things on the horizon – get involved & let your voice be heard.

Date Published: Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, may be coming to Maryland’s Garrett and Allegany counties. The two counties, located in the mountainous western region of the state, set atop the gas-rich Marcellus shale.

Drilling in Marcellus shale is done via a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Fracking, which is now used in about 90 percent of US gas and oil wells, involves injecting water, sand, and a cocktail of chemicals at high pressure into rock formations thousands of feet below the surface. Because the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempted hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, shale gas drillers don’t have to disclose what chemicals they use. However, it is known that fracking fluids contain toxic chemicals like formaldehyde and benzene. As we’ve reported extensively, fracking has caused serious water contamination problems in several states.

According to the Maryland Geological Survey, in the past couple of years, Garrett and Allegany counties have seen the arrival of “land men,” an industry term for those who come to an area in advance of the actual drilling of test wells for natural gas. These land men typically contact land owners (and mineral rights owners) to arrange to lease the land on which to drill.

In both Garrett and Allegany, some resident have signed drilling leases, and in December 2009, Samson Resources, a privately owned oil and gas company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma applied for four drilling permits. The firm is seeking to drill three wells in Garrett County and a fourth well in Allegany County. If those wells are successful, Samson Resources will drill several hundred wells on 70,000 acres in the area over the next ten years.

Read the rest here.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Dormant Mineral Act Passes House, Senate Chambers

Apr. 1, 2010

The Maryland Dormant Mineral Interests Act, introduced by Del. Wendell Beitzel and Sen. George Edwards, has cleared a key procedural hurdle this week that had prevented the bill’s passage in previous sessions.
The act, which adds Maryland to the list of states that have passed the Uniform Dormant Mineral Act, has unanimously passed both chambers.

The House measure was unanimously supported in 2009, but failed to even receive a hearing in the Senate.

“This is critically important legislation that must move forward for landowners in Garrett and Allegany counties,” Beitzel said.

Though it is a statewide bill, this legislation is important to both Garrett and Allegany counties, where there is evidence that a large amount of natural gas is located in the Marcellus shale, the delegate noted.

This year’s measure has even garnered the support of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, he added.

Read the rest of the article here.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Category: natural gas

>Garrett County is Against Fracking

>Gas rush hits Maryland, minus the rigs

>Mountain Lake Park passes ordinance banning natural gas drilling in town

>Two-year delay proposed in shale gas drilling

>U. of Md. Extension study values state's natural gas reserves at $5.9 billion to $49 billion

>Natural Gas Extraction Debate Heats Up at the State House

>Maryland county caught up in fight over energy extraction method

Risk of shale gas drilling is miniscule – Baltimore Sun

Western Maryland Could See Next Fracking Boom

Dormant Mineral Act Passes House, Senate Chambers

My Location

Deep Creek Media

Stay Connected