By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau
June 17, 2009 12:00 am Covalent Energy has been given three permits to drill for natural gas in Otsego County, according to Jonathan Kelafant, the Arlington, Va.-based firm's president. ``We received the permits at the start of the month, and we're evaluating what we will be doing this summer,'' he said Tuesday afternoon. The permits will allow the firm to explore for natural gas in layers of Utica shale, thousands of feet below ground. One permit, for vertical drilling near Crumhorn Mountain in the town of Maryland, has neighbors worried, according to Miriam Solloway, who lives at 416 Stonehouse Road. She said her property is situated within a mile of the well site, named Ross 1, and she's worried the drilling may contaminate her water well. ``I think we'll have to move,'' she said. The state Department of Environmental Conservation regulates gas drilling, making sure operations are safe, said DEC spokesman Yancy Roy on Tuesday. ``We have 13,000 wells operating in New York,'' he said. Still, there have been accidents, including a fire in the town of Lebanon and water roiled beyond repair in the town of Brookfield. News that drilling might be imminent inspired the Maryland Town Planning Board last week to recommend the town board adopt a moratorium on gas drilling, according to planning board member Robert Parmerter. ``We need some time to get ready for this,'' he said Tuesday. The town board meets at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Paul Mendelsohn of Cherry Valley, a member of the local environmental group Sustainable Otsego, said the whole area needs time to prepare. ``What do we have in place now to protect our water and roads?'' he said. If wells were contaminated by drilling operations, owners would have to show this was not a pre-existing condition to collect in a lawsuit, he said. For the same reason, roads would have to be evaluated before heavy traffic comes. The Ross 1 site is owned by Ronald Ross of Maryland, who was unavailable for comment Tuesday. His wife, Alberta Ross, declined to comment on the pending drilling operation. According to the DEC's website for gas drilling in Otsego County _ www.dec.ny.gov/cfmx/extapps/GasOil/search/wells/index.cfm _ Covalent's applications for five well sites saw action by the DEC this month, as the agency either issued a permit or took in an application. The other well sites are in Cherry Valley and Springfield. The gas rush that swept the area last year as property owners learned they were probably sitting on rich deposits of gas has slowed in recent months as the DEC rewrites its rules for horizontal drilling. But permits for traditional vertical wells, such as Covalent sought, continue to be issued, Roy said.
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