Water withdrawal site for Marcellus shale drilling is proposed for Terry Twp.

BY JAMES LOEWENSTEIN (STAFF WRITER)
Published: February 16, 2010

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Talisman Energy USA is proposing to construct a site near Wyalusing where up to eight tanker trucks at a time would be filled with water from the Susquehanna River for hydraulic fracturing to develop natural gas wells.

The site would have eight hydrants, said Robert Furman, the project designer for Larson Design Group in Williamsport.

The site would be located on the Charles Welles property in Terry Township, near the western end of the Rainbow Bridge, said Ray Stolinas, Bradford County planning director. The bridge carries state Route 2010 over the Susquehanna River.

Trucks would access the site from state Route 187, near its intersection with Route 2010, Furman said.

The site would consist of a crushed stone access pad that would be approximately one acre in size, he said.

The intake pipe that would be installed to draw water from the Susquehanna River would be 20 inches in diameter at its river end, and a pump would be located in the pipe, he said.

The intake pipe would have a screen that would prevent fish and other aquatic life from being sucked up into the pipe, he said.

The rate at which water would enter the pipe at its river end would be no more than a half-foot per second, which would protect the aquatic life, he said.

Furman said he did not know the frequency with which trucks would be accessing the site.

The site is not intended to be permanent, but would only be used as long as gas wells were being drilled in the area, he said.

After sites like this are no longer needed, they can be "mitigated" so that the site is turned into a field again, he said.

That would involve removing the crushed stone, adding topsoil, and re-seeding with vegetation, he said.

Talisman Energy will need to obtain a number of permits in order to construct the site, including a permit from the Department of Environmental Protection, a water withdrawal permit from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, and a highway occupancy permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Furman said.

In accordance with state regulations, the Bradford County Planning Commission has been asked to inform the DEP whether the project is "consistent" with the county's comprehensive plan.

Talisman Energy USA was formerly known as Fortuna Energy Inc.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.

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15 posted comments

They obviously need it as there were about 30 trucks waiting around for the Wysox Leisure Drive hydrants this week. But it sure won't be nice for the Terry Township and Wyalusing travelers to have to interact with all the truck traffic. Good Luck!
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Water Watcher,  02/20/10 6:45
OK, so now the bridge is already damaged and we didn't even start the water withdrawal hydrant project yet. I can't wait until we find out that we need a new bridge and they need to close the old one before a new one is built so that we can spend our day riding around to Laceyville or Asylum to get to the other side of the river. One bridge damage event, how much more to follow?
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Terry Township dude,  02/20/10 4:47
So with each successive well drilled the water gets dirtier and dirtier. The last guy that gets that water shoved down his well is certainly getting a treat! After a while it gets too dirty to use, and it has to be treated. That's what that plant proposed for Wysox at the Agway site is all about. Reusing the water does not make the risk to our water wells go away.
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Not wild about frac,  02/20/10 4:41
Chesapeake has figured out how to deal with the waste water that flowsback...they simply reuse it on the next frac job. They are doing this already on frac jobs in terry twp.
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manny,  02/18/10 9:55
How many decades before the site can be mitigated? I expect we will not live to see it happen. Mitigation plans are not the issue, how much traffic there will be at the intersections and on the roads is, as well as issue of where to put the dirty flowback water from the wells. If 40% of the water flows back, that is a lot of dirty water to dispose of. We are all on private wells and have very little protection in all of this. Being able to get a job so I can buy bottled water to drink is not my idea of progress.
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Gas is no gift horse,  02/18/10 4:17
By reading everyone's comments to this article, one would think the world is coming to an end because of this! Get over it people! How many years have people said there are no jobs in the area...how many farms have you seen rot into the ground because people couldn't make ends meet! Remember the meth crisis a few years ago, a big reason for its popularity was because people saw no future in this area so they turned to drugs...what did they have to lose. Haven't heard much about meth recently, have you? That's because people see a future around here and because of our excellent law force.

And Mr. Planner, what do you mean by consistent?? I think its better than putting a strip club on the corner, don't you? last I heard terry twp didn't have zoning.

And Traffic light- don't you worry, PenDOT has already decided to put a light at 2010 and rt 6.

I'm tired of all the naysayers...Have you ever heard, don't look a gift horse in the mouth?

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tired of the negativity,  02/17/10 9:19
What's the status on the traffic light study that CHK was supposed to be sponsoring for the intersection of Masonite/Craftmaster Road and Route 6 because of the withdrawal station on Leisure Drive? There aren't 8 hydrants there, and traffic is sometimes quite steady. We'll probably need Talisman to get us a light at the intersection with route 6, and another one at the intersection of 187 and 2010. These are already bad intersections.
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Traffic Lights may be needed,  02/17/10 4:49
We'd like to know how the Bradford County Planning Commission responds relative to the question of whether the withdrawal project is "consistent" with the county's comprehensive plan.
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Interested in Planning's input,  02/17/10 4:45
Sure would have been nice to have a water recycling plant for this process!! Instead they just keep getting fresh water and then disposing of it.
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BC resident,  02/16/10 3:32
The whole water issue is just incomprehensible to me. I may just be a fool, but my panic buttons have been hit. Of all the water on our planet, very little is freshwater, and what is, is either locked in ice caps, below ground, or polluted. I just can't digest the fact that millions upon millions of gallons of water are going to be taken from the natural water cycle and contaminated. I guess its just numbers, like gov't spending, and they mean nothing. Or, perhaps they'll just finish the job, after all, the Susquehanna has been in the top ten most polluted rivers in the US for some time.
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NOT Desensitized,  02/16/10 12:03
GET OVER IT ALREADY. This is bring jobs that have been needed to this area for over 100 years!
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Sam,  02/16/10 10:21
I hope they have some time on their hands!!! That project will take well over 6 months to get the permits!!!
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D,  02/16/10 9:33
I don't have a problem with the water being pumped from the river. But has anyone gave it a thought about the trucks pulling in and out so close to the intersection on RT187 and SR2010 SAFTEY is a big problem I see about this area.
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concerned resident of Terry Township,  02/16/10 7:06
Let's see, the designer for the withdrawal site doesn't know the frequency of access to the site? Come on, he just doesn't want to say. 8 tanker trucks at a time is a lot. You wouldn't build a design with 8 hydrants without knowing the expected traffic and the required maximum daily withdrawal. Plans for many individual gas wells are now calling for 7.5 million gallons of water per day for fracking as opposed to the 5 million gallons that used to be requested. I feel sorry for the kids at the high school and the new elementary school just begun. We used to have a nice quiet rural site for studying, now all the kids will be exposed to heavy diesel traffic and fumes.

What is sad about the DEP process for requesting input on well pads, water withdrawal sites, and other items is that while they ask whether the project is consistent with the county's and township's comprehensive plans, they ignore all such input back unless your township also has zoning in addition to comprehensive plans. Since most rural townships don't have zoning, this means that in reality the township and county input is worth zero. The DEP clarified this land use work process on 8/19/09 in writing and if you look on the internet you can find it for yourself.

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Terry Township Landowner,  02/16/10 5:52
could mean alot of traffic around a school with all the trucks.
kids driving,school buses,and now water truck traffic could be a bad location.
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worried,  02/16/10 5:49