Gas drilling information offered

MARGARETVILLE, NY, Sept. 26, 2008 – Information on the potential for natural gas drilling in the Catskills is now available from the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC).

The CWC, as a public service, is offering a packet of basic information culled from various sources for landowners, municipal officials and Catskills residents interested in or concerned about the possibility for natural gas exploration in the Marcellus shale formation.

This geologic formation underlies a large portion of the Appalachian range, including the Catskill Region and the New York City Watershed. It is believed to hold substantial deposits of natural gas which have become accessible because of refined developments in extraction techniques.

The CWC Board of Directors, while not taking a position on whether drilling is good or bad for the area, felt that its role as a regional entity should be to disseminate accurate, balanced information from reliable sources on the subject, according to Executive Director Alan Rosa.

Towards that end, it has sent to village and town clerks in the Catskill-Delaware Watershed a packet of backgrounders, maps and illustrations on geology, drilling techniques and their impacts, leasing advice and tax issues. Information was taken from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the Delaware and Susquehanna River Basin Commissions (DRBC and SRBC), Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), NYS Attorney General’s (AG) Office, NYS Office of Real Property Tax Services, and other sources.

The packet is available to anyone upon request: Call toll-free 877-WAT-SHED (928-7433); or 845-586-1400.

The CWC has also added a page of pertinent Marcellus shale-related links to its website (www.cwconline.org). These links include the DEC, DRBC, CCE, New York Farm Bureau, NYS AG, and the Oil & Gas Accountability Project.

The CWC is a non-profit, local development corporation which runs several environmental protection, economic development and education programs benefitting residents, businesses and local governments in the five-county New York City Watershed West of the Hudson River.