Democrat File Photo HIGHLAND SUPERVISOR TINA Palacek has come to be very knowing of the natural gas drilling process, which has become daily chatter, especially to the residents in the Town of Highland.

Highland is making history with gas drilling in New York

By Dan Hust
Editor’s Note: The following Q&A represents the fifth in a periodic series focusing on the organizations that have rallied to promote, oppose, learn about, negotiate with, and regulate the locally burgeoning natural gas industry.
Save for a brief introduction, the format for each article will be question-and-answer, allowing these groups to speak for themselves.
If you have a recommendation for a group we should interview, feel free to contact Editor Frank Rizzo or Senior Staff Writer Dan Hust at 845-887-5200 or editor@ sc-democrat.com.

ELDRED — Last year, Tina Palecek had no idea she would need to become an expert on natural gas drilling.
She was mounting a campaign to convince voters she could lead her home Town of Highland as its supervisor, despite the fact that she had never held public office before. So she took to the books and the streets, finding out what concerned Highland’s citizenry and how to effectively respond.
Her efforts won voters’ approval, but after taking office this past January, it didn’t take long for the brand new supervisor to discover that the biggest issue of all might not be taxes or services.
Suddenly, natural gas drilling was knocking at Highland’s door, and she was expected to answer it.
She could have run from yet another gigantic challenge, delegating it to someone else while she learned the ropes of municipal leadership (and earned her bachelor’s in organizational management, with a minor in accounting and a concentration in business administration).
Instead, the Marine rolled up her sleeves and dived into the emerging controversy.
And she didn’t just talk about it. She engaged other supervisors, town residents, county officials and advocacy groups in her quest for more knowledge.
She encouraged her board to unanimously approve a first-in-the-state moratorium on gas drilling for six months.
She appointed a task force expressly designed to make sense out of the important information so often obscured by passionate voices.
She bugged New York City about the potential for gas drilling in its watershed – even though that watershed is far outside her township’s boundaries.
She even got Cabot Oil and Gas – the drilling and exploration company that has already leased around 2,000 acres in Highland – to pay a visit to the town hall.
In the process, Tina Palecek became one of the area’s most knowledgeable and visible public officials occupied with this growing industry.
It’s a role she never expected to fill, but one she feels committed to carrying out – even at a salary of $15,000 a year.
Here, in her own words, is how she views it:
Q: How did you discover that gas drilling companies were interested in the Town of Highland?
A: Someone [a resident] came and spoke at a board meeting, probably in the springtime ... and we acted as quickly as we possibly could.
... And then we had [Sullivan County Commissioner of Planning] Dr. [William] Pammer come down from the county, and we immediately started taking action on what we wanted to do.
Q: What prompted you to take these reports seriously, since there’s been talk of gas drilling for more than three decades in the area?
A: We had people from the Damascus [Citizens for Sustainability] group come, and they started saying things, and there were definitely some citizens who were very concerned. We were told they [gas companies] were looking at some of our bigger landowners, [like] the Eldred Preserve.
And people who lived nearby expressed concern. There were some families with schoolchildren, and they heard some horror stories. ... And we said, “OK, let’s get all the information we can right away, and we’re going to take this very seriously and see if there is any reason to be concerned, or if this is going to be a golden opportunity, as some of the people who were approached by the landmen had been told.”
Q: And the purpose of a moratorium?
A: Was to challenge laws that were about 19 years old, if I’m not mistaken, because they didn’t have the technology that they have now. The horizontal drilling wasn’t as honed as it is now or even in existence. Depending on who I talk to, some people say they didn’t have horizontal drilling at the time, some people say they did, but it wasn’t in this area.
And we were just very concerned that the laws that were established by the DEC so many years ago – it’s like 19, 20 years ago – were no longer applicable to what we know now.
So with Bill Pammer’s advice ... we thought we were in a position that we should try to challenge the whole Section 23 [environmental law] and say that we wanted to be able to be more prepared and think about our community as a whole.
... Bill thought that because they [the laws pertaining to gas drilling] were so old that we would be able to challenge it on the basis of planning and development to make sure that if the drilling was coming into our community, that we could be prepared.
That was really the whole idea – to make sure that we had all of our ducks in a row and we knew what we were supposed to be doing and we looked at everything: health and safety, social issues, environmental issues, infrastructure, the whole thing.
Q: Were you trying to take a stance against gas drilling?
A: We were challenging the establishment of the laws that say you have no control over anything.
... We’re not trying to say people can’t have a lease. That’s their property, that’s their rights. We would never try to do that.
We’re not trying to give anybody legal advice, but we have to make sure that we’re getting the whole story. And when you talk to all the different groups, you find out that this one says this thing, and then you have “doom and gloom” over here, and the “boom and bust” over here, and then we have “flowers and hummingbirds” on this side, and “this is going to be a golden opportunity” on this side.
Q: Has the moratorium been legally challenged?
A: No. And other people are doing moratoriums.
Q: And after three months in force, has it worked?
A: Yes. I think it’s been a benefit. Because we put our necks out there by doing it ... people actually took a pause, and that is the main thing that we’ve accomplished. It’s just made people say, “Hang on. Why is this town willing to say, ‘We challenge this’?” ... It’s made other people say, “There must be something going on here. We’re not going to just blindly follow the leader.”
... It’s made us actually more recognizable, to get people to listen to us.
... It’s just given us the opportunity to gather more information and to figure out what is good and what might not be that good.
Q: Have residents rallied around the idea?
A: We saw it as an opportunity to protect everybody: the neighbor to someone who has a lease, the person who has the lease, and all of our children and generations to come.
And on that, everybody’s unified – on that idea that we just want to be safe and we want to make it good. We want it to be positive for the town.
We don’t want it to be, down the road, where someone goes “uh-oh” ‘cause it’s too late.
... You just don’t want an “uh-oh.”
Q: What else are you doing in response to gas drilling?
A: I have a task force that we’ve put together, and we have our superintendent of highways, we have a councilman, we have a representative from the Yulan Fire Department, the Highland Lake Fire Department, the ambulance corps, environmentalists, we’ve got a young mom, some citizens who are good in public relations – we’ve got definitely an across-the-board group together.
... We’re getting together and meeting to discuss, “What can we do, what are areas we want to do?”
We want to look at getting [out] a newsletter [with information on drilling, water testing and leasing].
... We’ve been actively trying to get our website into the 21st century.
We’re just trying to get educational material [out] that people may or may not want, and then let them make the choice.
... The task force is an amazing group. I am so impressed with them, because they ask really good questions. ... They talk about “do we need hazmat suits, do we need foam, will we get training, what’s the difference between this kind of an emergency scenario and what we face, how will we get access to it, if there’s a fire who’s going to notify us, what are the steps and procedures?” And the industry’s been really good about getting information back to them.
... Now, we have an idea of what direction we want to go to – writing letters to the DEC, the governor and the legislators and saying, “These are the issues that we see, [and] these are possible or potential solutions that we think would work.”
Q: And the task force has met with Cabot officials?
A: Yes. That was on September 10.
I just called them, and actually I had them flying up here before the county had them secured for their meetings.
... But they didn’t want anybody [from the public] at the meeting. They were very protective.
Q: What was your impression of Cabot’s representatives?
A: They represent their company very well, and they’re very well-educated. They don’t fly you from West Virginia up to New York if you’re not a good representative of the company.
... They answered all of our questions. They didn’t dodge a question. They were very forthright. I really enjoyed their company.
I told them right in the meeting I’m not convinced. ... And they are going to take us out to see drill sites.
Q: What were you not convinced about?
A: The open [wastewater] pits – that’s a big, big concern for a lot of us – the fracking fluid, how long the open pits are there, what’s in them, and what they use. What’s the fracking fluid composed of?
... They said there were no health issues, they said that there was nothing in the fracking fluid that would make anybody nervous, and they did say ... that their one engineer had said that they would let us know what’s in the fracking fluid, that they have every intention of letting New York State know.
But we don’t have that in writing, so again, I’m not convinced.
... I feel better. I feel more comfortable with what’s going on, but I still don’t have all the answers.
... I want to know, “What are they not telling me?” So the jury’s out. We haven’t come to a conclusion yet.
That’ll be what we discuss at the next meeting: what is everybody’s interpretations, how do we feel about this, has this raised new questions, who has it answered questions for?
Q: You own 22 acres in Eldred. Have you been approached with a drilling lease?
A: No.
Q: Are you interested in leasing?
A: No. ... I like being able to go outside at night and it’s very quiet. I’m nervous about the noise that’s going to come.
Financially for people, I think that this is a wonderful windfall for them, but I’m just afraid that, ten years from now, someone’s going to say, “We hate to tell you but the water that you’ve been drinking has been contaminated,” or something else has happened.
Q: So does all this leasing activity in Highland worry you?
A: Townwise, I’m not worried about that.
... After talking with Cabot, I feel pretty good about them working with our road department and keeping the roads [in shape].
... We’re so far ahead of the curve on this because they said they’re not going to break dirt in Highland until late 2009.
... I worry that people signed leases and they’re going to regret it, because they were railroaded into something ... that they were tricked and coerced.
Q: Have you spoken with some of the individuals and organizations that have signed leases?
A: Yes. They seem very happy. They’ve researched it, they had attorneys and they feel pretty good about it. I’m hoping that in the long run they still feel that good.
... I want them to get a really good lease. I want them to be protected. I want them to be proud of it and not sit at meetings ... with their lease [upset about the terms].
Q: What about concerns that this will industrialize the area and depress real estate values?
A: I did talk to one of the prominent Realtors in the town, and he’s a lifelong resident. He said he’s getting calls from people who say, “Is that tract of land open, and do you know if it has gas?” And they also see an influx of industry people that are going to be here.
Some people anticipate that we’re going to see an economic boom in the town.
... There’s a lot of ifs. ... I don’t know. Is it going to be that people are afraid to come up here because we’re going to be a gas town?
Q: What happens when the moratorium runs out?
A: We’ll present everything we’ve done, and we’ll see if the board believes that we need more time. Do we need to do another moratorium? Do we want to just go forward without it?
I don’t know what’s going to be changing. The DEC and the governor are now taking more proactive approaches to this.
... We want to make sure that people are given all the information they can, so that they have the life that they want here.
... We don’t want them to have an “oops” moment.
Q: Are you optimistic about the outcome?
A: If we do this right right now, if we set the groundwork, if we are diligent in making sure that we look underneath every rock to make sure that there isn’t some sneaky or misinformed data that’s there that could cause harm down the road, then I think we’re going to be OK.
... That’s really everything that everybody wants: down the road, our generations are OK, everybody’s healthy, and we don’t have anybody with regrets.
Highland’s gas drilling task force will next meet on Wednesday, October 15 at 7 p.m. at the town hall in Eldred. The public is invited to attend. For more information, Palecek welcomes calls at 557-8901.