A "Before and After" video

If anyone is wondering whether or not the issue of drilling for natural gas will affect any sacred sites in the Upper Delaware River area, this short video should answer that question.



Current legislation allows this well spacing. This is coming to Northeastern PA, the Southern Tier of NY, and into the Catskills, including the NY City watershed. The only area that I know of, right now, that will not be drilled is State PARK land, which includes state owned land in the Catskill Park. All other State land has the potential to be offered for lease once this process is complete.

From the DEC website (link here):

"The Department evaluated its oil and gas regulatory program through development of a Generic Environmental Impact Statement ("GEIS") which was finalized in 1992 and which sets parameters that are applicable statewide for SEQRA review of gas well permitting. This draft scope describes the topics related to well permit issuance for high-volume hydraulic fracturing that the Department has identified for review in a draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement ("dSGEIS"). Written and verbal comments from all interested parties will be considered in the preparation of a Final Scope, and then the dSGEIS will be released for additional public review and comment. The final SGEIS, to be prepared after consideration of comments received on the draft, will set additional parameters for SEQRA review. The Department will then issue well permits for gas well development using high-volume hydraulic fracturing in accordance with both the GEIS and the SGEIS."

If you are interested in reviewing the Draft Scope presented by the DEC, please visit the DEC website here and click on "Draft Scope". If you have any comments, please submit them by December 15, 2008 to:

Attn: Scope Comments, Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral Resources, 625 Broadway - Third Floor, Albany, NY 12233-6500

or email to: dmnog@gw.dec.state.ny.us with "Scope Comments" as the Subject

Found in Orange County, NY

I found this in a farmer's field near the black dirt region in Orange County, NY

A little site in Steam Mill SF

This is a little site I found just off the trail in Steam Mill State Forest. I'm unsure about the origin, whether these may be Native American, colonial, or a little of both, but I thought they were worth posting.

This particular section of trail, from the start, has several colonial foundations along the way. After ascending a short distance, it seemed as though I was away from the "homestead". I found this right along the trail:



I headed uphill (in the general direction of west), off the trail, and a short distance away was this pile:



Then this pile (a little blurry):



Somewhat perpendicular, but not an "L" shape, really making more like a "T", a line of piles heading, generally, south:



So, now following this line of piles, there was this pile, with the wood in it, making it look like this line is a colonial fence row (consistent with all of the foundations nearby):



Another pile in the row of piles:



But, then there was this, a small pile in the foreground, that was not in a row with anything...



...and these, rocks on a boulder, that were "in line with the north-south row":



Here is a video about 2 minutes long, starting at the boulder with rocks on it, then heading north, to show the row and the one pile that is not in any row.



Once I continued up the trail, I was a bit disappointed to find one more foundation, just past this small site:



So, I'm a little rusty from not being out in the woods much this summer, but I'm still suspicious that there is something more to this little spot than just a colonial farmer building a fence.

Pictures from along the Appalachian Trail

Click here for a link to a blog called "Traveling with Andrew and Jennifer". The third photo down is of a vertical faced cairn with the comment "We don't know what these were constructed for, but there were about 30 or more of them stretched out over a mile or so along a ridgeline."

Geology.com

Just one more link about Marcellus Shale is here at geology.com. I will also put a link on the right to their web page.

Gas drilling

Something very alarming is going on in upstate NY right now. Yes, it's the gas drilling issue. Companies are paying up to $2500 an acre to lease land for gas drilling. It is not just private land, but public, state land is also being leased.

Click here for the Trenton-Black River activity map by the DEC.

This is coming fast for land that is in the Marcellus Shale area, the area that I have been photographing for less than a year. Current well spacing limits are one per 40 acres. That does not include additional land that will be needed to run roads and pipelines to the wells.

Other areas in NY are currently being reviewed for variances to decreasing spacing between wells. Click here for the link to the DEC website section on the Whitesville Field which includes an additional link to the "map of the proposed Whitesville Field and potential spacing units".

So as not to continue to bore readers looking for information on Native American rock piles, I will include a link to the right of a simple website I found that has lots of links to different groups and news articles keeping track of the gas drilling issue. A link to that site can also be found here. For the next month or two, I will probably not do much blogging about rock piles, due to the amount of leaf cover and my attention being shifted to gas drilling.

Marcellus Shale

Those two small words are going to change the landscape around here forever. Click here for a link to today's article in the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin about drilling for natural gas. I wonder if anyone has considered the possible archaeological consequences?