Horseheads Attracts Drilling Support Industries

It takes a village of support industries to get gas from well to market. In our region Chesapeake,  Epsilon and other companies may direct the overall operations, but they outsource much of the work. They hire drilling companies, construction companies, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) companies and others. And those companies, in turn, rely on contractors to supply services including welding, directional drilling, and companies to supply drilling mud, drill bits and pipe.

With increased interest in drilling Marcellus Shale, and the anticipated increase in drilling activity in upstate NY, we're seeing more support industries move into the area. The Center at Horseheads has become a prime location for gas field support service industries, and in the past year Schlumberger and Kayden Industries moved operations into the Center. They join the handful of drilling support companies already located in the industrial park.

Who’s Who at the Center

Gas Field Specialists. They offer a wide range of rental equipment for gas and oilfield operations through their subsidiary GFS Energy Rentals LLC. This includes: power swivels and elevators, welders, backhoes, water pumps and electric generators, frack tanks, dozers, trenchers, storage tanks, mud pumps, and more. Most of their business seems to be in Pennsylvania.

McJunkin Red Man (MRM) Pipe Yard. They provide gas transmission products and have pipes of all sizes and types.

Kayden Industries. They provide centrifuges, tanks, shale bins, floc tanks and pumping stations for the gas field. The facility at Horseheads includes office space and an area to service the centrifuges which are built in Canada and used in local gas drilling operations. These are fairly large centrifuges,  about 16 feet long. The centrifuges separate solid materials from the fluids so that drilling fluids can be re-used, reducing the amount of water required for drilling.

Schlumberger Technology Corporation. They supply equipment and chemicals for companies drilling gas wells. Last year they purchased 88 acres and their building plans include bunkers for explosives as well as storage for chemicals and sand used in fracking. They also maintain a large fleet of trucks used to transport the materials to drillers in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

Newpark Drilling Fluids. On their website they state that they are the fourth largest drilling fluids company in the world. They provide proprietary fluids for drilling, and claim that their water-based drilling fluids are environmentally-friendly and safer and easier to use.

Horseheads Center wooing gas industry

There is also a natural gas well - a Trenton-Black River well drilled by Anschutz that has been capped until a pipeline can connect it to the Millennium Pipeline. According to their website [www.centerathorseheads.com] the Center anticipates more gas wells drilled in the future, and touts that as a selling point as they woo gas field service providers.

“This is a great opportunity for companies involved with natural gas to make use of our buildings,” the Center advertises. With 1.5 million square feet of space available for lease and three buildings for sale, and situated in the center of natural gas activities, the Center could become a prime location for industries that service oil and gas fields.

In addition to the location, the Center advertises rail service to each building, easy access to major highways, and “low cost utilities and labor”.

"But," says Helen Slottje, senior attorney with the Community Environmental Defense Council in Ithaca, "if we are looking for economic prosperity, do we really want to push the idea of low cost labor?” According to press reports, the Chemung County Industrial Development Agency negotiated a 50-percent property tax abatement with Kayden, as well as a mortgage tax exemption and sales tax relief on construction materials purchased for the project. 

“These seem to be standard incentives to coax companies into locating at Horseheads Center,” Slottje said. “But those tax incentives do not address the impact of new businesses on the local tax-supported services.”

In addition to the increased tax burden on the residents, who will be underwriting road maintenance, utilities and other services for the businesses lured to Horseheads, there could be an additional environmental burden.

“There are a number of sensitive environmental receptors in the area,” Slottje said. These include an elementary school to the north, wetlands located south of the Center, a neighborhood day care center and the recreational facilities at the Holding Point. Local residents have repeatedly expressed concern about water contamination, air quality and the amount of truck traffic generated by the gas field services industries at the Center.

DEP Fines Chesapeake, Schlumberger for Spill in Bradford County, PA

Today the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced that they have fined Chesapeake Appalachia LLC and Schlumberger Technology Corp. $15,557 each for a 295-gallon hydrochloric acid spill at Chesapeake’s Chancellor well site in Asylum Township, Bradford County.

"Fortunately, this hazardous waste spill was promptly reported, which proved critical in limiting the environmental damage," DEP Northcentral Regional Director Robert Yowell told the press. Here is the information DEP released today:

Chesapeake staff notified DEP on Feb. 9 that a 21,000-gallon tank containing 36 percent hydrochloric acid was leaking. The acid was used for hydraulic fracturing.

When a DEP inspector arrived at the site, it was determined that the tank had two leaks and was losing about 7.5 gallons per hour of hydrochloric acid.

Chesapeake’s emergency contractor arrived that evening and removed free-standing acid from the ground with absorbent pads; excavated trenches to contain the acid; neutralized acid-contaminated soil with soda ash and hydrated lime; and transferred about 11,000 gallons of acid from the leaking tank to two temporary tanks.

About 126 tons of contaminated soil had to be excavated, and more than 13,800 gallons of a hydrochloric acid and water mixture were removed from the well site.

Citizens Sue Village over Schlumberger Project

Since July, and throughout three public hearings, residents of Horseheads, NY and the surrounding area have been asking the village elders to conduct a more thorough environmental review of the proposed Schlumberger building project. 

Last winter Schlumberger Technology Corporation plunked down a chunk of change for 88 acres in the Horseheads Industrial Center. It is an area zoned for light industry and manufacturing and contains warehouses and distribution centers. There is also another gas field service industry on the site - a company that provides equipment needed for drilling.

Schlumberger hopes to construct a 400,000 square foot facility to store fracking chemicals and explosives needed for gas field development. And they claim that their facility will bring 300 to 400 jobs to the area.

But residents are concerned that local municipal officials have embraced potential economic gain at the cost of potential environmental contamination. During the public hearings they repeatedly expressed their concern to village board members that it seemed like the project was a “done deal”. They begged the town board to conduct a more complete environmental review.

In particular, residents raised questions about stormwater permits, air quality and the impact of increased truck traffic on adjacent schools and residential neighborhoods.

At one point the Horseheads Village board seemed to agree; during their review of Part I of the environmental assessment (at their September 30 meeting) they  determined that the Schlumberger facility could potentially impact ground and surface water quality, air quality, wildlife and public health and safety. Less than a week later, the Village determined that there was no need for further environmental review, and on October 15 they issued a “negative declaration.”

This decision cleared the way for site plan approval and outraged many local residents. Outraged them so much that on November 12 a group calling itself People for a Healthy Environment filed a lawsuit against the Village. They claim that approval of the Schlumberger project was “illegal, arbitrary and capricious” and ask that the project be halted until more a complete environmental review can be done.

Horseheads Village didn’t just give a deaf ear to the people. They – and Schlumberger –also ignored demands from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to cease activity on the site until certain requirements had been met.

Since summer Schlumberger has been operating on the site, with permission of the Village. They have a temporary structure, chemical storage silos as well as trucks parked on the site. Still, Schlumberger insists that what they are doing is not "construction" and therefore requires no permits.

The NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is not amused. On September 30 the DEC issued a Notice of Violation to Schlumberger for failure to obtain proper permits for stormwater discharges. You see, stormwater from the Schlumberger site discharges into a NY state freshwater wetland and into Catherine Creek, which eventually spills into Seneca Lake – precisely the concern raised by residents at board meetings and public hearings.

DEC directed Schlumberger to: discontinue all chemical and material storage; discontinue all construction support, maintenance and storage operations; and discontinue all storage and maintenance for vehicles providing oil and gas field services.

Schlumberger’s response was to continue their activities at the site. Until recently. It took another letter from DEC, but according to Peter Lent, regional permit administrator for DEC, as of November 13 Schlumberger is honoring the cease work directive.

In the meantime they are trying to get a stormwater permit for their temporary site.

It won’t be easy. In an 8-page letter to Schlumberger, DEC listed a number of things Schlumberger needs to clarify before a permit will be issued. Schlumberger needs to make sure chemicals are stored correctly; an October 15 inspection revealed a tarpaulin roof leaking water onto chemicals stored on pallets. It also cited chemical and additives dust on the storage building floor.

DEC has also requested Schlumberger to be more forthcoming about the chemicals stored on site. Instead of lumping them together in a broad category, such as “dry additives” they will need to list the components of the mixture.

 As for the citizen lawsuit, the group expects a response from village officials sometime in December.

You can read about the October public hearing here . You can read more articles about Schlumberger here.

Horseheads Village approves Schlumberger project despite citizen protest

In the Southern Tier of NY, the message that “gas drilling will bring jobs” is heard so much that some folks have come to believe it. And it’s not just the drilling that will bring jobs, but the support industries. Like Schlumberger Technology – a huge multi-national corporation that supplies natural gas drilling sites with explosives, fracking chemicals and more.

For the past several months the good folk of Horseheads, NY have been wraslin’ with the issue of whether or not to let Schlumberger Technology build a warehousing and trucking facility at the industrial center. For Schlumberger it makes sense: they’d be able to service drilling operations in NY, PA, OH and WV.

For the folks in Horseheads – well, for some of them – it makes sense, too. Schlumberger would transform vacant land at the industrial center into a taxable entity, and (according to the slick color brochures) they’ll provide about 400 jobs for the locals. In a depressed economy in an even more depressed state, who wouldn’t be for jobs?

The thing you have to know about Horseheads is that it’s a small historical village located north of Elmira and south of Seneca Lake. The industrial center, also known as the Center at Horseheads, is located close to the center of town, and the Schlumberger building site is bordered by residential areas and an elementary school.

Some folks in town like the idea of having Schlumberger as their next-door neighbor. Others don’t. And then there’s a third group who wouldn’t mind having Schlumberger move in – as long as they don’t mess up the water or pollute the air. Or blow things up in the middle of the night.

The other thing you need to know is that the Village board of trustees took on the task of being lead agency for the State Environmental Quality Review for the proposed Schlumberger project. They read through stacks and stacks (well, at least a 6-inch high pile) of documents and held a few public meetings and even a hearing or two about the project.

What the village elders didn’t do is ask Schlumberger to complete a full Environmental Impact Statement. Instead, they relied on a 20-question “Environmental Assessment Form” and, despite public concern about environmental issues, gave Schlumberger the green light for the project.

Two days after a contentious public hearing the Horseheads Village Board of Trustees approved the site plans. Of course, Schlumberger has to meet a short list of conditions – like making sure they get their Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) approved and meet the village building codes…

But some folks think that’s not enough. They want the village board to do their job and require Schlumberger to conduct a full environmental review. They feel the board rushed to judgment when, as one woman said during the hearing on October 13, “We don’t know enough.”

What bothers folks? The number of trucks that will be hauling toxic fracking chemicals around their neighborhoods. The diesel and other air pollution from idling trucks at the facility. Water from the truck wash flooding into the wetland just over the road, and contaminating the local aquifer which lies two feet below the surface, not to mention polluting the streams and the lake.

What bothers folks? The potential for a chemical spill at the facility. The potential for a truck accident that would result in a surface spill of chemicals. The potential for endocrine-disruptors and carcinogens to get into their drinking water. The potential for an accidental release of toxic fumes or an explosion at the industrial center.

But what really bothers folks is that the whole thing seemed like a “done deal” way back in July; that the board was just going through the motions of public meetings and hearings because they were on the SEQRA checklist. Most telling indication: when the village attorney, clearly frustrated by the continued focus on environmental issues, shouted, “It’s my public hearing!”

“No it’s not,” said the folk. “We’re the public; it’s our hearing.”

What the village board and those favoring the project seem to have forgotten is that the issue is more that one of being for or against economic growth. “Being concerned about environmental and health issues is not trying to stop a company or stop people from getting jobs,” one person pointed out. “It’s about keeping every one safe.”

To read more about the Schlumberger project in Horseheads go to

http://www.tiogagaslease.org/broaderviewweekly.html