CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Steuben County officials are preparing for the impact natural gas drilling could have on county-wide issues for decades to come.

“I know, at first glance, it’s intimidating,” county Planning Director Greg Heffner told the Legislature’s Agriculture, Industry and Planning Committee Monday. “The key is, if it’s going to happen here, it probably will happen at one level or another. They just think we might want to be prepared.”

Portions of the vast natural gas deposit located in the Marcellus Shale are located under Steuben County.

The deposit ranges in a wide arc from West Virginia to Lake Erie, and could be one of the largest gas fields in the U.S.

So far, no drilling sites in Steuben County have been identified, but a depleted gas well in the town of Pulteney is being looked at now for disposal of waste water resulting from the drilling process.

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