CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

A coalition of about 300 property owners near Deposit, Sanford and Windsor have struck it rich, and the drilling hasn't even started yet.

The coalition will be accepting a deal collectively worth nearly $90 million -- to be paid to property owners in lump sums this year -- to allow natural gas companies drilling rights to their land for five years, said Dewy Decker, the coalition organizer. They will receive another lump some of $90 million if the gas companies want to extend their leases for three years.

The group agreed to an offer by XTO Energy of Fort Worth, Texas and Whitmar Exploration of Denver. The two companies working under a partnership offered landowners $2,411 per acre for energy rights for five years, and the same amount for the three-year extention.

But the real money could come once the drilling begins, and property owners get 15 percent of the royalties to whatever the natural gas wells produce.

A signing is scheduled for May 29 and 30 at the Binghamton Regency, Decker said.

The coalition represents 37,000 acres of land in the towns of Sanford, Deposit and Windsor near the site of the Millennium natural gas pipeline being constructed this year.