CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Steuben County landowners are banding together over mineral leases — particularly natural gas.

The Steuben County Landowner’s Coalition, along with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Steuben County and the Steuben County Farm Bureau, is hosting a meeting from 7-9 p.m. Tuesday at Hornell High School to discuss the coalition’s mission of collectively negotiating natural gas leases.

According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, gas production in the state — at 54.92 billion cubic feet in 2007 — is near an all-time high. Because of increased demand and cheaper drilling technology, said Jim Grace, head of farm business management at the Bath CCE office, demand for gas leases in the county have skyrocketed, especially for the two main gas formations.

The most-tapped formation, the Trenton-Black River Formation, consists of large gas pockets at around 10,000 feet — or close to 2 miles — below the surface. The formation has been under development in Steuben County for several years, Grace said, and most of the work on the deposit is near Corning and Caton.

The second deposit, the Marcellus Shale, is a shallower deposit — between 5,000 to 6,000 feet below the surface — but the pockets are vertical cracks in the Earth’s crust and very hard to drill normally.

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