Ut oh! Get out your measuring tapes!
William Colton
Comments Regarding the dSGEIS for Natural Gas Drilling in New York State’s Southern Tier
VI. FHA Financing and Gas drilling
My staff came across this HUD regulation which deals with gas drilling permits. According to the HUD Handbook 4150.2 pgs. 2-7 states that, “No existing dwelling may be located closer than 300 feet from an active or planned drilling site. Note that this applies to the site boundary, not to the actual well site.” A property with a gas or oil lease is therefore, not eligible for FHA financing.
This is one issue that was not brought up during any of the hearings and I know it is out of the scope of DEC but it should be duly noted. How might this affect adjacent property owners that will not benefit from drilling but might be within 300 feet of the site boundary?
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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Hello from NY.
We testified about this HUD rule on 10-15-09 to the NYS Assembly Env Cons Committee, and also in a Marcellus "Roundtable" run by NYS Senator Thompson, Env ConsComm Chair. We have subsequently presented it also in an "Issues" document that we shlepped around and sent to Thompson and some other pols.
We have not done any subsequent work on the issue beyond some phone calls around the NY area to lending institutions and like that to get a feel for the issue.
It is particularly interesting since the current and likely future rules in NY allow a gas/oil well within 150 ft of a dwelling.
Stanley R Scobie, Ph.D.
Michael Lebron
Principals, NewYorkers for SustainableEnergySolutionsStatewide
scobies@frontiernet.net