The Vista
April 29, 2014
Vol. 43, No. 39
Rotary District 7170``
Lansing-Ithaca Rotary Club
Serving the Lansing Community Since 1971
Chartered November 1, 1971
Meets Tuesday Noon, Kendal at Ithaca
www.LansingIthacaRotary.org
Info@LansingIthacaRotary.org
www.facebook.com/LansingIthacaRotary www.RotaryDistrict7170.org
OPENING: V. Pres. Kathryn opened the meeting with the Pledge & 4-Way Test. Song was “America.” Thought-for-the-Day;
“Who ever said diamonds are a girl’s best friend never owned a dog.
INTRODUCTIONS: Martha Mapes, Wil Butner, and Todd Miller- speaker
ATTENDANCE: Members: – 4 –
Guests: – 3 –
FOUNDATION MINUTE:
Your contribution to the Foundation makes possible. The projects carried out throughout the world to save and improve the lives
of people.
DATES & EVENTS:
Work on the Cabin in Meyers Park, Lansing will resume on Saturday, May 17, from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
HAPPY – SAD:
Jim -  Susan is happy with her new computer. Ben -  watched the grand kids play ball. Ed -  worked on getting the boat
read for this summer season.
PROGRAM:
Todd Miller worked with the USGS as a hydrologist with the USGS for 17 years until he
retired a year ago. He was an associate of Bill Kappel at the USGS, and who also spoke to
us a few weeks ago. One of Todd’s many jobs while with the USGS Todd was to survey
and map aquifers…which still needs more work.
Hydro fracking has been used for gas recovery since at least the 1940’s. However, this has
been done with vertically drilled wells. Since the Marcellus shale layer thickness averages
about 150 ft., a vertical well would be in the layer for such a short distance little gas could be
recovered making it impractical to use. This is why the fracking in Pennsylvania and that
proposed for southern New York State would be horizontal fracking. Thus, the well would
be drilled about 4,000 to 5,000 ft vertical and then turned and drilled horizontal. The
Marcellus shale, a dark shale, is from the erosion runoff from a mountain range to our east.
The farther from the source of the erosion the finer the sediment and the more organic
compounds trapped in the sediment to form into methane. Under the Marcellus shale in a
layer of Onondaga lime stone.
In the southern tier of New York the depth of the Marcellus shale is about 3,000 ft. In
central Pennsylvania the depth is around 7,000 ft. A telescoping casing technique is used
on the vertical portion of the well casing. Near the surface the casing is actually 3 to 4 concentric casing. The deeper down the
few concentric casings are used. The horizontal pipe has perforations. Once the drilling has been completed.”balloons” are put
into the horizontal pipe to act as temporary barrier. Explosive charges are set off fracturing the rock. A balloon is again put in
place and an explosion set off. This process is repeated, fracturing rock along sections of the pipe until the rock along the entire
horizontal rock has been fractured. Sand injection is used to keep the fractures in the rock open. Then negative pressure is
applied to begin extracting the natural gas. About 3 to 5 million gallons of water are used per well. The liquid first removed from
the well is the water. The injected fluid is about 99% water, 0.5% sand, and 0.5% other chemicals which may be toxic, or about
15,000 to 25,000 gallons.
To be able to have the pressure to push the gas out from the fractured rocks, the gas needs to be more than 2,000 ft. below the
surface. The depth of the Marcellus shale in the Ithaca area is around 2,000 ft. Thus, Ithaca is just at the northern boundary
where gas recovery may be possible.
From a study done by Jerry Acton, gas production in the central southern tier of NYS is relatively low. The “sweet spot” for
production is in Pennsylvania south of Broome county. The thicker the layer of shale, the better gas production there will be.
The use of natural gas is being championed as a transition fuel from coal until non-greenhouse producing chemicals energy
sources can be brought on line. If gas become cheep other sources of fuel will be delayed.
In the past 10 years our years have been 20% to 25% wetter.
Some of the problems with fracking are ground water contamination due to spilled fracking fluids. There are no facilities to
process the fracking fluids. They are being sent to places such as Ohio for injection into the ground. However, some of these
place are experiencing earth quakes due to the injected liquids lubricating the natural faults. The evaporation from the surface of
the holding ponds may be more of a environmental concern than a leak in the pond. The drill cuttings are potentially radioactive
and as of now they are being put in land fills. The faults in NYS are not well known and documented. Typically a straight valley
follows a fault.
The energy industries have many loop holes other industries do not have that reduce their liabilities, and exempt them from
many safety regulations.
FUTURE PROGRAMS:
May 6
– Marty Kaminsky who founded and is in charge of the Go Tutoring Program for disadvantaged students in
the Ithaca School District
May 13
– Dan Fuka is going to be giving a talk called "Using Social Media Posts as Ecological Indicators"
May 20
– Hilary Lambert will be speaking on “The Cayuga Watershed and the Dangers Facing It.”
May 27
– Alex Deyhim of Advanced Design Consulting, a manufacturer of synchrotron parts sold world wide. Alex
is a mechanical engineer formerly associated with Cornell.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
DATE
May 6
May 13
May 20
May 27
SONG SELECTOR
Alan Littlefair
Kathryn Mapes
Jase Baese
Art Muka
THOUGHT 4 THE DAY
AnnMarie Hautaniemi
Ev Morse
Ben Muggeo
Alan Littlefair
INTRODUCTIONS
Dan Fuka
Jim Lorbeer
Ed Siemon
AnnMarie Hautaniemi
The Rotary Four Way Test of all the things we think, say, or do
Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
Will it be beneficial to all concerned?