Published: September 19, 2008 11:48 pm         

CME Engineering will study city-owned portion of Piney Reservoir watershed

FROSTBURG — With oil and gas speculators roaming the countryside and asking for landowners to sign agreements, the Frostburg city officials want a professional engineering company to look at the Piney Reservoir area before putting their municipal name on a dotted line.

Thursday, at the city’s public meeting, a $15,310 contract was awarded to CME Engineering to study the city-owned portion of the watershed for possible impacts related to the development of gas wells.

“It’s about protecting our drinking water,” said Mayor Arthur Bond.

City Engineer Chris Hovatter said the city owns 1,500 acres, but the entire watershed is about 7,500 acres.

Bond said there are landowners who have signed agreements that will give them a pittance of what they could have made. He said he doesn’t want that to happen to the city and he doesn’t want to jeopardize the drinking water that comes from the impoundment just across the Garrett County line. The study by CME would help to pinpoint the issues, risks and benefits of natural gas exploration at the city project.

For example, CME would attempt to document the potential for contamination or disruption to the public water supply as a result of drilling. The firm would also offer a plan to protect water supplies during gas well development.

City Administrator John Kirby said earlier this week that natural gas companies have recently shown a lot of interest in Garrett County and Somerset County, Pa.

The contract is for 60 days. Kirby said he anticipates the first report from CME to be available for the mayor and council’s public work session Oct. 14.

Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.