Village of Oxford, NY, possible sites for a well pad.

UPDATE 7/6/2013: I had a slight error in my previous version, as I did not connect the centers of the yellow circles with polygons to indicate the correct possible locations for a well pad. Corrected.

NOTE TO BRYANT and VIC and others who often call me "LIAR!"
This does NOT mean I was lying initial. I just got the facts wrong. Always happy to correct if you just bring this to my attention.  -- BH

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In a comment on this post:

http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-paean-to-tom-shepstone-by-david.html

Bryant La Tourette says, "Oxfords ban on "Fracking" in the Village. [slur deleted]
Oxford is a VILLAGE the setbacks alone rule it out for drilling!"

So I decided to check this out.

The NY proposed setbacks for a gas well in NY is 500 ft from a dwelling,
and 2,000' from a municipal water well. 

Data sources:

• DEC proposed setbacks are here:
  http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/87445.html
   
• SRBC maps of municipal water wells:
  http://gis.srbc.net/wrp/

 

Methodology: 

1. Take a snapshot of the Village of Oxford for Google Maps. 
2. Draw a Yellow circle r=500' and place as many times without being over an "inhabited building" 
3. Connected the centers of the yellow circles with black polygons.
4. Draw Blue circle r=2,000' around municipal water wells. 
5. Subtract #4 from #3. 

I have many years of experience working in engineering fields. This "back of a napkin" methodology is inexact, but is useful to get "close" to the right answer quickly with incomplete data. 

Village of Oxford. Blue area is off-limits due to being within 2,000' of a municipal water well.
Yellow areas are 500' radius not over "inhabited structures."

Village of Oxford. Blue area is off-limits due to being within 2,000' of a municipal water well.
Yellow areas are 500' radius not over inhabited structures.
Black areas are the centers of the yellow areas connected, minus the blue area.
The yellow circle on the Western edge 1/2 way up is not marked because
it does not look like it has 5 acres minimum for a well pad.

Note, this map does not account for 500 year flood plain, or setbacks from primary aquifers, or private water wells, since I do not have access to this data.  I do not think these additional subtractions will amount to much. (The 500 year flood plain might remove the area in the SW corner, and maybe parts of the NE corner.) The Primary aquifer should be roughly the same.

CONCLUSION: Approximately 1/4 of the Village of Oxford will be available for placement of a well pad. Since the village is about 2 square miles, and the spacing units are 640 acres = 1 sq. mile, we can expect IF shale gas drilling is permitted in NY, the village of Oxford will get 2 well pads with 3-6 wells each. This assumes ideal spacing units. The village could see as many as 4 well pads, depending on how the spacing unit grid is laid out.

So the answer is 2-4 well pads likely in Oxford, should drilling occur in NY.
The answer is definately not zero (as asserted by B.L.T) without a BAN.

I find no basis for the claim that the Village is so small that it will be ruled-out for surface drilling due to the NY setbacks.

UPDATE: David Slottje Responds to Bryant La Tourettes comments:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/151329269/D-Slottje-Response-to-BLT-070213