The article, “Gas drilling pays big benefits,” (June 15), may be misread, since it implies that what works in Texas will work more or less the same in New York.

Gas drilling in New York may indeed pay big benefits to Texas and Oklahoma gas companies. It may not be so rosy for New Yorkers.

The lack of groundwater contamination in the Fort Worth Basin is due to the fact that there are few groundwater wells in the Fort Worth Basin. There are no shallow wells to pollute because the water sources are deep aquifers.

There have been instances of shallow wells polluted in Palo Pinto County by Range Resources, since the wells draw from the Brazos River.

That is not the case in upstate New York, where all the water wells — including the municipal and commercial wells — are tapping groundwater that is uniquely vulnerable to pollution from the surface and from gas wells via methane migration into the water.

As for jobs, almost all of the suppliers and contractors in Texas are either based in Texas or have major manufacturing facilities there. So any drilling activity will be almost 100 percent local hires. That is simply not the case in New York, which has no major oil and gas manufacturing or service companies. Few such companies are likely to relocate to New York from Texas. Nor will many of the crews be local hires. Many of the new jobs associated with increased activity will in fact go to out-of-state residents and contractors.

The economics are different for many reasons. There is a production tax in Texas, but none in New York. The ad valorem tax on wells in New York will be offset in some towns by lower property values. If a town is suburban or has a high tax base, it may see a net decrease in property taxes from shale gas industrialization.

James Northrup

New York City