New Drilling-Related Jobs Coming to NY Next Year

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When drilling finally starts in New York State, one of the immediate benefits to the state will be jobs. And not all of those jobs will be in the drilling industry. Some of them will be for the agency that oversees drilling in New York, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

The latest word is that the DEC is looking to hire an addition 142 workers starting next year, many of them in New York’s Southern Tier area where drilling will happen first.

Anticipating an influx of natural gas drilling in the Southern Tier, the state Department of Environmental Conservation is looking to expand a pair of offices in the region the industry is expected to target.

The DEC estimates it will have to spend $1 million annually for additional office space in Kirkwood in Broome County, and Bath in Steuben County, when it begins permitting high-volume hydraulic fracturing.

For the 2012-13 fiscal year, which begins in April, the DEC anticipates hiring 142 additional workers with salaries and benefits totaling $13 million annually, though they would likely be hired about halfway through the year, according to the agency estimate.

Of those new workers, 78 would work out of regional offices and sub-offices in the Marcellus region — like those in Kirkwood and Bath — while the rest would be based in Albany.

By 2017, the DEC expects it will need to hire 226 additional staffers if hydrofracking begins next year.

A wide variety of positions would be needed, ranging from four calculations clerks, starting at $31,031 a year, to a $103,029-a-year associate counsel.*

*Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (Sep 26, 2011) – DEC assesses facilities in Broome, Steuben for gas drilling

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