CLEARVILLE - Ralph Blevins of Claysburg stood at a long table filled with materials on natural gas contracts and projects, picking up stacks of papers, skimming through them and trying to educate himself on what could happen to him in the near future.
Blevins has a gas and oil lease in Kimmel Township, Bedford County, and traveled to the tiny town south of Everett where landowners hosted an informational workshop Sunday to show others the struggles they have faced with a natural gas storage field project in their town.
''The information is overwhelming,'' Blevins said.
He was surrounded by several long tables piled with a chronological overview of the Clearville project, walls with large posters of information
on natural gas company Spectra Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates projects such as the one in Bedford County. A couple of videos played in opposite corners of the room at the Monroe Township building.
Dick Eckman, who calls himself the Clearville ''self-appointed watchdog,'' was pleased to see a large turnout at the workshop.
''This is informative,'' he said. ''I hope people learn. We're just trying to make people aware.''
Eckman and several other landowners such as Paul Stup who are affected by the natural gas project were milling about the room, frequently answering questions from curious attendees.
''We here are trying to help people who could get into this situation,'' Stup said. ''We're trying to warn them what could happen to them.
Stup said he specifically was discussing leases with the people at the workshop and telling them how important it was to know what it was they were committing themselves to.
''When you sign that lease, it's done,'' Stup said.
For more than a year now, several landowners have been engaged in a long struggle dealing with complex issues such as gas and oil contracts, metering of wells, property owners' rights and even an eminent domain court battle with Spectra.
Spectra has said that eminent domain is a last resort if negotiations with landowners don't go well.
Landowner Edward J. Sakalauskas of Maryland said Spectra's rates are unreasonably low compared to other places in the country.
In Sacramento, Calif., for example, property owners are given $2,607 per acre each year for a storage project there, while Clearville landowners with gas storage clauses in their leases were given a one-time payment of $400 per acre.
For more information about the Clearville project, e-mail bedford2008@embarqmail .com. A new Web site, www .spectraenergywatch.com, also offers information.
