In the southeast corner of New York State, there's great fear that Marcellus Shale gas drilling in the New York City watershed could poison the Big Apple's water.

And in Western New York, there's great hope that the shale will offer great riches.

However, large-scale Marcellus drilling is unlikely to happen in either of those corners of the state.

Geologists say the richest part of the shale in New York is between Steuben and Broome counties. That makes most of the Delaware River Basin and Western New York second-tier players in the hunt for gas in the Marcellus.

The Delaware River Basin, which provides drinking water to 17 million people in the New York and Philadelphia regions, stretches into Broome County.

But the Delaware River Basin Commission, which manages water resources in the basin, has enacted a temporary moratorium on horizontal fracturing in the region. And while gas companies are fighting to have it lifted, sources close to the industry acknowledged that this is unlikely to happen.

In New York last April, the Department of Environmental Conservation effectively banned hydraulic fracturing in the New York City and Syracuse watersheds by mandating a strict environmental review for every single well.

What's more, Chesapeake Resources, which has leased the mineral rights to 5,000 acres of land in the New York section of the Delaware River Basin, has said that it will not drill there.

"This leasehold is immaterial to Chesapeake and also does not appear prospective for the Marcellus Shale," Chesapeake Resources CEO Aubrey K. McClendon said last October.

Similarly, the westernmost stretches of the shale in New York State do not appear to contain enough gas to make drilling worthwhile, several experts said.

"The thickness and depth are inappropriate," said S. Dennis Holbrook, executive vice president of Norse Energy Corp. USA, whose Blasdell location employs about 50 people. "If it's too shallow, it may not have enough gas to make it worth pursuing."

-- Jerry Zremski