Pa. political leaders must do more about the natural gas bounty

Published: January 3, 2010

Article Tools
Font size: [A] [A] [A]
Sign Up newsletter

Like everything else in nature, the Marcellus Shale natural gas field pays no heed to man-made contrivances, such as the political boundary lines on maps.

The Marcellus Shale, formed millions of years before humans started marking the surface, meanders from the Catskill Mountains, diagonally across Pennsylvania and into West Virginia.

What is remarkable is the different approaches that states have taken to development of the gas fields. Pennsylvania politicians have strived mightily to get out of drillers' way, for example, while their counterparts in New York have determined that water is a more important resource than gas.

Key environmental issues remain unresolved as the pace of drilling and gas extraction accelerates in Pennsylvania. In New York, by contrast, the state continues to carefully analyze the environmental impact of drilling before authorizing it.

The issues revolve around water. Modern processes that enable drillers to get to the gas, which is trapped in rock deep underground, require the use of vast amounts of water. That water is extracted from surface sources such as ponds and rivers, and in some cases from wells. It is mixed with chemicals and injected underground at high pressure to fracture the rock and free the gas.

Even as extraction rates increase in Pennsylvania, the state and drillers themselves have not finally resolved crucial issues regarding the treatment of billions of gallons of water that are contaminated in the process.

While the state does require that the chemicals used be made a matter of public record, what is not public is the exact combination of the chemicals, and in what concentrations a given company uses. What's more, the state continues to play catch-up on monitoring and enforcement.

Drilling has been on hold in New York as the state has collected data on its own and from interested parties. A team of engineers and geologists hired by New York City to examine the potential impact of drilling near the city's water sources in the Catskills has concluded, for example, that tons of chemicals could be added to the ground every day for years, and that its impact could not reliably be predicted.

The genie is out of the bottle in Pennsylvania. Whereas the economic impact in local communities as well as statewide warrants exploitation of the massive gas field, the state retains the obligation to ensure that the extraction does not cause long-term environmental damage. While dissimilar geologic and other relevant factors make comparisons with gas plays in other regions of the nation risky, Pennsylvania's leaders in Harrisburg must demand the examination of results of the analyses in states over the Marcellus Shale, and apply them to drilling that already is under way across the commonwealth.

Meanwhile, local political officials, as well as those at the state level, must continue to insist that towns and municipalities share in revenue that will be generated from the drilling to maintain the infrastructure the gas industry naturally will wear down in pursuit of prospecting, drilling, extraction and transmitting of the natural resource.

Finally, local governments who themselves benefit from gas lease and royalty revenue must ensure that all residents, property taxpayers included, share in the bounty.

Ads by Yahoo!






Type in the characters you see in the picture below. If you have trouble reading the characters in the picture, click it to see a new one.



16 posted comments

What's with the big dike around the Leisure Drive water withdrawal facility? The trucks that pull up there are supposed to be pulling fresh water from the Susquehanna. Why is the dike necessary? Are these trucks coming in with something else in their tankers and adding water to it, such that there is a concern if the tank overflows? If the trucks are clean, there shouldn't be any issue with overfill. But they aren't clean, are they? I've heard that they are not required to be clean. This is how the Dunkard Creek issue got started. So now we have a dike around the Susquehanna River fill station. Don't we need a dike around the water hydrant used for fill-ups in front of the restaurant on South Main Street, too? I see little overflows there sometimes.

Or worse yet, maybe all these trucks leak diesel and other fluids and that is why the dike surrounds the fresh water fill station on Leisure Drive.

Another idea is that maybe it protects the fresh water fill station from flooding when the river comes up.

How about someone who knows the answer letting us residents know the facts?

Report
Dikes mean there is a risk,  01/08/10 7:13
HERE IS A LINK TO AN ARTICLE THAT PROPOSES THAT GAS CAUSED THE INCIDENT AT DUNKARD. FOLLOW THE LINK. http://cbf.typepad.com/bay_daily/2009/11/my-entry-4.html#more
Report
GAS FACTS AND FICTION,  01/06/10 7:22
Mrs. Gd, I'm not sure whether you want us to blame Obama or thank Obama. If he's pushing the Natural gas industry in an effort to get us off our foreign oil dependance, then I guess we should thank him, and you can blame him if jobs left your area and moved to ours. I would thank him more if he restarted the nuclear power generation industry that has been stalled for so long. When all the gas and oil are depleted, which won't be in my lifetime, we will fall back onto nuclear power. I shudder to think what nuke plants will cost to build then if they're too expensive now. We also need to increase the tax per gallon on gasoline, but you won't hear politicians recommend that even though it's a no-brainer. It would also be a no-vote-getter. Politicains understand political suicide if they don't understand anything else.
Report
nuke 'em,  01/05/10 10:59
you all are being fooled in so many ways. Tax away and then when your state becomes dependent on it and the bottom falls out again then you will have a bigger deficit than you do now!! As for them harvesting the gas under you land they CANNOT do that and will not do that without a lease because the penalties are too great for that. Gas is at an all time low!! If you really want to thank anyone for opening your gas field the blame goes to OBAMA!! He is the one that made sure to open it up so that your economy would be boosted while taking away the livelyhood of families in the south or making their bread winners work 1500 miles from home!! There are many places where drilling takes place that the water is not affected there are methods they can do to make things safe. Make sure you have all of your facts straight!!
Report
Mrs. Gd,  01/04/10 10:31
Dunkard Creek indeed was about coal mining - while the nat gas industry is influential here in SW PA, it hasn't passed the influence of the coal industry just yet. Natural gas was considered the culprit there immediately, without any investigation. Yet a closer look proved it not to be the villian. As far as Dimock goes, its important to recognize that DEP studied the water there intensively after the explosion last year - found no evidence of fracing fluids. Just natural gas, which is not toxic or poisonous. After the spills there later in 09, there has still be no evidence of contamination of drinking water found. None.
That doesn't mean that there shouldn't be rules. What is necessary is that people recognize that industry is taking measures -- ie, onsite water recycling, study of new fracing alternatives -- and is working with DEP to imporve processes. Natural gas in the Marcellus is controversial, but its not to blame for every environmental problem or water quality issue in the state. We've had many of those problems well before the drills came back to town.
Report
Rita McConnell,  01/04/10 3:43
Dunkard Creek is about gas, gas just tried to pass it off as a coal impact. As they try to escape every other responsibility relative to the contamination of air, water, or soil. PA is so slow at everything, the damage will be done before PA decides there is any danger in gas development. Every rural township might as well start working on a public water supply for its township if it wishes to retain residents long term. Otherwise we will become abandoned gamelands for NJ hunters after our homes are abandoned. And the wildlife may be diseased and cancer ridden, too! Just ask CHK! (that is their motto, after all. They never mention that they never answer your question with a straight answer.)
Report
No escape from the negatives,  01/04/10 1:56
local, I doubt that any gas revenues will end up in the pockets of our county politicians. State pols are another matter entirely. If as many of the writers on this topic predict, we will have our clean water compromised by the drilling, all the more reason to get a hefty severance tax in place and allocate MOST of the revenues to the counties where the drilling is going on. The most intense drilling I have seen is in the Evergreen - New Albany area, where well pads are being spaced overy couple hundred yards. This area is also in the headwaters of the Towanda water system's southern source at Eilenberger Springs. Why they are allowed to locate wells so close to a major drinking water supply, I do not know.
Report
Scott,  01/04/10 11:58
Some of these points are valid but some are not. First of all gas is not at record low now. it is almost twice as much as it was 4 months ago. check www.nymex.com for current price. If our locals were on the ball they would allready be constucting a water treatment plant for the drilling so they can recycle the water. The companies do have to take extreme caution in preventing spills of fracing fluid. They will be ineveitable so they must have safty guards in place. As for the revenues, I am very concerned that the counties share will end up in the pockets of our local politicians. I really dont know how we could stop them. I'm afraid greed and coruption will prevail. They will jack up our taxes to try and cover it up. In the end they will get caught, but not untill the money is gone. The best we can do is monitor the gas companies and especially our local government!
Report
local,  01/04/10 9:25
The price of gas is at a record low. Yet, i am forced to either sign a lease or have gas sucked out from under me without fair compensation. This is not what I thought America was about. Yet another land owner will be letting, or with a signed lease be forced to let the gashole drillers store gas on their property until the price is higher.

Then we have New Yorkers waiting for cheap gas to be delivered to them, but, don't want anyone drilling in New York.

Why don't they just go away until they get it right.

Report
Concerned Landowner,  01/03/10 10:12
The price of gas is at a record low, yet I am forced to either sign a lease or have the sh@t sucked out from under me anyway, without compensation. This is un-American. I prefer to sell the gas under my land when the price is high. But they won't let me wait. I am forced to sell when the price is low and another is forced to let the gas-holes store gas on their property until the price is high. this is robbery.
Report
Just want to make some bucks,  01/03/10 10:04
Re: SDorsey's comments about gas drilling having nothing to do with Dunkard Creek:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09268/1000694-113.stm

Mr. Hopey is a respected journalist. Guess he's got his facts wrong as well? There are many other online articles linking drilling wastewater to Dunkard Creek, but I won't waste your time any further. The geology portion of my post is accurate, and Dimock has received international attention. So I ask...what other parts of my statement are wrong?

Report
Don Williams,  01/03/10 9:58
So it's ok to contaminate a stream with waste water since that property owner is turning a profit from his/her property? Even though that water will likely flow OFF their property? If a property owner wants to drill on their land so be it, but if what they do or what their contractors do contaminate the water or land off the property then it should be shut locked and sealed. No one has the right to pollute a stream, or a lake just because they have to pay for property...if they can't afford it, then don't buy it.
Report
Transplant,  01/03/10 9:55
SDorsey- I think that was his point. The public was fooled about the dangers of coal mining, just as we're being fooled by the dangers of drilling. As for his other statements, I see nothing wrong.
Report
Paul,  01/03/10 1:15
also Mr Williams, interesting you should mention Mr. Madoff
The anti drilling faction is no better than him -
taking peoples' right to access their own resources on a mass scale.
Most rural landowners have their entire financial investment in their properties, properties which continue to cost them in the form of exorbitant taxes since there is no commercial tax base.
If you wish to prevent the gas being harvested, you must be willing to compensate the owner,
full value.
Report
SDorsey,  01/03/10 10:43
Dunkard Creek had nothing to do with gas
the source was coal mining
check your facts, that's not the only thing you are wrong about
Report
SDorsey,  01/03/10 10:27
"Whereas the economic impact in local communities as well as statewide warrants exploitation of the massive gas field..."

What will be the economic impact when our waters becomes tainted and real estate values plummet? What happened in Dimock is not an isolated anomaly, it is a harbinger of things to come. The geology of this area contains some of the most folded & fractured bedrock in the country. Drilling here, and the potential for long-term environmental impact, is quite different from other regions. With billionS to be made, are we actually to believe ANYTHING coming from the companies standing to profit? Remember Bernie Madoff? How many folks believed him when he said: "Don't worry, you money will be safe with me?" The folks supporting the exploitation of the Marcellus Shale, including politicians, will run for cover when the next, bigger Dimock or Dunkard Creek surfaces. That's what they do best. If we stand by and do nothing...we are as (a)pathetic as they are.

Report
Don Williams,  01/03/10 8:38