DEP losing staff to gas drilling industry
The Marcellus Shale natural gas industry has jobs to offer in Pennsylvania and, in many cases, environmental regulators that once watched over the drillers are stepping in to fill the openings.
The state Department of Environmental Protection does not track where former employees work after they leave the agency or count how many have left for jobs with regulated businesses, but officials admit that competing with the booming – and well-paying – industry for employees has become an ongoing challenge.
“Losing good employees, for whatever reason, is always a problem,” former DEP Secretary John Hanger said before he left the state’s top environmental post with the change of administrations last week. “The turnover in staff is one of the hurdles that has to be overcome.”
On Wednesday, L.R. Kimball, an architecture and engineering firm, announced it hired J. Scott Roberts as an adviser to help the company expand its operations in the Marcellus Shale. Roberts, a 25-year DEP employee, retired as deputy secretary for mineral resources management in December. He was one of the department’s most knowledgeable leaders on Marcellus Shale issues and often testified along with, or in place of, Hanger at public hearings concerning the industry.
Prior to Roberts’ hiring, the highest profile departure from the department to the industry was Barbara Sexton, then the department’s second-highest ranking official, who left to become director of governmental affairs in the state for Chesapeake Energy last year.
Lower-profile senior staff members that offered the department decades of knowledge and experience also have found jobs with the industry.
Richard Adams, a 30-year veteran of the department who played an influential role when DEP began developing rules for treating the salty wastewater that comes from the deep shale wells, is now senior environmental adviser for Chief Oil and Gas.
Joe Umholtz, the former surface activities division chief in the department’s bureau of oil and gas, joined Colorado-based MWH in the environmental engineering firm’s oil and gas sector last year.
Gary Byron, who worked for the department for 33 years before retiring as assistant regional director in the Williamsport office in 2008, founded Dux Head Environmental Services, which specializes in environmental consulting for the natural gas industry. He is a frequent contractor with Carrizo Oil and Gas.
And Helen Humphreys, a seven-year spokeswoman for the department’s Pittsburgh office who served as the agency’s communications director for five months last year, has been senior corporate communications specialist at Williams, a natural gas production and transportation company, since November.
At a time when DEP is building its staff of oil and gas regulators, the industry has also attracted employees from among those ranks, although a complete list has never been compiled.
Range Resources, Chesapeake Energy and Atlas Energy have together hired at least four former well-site inspectors to work in environmental compliance and other aspects of their Marcellus Shale operations.
The competition has not hampered the department’s ability to build its oil and gas program from 88 to 202 employees since 2008, Hanger said.
“In this period of time when we have very high unemployment, we’ve been able to recruit people to these positions by and large,” he said.
“Retaining them has been a second challenge.”
The retention problem is not unique to employees whose experience is desired by the gas industry. The department has trouble retaining employees in information technology and engineering, as well as those who work in positions, like mine inspectors, whose equivalent jobs are paid more by federal agencies, Hanger said.
“This is a clear demonstration that state wage rates and salary rates are not competitive with the private sector in many cases,” he said.
“The truth is, in many cases, the private sector is paying much more.”
Department officials are careful not to imply that the movement from the agency to the Marcellus Shale industry has been a stampede for the door.
Daniel Spadoni, a spokesman for DEP’s Williamsport office, said the department’s Eastern Region Oil and Gas Program began in the office with 17 people in 2008 and was increased to 50 people about a year ago. The program has filled 47 of the 50 positions, he said. “DEP does not formally track where people go when they leave our employment, but probably only two staff have left here for industry positions,” he said.
Some landowners at odds with the gas companies and the advocates that work with them have noted the departures and say they erode public trust in the state’s environmental oversight.
Jan Jarrett, president of the environmental organization PennFuture, said the departures sap experience from the agency “that it could really badly use,” but it does not indicate to her a lack of commitment among the former employees to the department or to environmental protection in general.
“With the uncertainty about what budget cuts will do to the agencies, you can’t blame these folks,” she said. “But it does weaken the department, and it diminishes its institutional memory.”
A reverse migration, however unlikely, would be more disturbing, she added.
“I’d be more concerned if it were gas industry people all of a sudden infiltrating the department.”
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer llegere@timesshamrock.com)
Published: January 24, 2011
http://republicanherald.com/news/dep-losing-staff-to-gas-drilling-industry-1.1094487