Citizens group seeks tougher gas rules
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BY ROBERT SWIFT (HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF)
Published: October 25, 2011
HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania should enact stricter rules to protect air quality and surface water and groundwater from the impact of natural gas drilling, a report issued by the Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission said on Monday.
The commission was formed as a counterpart to Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Commission and held hearings this fall around the state, including Wysox and Williamsport.
The governor’s commission made no recommendations to control or monitor air pollution from well flaring, equipment leaks and compressor engines, said Thomas Au, a Pennsylvania Sierra Club official.
The citizens’ commission recommends several steps, including more state monitoring of air pollutants in the vicinity of wells and compressor engines and stronger enforcement at drilling sites of state laws that limit truck idling. Other recommendations call for a state drilling tax, restoring the authority of county conservation districts to review stormwater permits and establishing an office of state consumer environmental advocate.
Pennsylvania should ban drilling in flood plains, said John Trallo, a commission member from Sonestown, Sullivan County. Mr. Trallo is chairman of Residents United for Pennsylvania/Sullivan County chapter.
Forest clear-cutting to open space for drilling pads will make future floods even worse than those that hit the region in September, he said.
“We repeatedly heard that natural gas development has moved too quickly,” said Roberta Winters, an official with the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania about testimony at the hearings. “Pennsylvania was and is still not prepared to limit the risks and address its impact.”
The group’s report appears with time running out for a Senate Republican leader’s call for action on an impact fee bill on natural gas drilling during October. President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-25, Jefferson County, is sponsor of an impact fee bill that won tentative approval from a Senate committee last spring but has yet to reach the Senate floor.
ONLINE: The report is accessible at http://citizens marcellusshale.com.
Contact the writer: rswift@timeshamrock.com