Safe Drinking Water program planned for Oct. 15
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Published: 10/07/11
HAWLEY, Pa. — If your well was flooded after the recent visit by Hurricane Irene or Tropical Storm Lee or any other high water event, then you need to test your water for a number of potentially harmful substances such as bacteria and nitrates, which can have health effects on you and your family.
In addition, your well could have high levels of iron, manganese and copper, which can cause unwanted stains and odors.
If you depend on your own well or spring for your drinking water, it is your responsibility to have your water tested periodically at a certified water testing lab. No government agency is going to require you to have your water tested.
Penn State Cooperative Extension in Pike County will be conducting a Safe Drinking Water program from 9-11 a.m. Oct. 15 at the PPL Environmental Learning Center on Route 6 in Hawley, Pa. There is a registration fee of $10 for handouts.
To register for the Safe Drinking Water program, go to the website http://guest.cvent.com/d/icq7m2 or call 877-489-1398 and mention the Oct. 15 Safe Drinking Water Seminar. The registration deadline is Wednesday.
In addition, Penn State Cooperative Extension is offering water testing for a discounted fee through Prosser Labs on Oct. 19 and 26 and Nov. 2. In order to participate in the water testing, you must attend the Safe Drinking Water program to receive your test bottles.
Four different sets of water tests will be offered, ranging from coliform bacteria and E. coli bacteria to a test of seven other parameters. Test bottles need to be returned by noon Oct. 19 or 26 or Nov. 2.
For more information on the Safe Drinking Water program or water testing, contact Peter Wulfhorst at the Penn State Cooperative Extension office at 570-296-3400 or visit the Pike County Cooperative Extension website at http://extension.psu.edu/pike and go to events.
Corbett unveils shale proposal
standardspeaker.com/news/corbett-unveils-shale-proposal-1.1212610#axzz1ZowPSaWj
By ROBERT SWIFT (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: October 4, 2011
HARRISBURG – Gov. Tom Corbett threw a curveball into the Marcellus Shale impact fee debate Monday by proposing that individual counties take the responsibility for adopting an impact fee.
The governor suggested a two-step process in which the state would approve enabling legislation setting the fee amount and uses for fee revenue. Then counties with operating wells would have the choice of adopting or not adopting the per-well fee.
Corbett’s proposal differs from other major impact fee bills before the Legislature that call for state collection of impact fee revenue and disbursement of revenue to eligible counties. He also endorsed recommendations made by his Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission to keep wells at a greater distance from water sources, increase well bonding requirements for drillers and double penalties for violations. Offered one month before the Nov. 8 general election, the governor’s emphasis on county adoption of an impact fee could become an issue in county commissioner races.
Corbett proposed that each Marcellus well pay an impact fee of $40,000 the first year of operation, $30,000 the second year; $20,000 the third year and $10,000 in the fourth through sixth years in counties that adopt an impact fee.
Under the proposal, a county could provide a fee credit up to 30 percent if a driller invests in natural gas fueling stations or public transit.
Corbett outlined a list of mainly local uses for fee revenue with a smaller 25 percent share going to several state agencies that respond to drilling-related issues. Legal uses for revenue would range from road and bridge repairs, human services and courts and records management and geographic information systems.
“Whatever the fee brings in, it’s going to the places that are feeling the impact,” Corbett said.
The governor predicted that fee revenue from his proposal could generate $120 million in the first year and reach nearly $200 million in six years. This is an amount below the $200 million first-year revenue yield that Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-25, Jefferson County, called for last week.
“I think it would be very difficult to get a single Democrat in support of a county impact fee,” said Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, Nanticoke, who has offered his own impact fee bill. “All the governor’s proposal is doing is authorizing counties.”
Yudichak’s proposal would set a $17,000 base impact fee per Marcellus well and splits revenue between local communities and state environmental programs such as Growing Greener.
“We’re clearly open to the governor’s proposal,” said House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-28, Pittsburgh, emphasizing that nothing is set on the county fee adoption provision.
There are pros and cons to requiring that counties adopt a fee, said Douglas Hill, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. “It (revenue) comes straight to us, and we don’t have to wait,” he added. “It does raise some risk of a competition between the counties (with or without impact fees).”
The governor’s plan doesn’t account for the statewide impacts of natural gas drilling, said Bill Patton, spokesman for House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-33, Pittsburgh.
rswift@timesshamrock.com
PennFuture seeks state park protection
citizensvoice.com/news/drilling/pennfuture-seeks-state-park-protection-1.1211603#axzz1Zj7VI2Rp
By Robert Swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: October 1, 2011
HARRISBURG – A statewide environmental group launched a campaign on several fronts Thursday to head off any future gas drilling in state parks.
PennFuture called on natural gas companies to voluntarily sign a pledge not to drill in state parks or buy gas supplies drilled there. The organization also urged lawmakers to enact a significant special impact fee for any drilling in state parks that disturbs the land surface.
The issue is considered pressing by environmentalists because the state doesn’t own the subsurface mineral rights beneath an estimated 80 percent of state park land. Sixty-one of the 117 state parks are in the Marcellus Shale formation and seismic testing for gas deposits has taken place in several parks.
“There is a very real possibility of gas rigs puncturing our state parks,” said John Quigley, a former secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, who is a PennFuture consultant.
Quigley said the group recognizes that state law gives owners of mineral rights in state parks the right to develop their property and sign leases with gas companies. That’s why the appeal is being made to the gas companies not to seek leases in recognition of the public value of park land and its importance to local economies, he said.
“I think frankly the industry does not need the PR headache of disturbing the park land,” added Quigley. In addition, PennFuture is working with lawmakers to introduce bills to require a 300-foot setback to drilling along the boundaries of a state park and to establish a special impact fee substantial enough to discourage drilling on park land that disturbs the land surface, he said.
When the state acquired tracts for state park land in decades past before deep gas drilling was even considered possible, the mineral rights were either too expensive or already owned by individuals or in some cases companies that since became defunct.
But DCNR has sketchy information about the ownership of mineral rights. Quigley said it would be too expensive and time-consuming to do title searches on mineral rights at all the state parks. The general policy has been to require an owner to submit proof of title, he said.
DCNR monitors the activities of gas companies if they conduct tests on privately owned mineral deposits in state parks and makes sure they abide by rules governing disturbance of surface land, said Richard Allan, the DCNR secretary, in testimony Wednesday before the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.
“Beyond that, we have to give them access if they want to do certain tests,” he said.
swift@timesshamrock.com