Lawmakers must take action now on fracking
http://www.centredaily.com/2010/10/15/2273735/lawmakers-must-take-action-now.html
Lawmakers must take action now on fracking
October 15, 2010 12:36am EDT
Pennsylvania’s legacy: raped by timber, oil and coal industries. The Boomtown Syndrome should make us cautious about empty job and wealth promises. Visit coal country; canoe the Red (from mine acid) Moshannon to see this legacy.
Industry and political leaders encourage another boom-bust cycle with the rush to drill for natural gas. The advent of horizontal drilling and hydrofracking made deep shale drilling possible; Marcellus Shale lies under 65 percent of Pennsylvania.
Dick Cheney, behind closed doors, exempted this industry from America’s environmental laws — the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Community Right to Know Act. The stage was set for the wild-west mentality of gas drilling. That drama has moved east — epicenter, Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania government was not prepared. The Department of Environmental Protection issued permits for 4,000 Marcellus wells: 1,435 violations in 2.5 years, 952 likely to harm the environment. So far in 2010, 969 wells drilled and 852 violations.
DEP is playing catch up; they are not protecting us. This industry’s trucks damage our roads; state police found 40 percent had safety violations. Hydrocarbon emissions foul our air. Gas drilling and frack water pollute our water — ever heard of Dimock, Susquehanna County? Treatment of the industry’s wastewater — flowback, which includes a toxic brew of secret proprietary chemicals, salts and possible low-level radioactivity. This mixture is diluted and dumped into our streams.
This is the “treatment” mentality of the industrial revolution from a century ago — just send it downstream. Drill cuttings, possibly low-level radioactive waste, also present a disposal problem.
An industrial grid will be constructed over rural Pennsylvania and our public lands. It will take one pad every square mile, eight wells per pad, 5 million gallons of frack water containing 25,000 gallons of toxic chemicals per well. Do the math: Pennsylvania will be radically, permanently changed. 250,000 wells to get this gas?
The impacts will, by any measure, be huge. A conservative approach would be to slow down, get an accurate picture and decide how to proceed. We ask legislators to take action:
•No additional permits until state government enacts laws and regulations to make Marcellus gas well drilling safe and environmentally sound.
•Reform the Oil and Gas Act: require mandatory inspections, disclose fracking chemicals, extend the presumption of pollution and protective setback distances, adequate bonds, protect municipal zoning and police powers — bonding requirements of $2,500 per well are ridiculously low.
•No leases on public lands until an analysis is conducted on the impact of existing leasing — one-third of the 2.1 million acres of state forests has already been leased.
•Enact a severance tax comparable to other states and provide funding for communities impacted by gas drilling and for environmental conservation — 96 percent of natural gas is produced in states with a severance tax.
•No “forced pooling.” Forced pooling only undermines landowner rights.
Remember, the Pennsylvania Constitution says: “The people have a right to clean air, pure water and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.
“Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”
Gary Thornbloom, of Julian, is chairman of the Sierra Club Moshannon Group. He can be reached at bear knob@verizon.net.
Shale seminars being offered
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Shale_seminars_being_offered_10-14-2010.html
Posted: October 15, 2010
Shale seminars being offered
Times Leader staff
Educational seminars are being offered later this month in Williamsport and Mansfield to provide information to landowners in the Marcellus Shale region interested in leasing mineral rights to natural gas companies.
Three regional companies have teamed up to develop a two-hour presentation on the issues. A financial planner with Legacy Planning Partners, two attorneys with Hamburg, Rubin, Mullin, Maxwell & Lupin, and an environmental compliance technician with Brubacher Excavating will be presenters.
Both seminars will be on Oct. 28; The first, from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at Old Corner Hotel, 328 Court St., Williamsport; the second, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in the North Manser Dining Room at Mansfield University, 39 College Place, Mansfield.
Registration starts a half hour beforehand Free breakfast and refreshments will be provided.
Animations show extent of Marcellus Shale development
http://live.psu.edu/story/48893#nw69
Penn State Ag Sciences Newswire – 10.11.2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Animations show extent of Marcellus Shale development
University Park, Pa. — The pace and extent of Marcellus Shale development across Pennsylvania can be “seen” in animated maps produced by the Penn State Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research.
Based on data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the animations (http://www.marcellus.psu.edu/resources/maps.php) show both the number of drilling permits issued for the Marcellus Shale target and the number of wells drilled by year from 2007 through August 2010. Although permits were issued prior to 2007, information on those permits did not include latitude and longitude.
“These animations give people a chance to see how the pace of Marcellus development has accelerated,” said Tom Murphy, co-director of the Marcellus Center and extension educator with Penn State Cooperative Extension. “When you look at these animations, you are able to trace where development is occurring and get a sense of the rate at which it is occurring.”
The two animations also allow comparison between the number of permits issued and the actual number of wells drilled.
The animations show that interest in the Marcellus has skyrocketed with just 99 drilling permits issued in 2007 compared to 2,108 in the first eight months of 2010. A similar surge in the numbers of wells drilled is also evident. In 2010, through August 31, 950 wells had been drilled in the Marcellus Shale while in all of 2007, only 43 wells were drilled.
“We expect that the uptick in Marcellus well drilling activity will continue, given the high production rates being seen in the wells and the relatively low cost to develop this gas resource,” said Michael Arthur, co-director of Penn State’s Marcellus Center and professor of geosciences. “Even with the low natural gas commodity pricing, drilling in the Marcellus can still be profitable for efficient companies.”
The DEP updates its permit and well reports weekly at http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/oilgas/RIG10.htm. A separate spreadsheet identifies Marcellus permits and whether they are for horizontal or vertical wells.
The Marcellus Shale occurs as deep as 9,000 feet below ground surface and covers about 95,000 square miles over six states including Pennsylvania. Its organic carbon-rich, gas-producing layers range from less than five feet thick to more than 250 feet thick. Estimates are that the Marcellus has enough recoverable natural gas to supply the entire U.S. for at least 20 years at the current rate of consumption.
The Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research (www.marcellus.psu.edu) is supported by Penn State Outreach, Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment and the colleges of Agricultural Sciences and Earth and Mineral Sciences.
For more information, contact the Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research, marcellus@psu.edu or (814) 865-1587.
Penn State has Marcellus Shale Web tool
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Penn_State_has_Marcellus_Shale_Web_tool_10-08-2010.html
Posted: October 8, 2010
Updated: Today at 5:00 AM
Penn State has Marcellus Shale Web tool
Times Leader staff
Penn State University’s Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research on Tuesday unveiled a new Internet resource that visually tracks the development of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.
Animated maps display data about drilling permits issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection and wells drilled in Pennsylvania from 2007 through August of this year, visually demonstrating the rapid growth of interest in the Marcellus Shale.
There were just 99 drilling permits issued state wide in 2007 compared to 2,108 in August, 2010.
The maps can be found under the resources tab at http://www.marcellus.psu.edu.
Residents question frack wastewater treatment in valley
http://citizensvoice.com/news/residents-question-frack-wastewater-treatment-in-valley-1.1044925
Residents question frack wastewater treatment in valley
By Erin Moody (Staff Writer)
Published: October 7, 2010
HANOVER TWP. – With the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority exploring the possibility of treating natural gas drilling wastewater at its Hanover Township plant, issues that have concerned residents in the Back Mountain are now becoming a concern for residents in the Wyoming Valley.
About 30 people attended an information session Wednesday night at the Hanover Township municipal building regarding drilling and possible treatment facilities.
Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition member Scott Cannon opened the meeting with a showing of his short film, “Frack to the Future: What Luzerne Co. Needs to Know About Gas Drilling.” Fellow member Janine Dymond followed up with a presentation on the natural gas drilling process and information about the size of the water tankers and the contents of the wastewater.
For wells to supply natural gas, they must be hydraulically fractured, which involves blasting millions of gallons of chemically treated water thousands of feet underground to crack the shale rock and release the natural gas.
As to the WVSA treating the wastewater, she listed pros that included the possibility of more jobs, increased revenue to local businesses because of trucks passing through, increased tax or other revenue for the sewer authority and the opportunity to pilot better treatment methods.
The trucks will be carrying 5,000 gallons of water with toxic chemicals through residential areas, roads face damage from those heavy trucks, drilling companies are from out-of state and have “questionable integrity,” solid waste could be radioactive and there are already issues with sewage and storm water drainage, Dymond said.
By her estimations, wells in the Marcellus Shale region could create 4.3 million truckloads of wastewater.
“And even over a five-year period, that’s a lot of heavy trucks,” Dymond said.
John Minora of PA Northeast Aqua Resources attended as a representative from the WVSA and said the authority is looking into the possibility of treating 50,000 to 100,000 gallons a day, or the equivalent of five to 10 trucks.
The water could possibly be cleaned and reused for fracking, and Minora said it would not be dumped into the Susquehanna River. Another option the WVSA is looking into is selling the water it takes in for treatment to drilling companies for use in fracking. Revenue could offset the cost of plant improvements for residents, he said.
“We want to do it in an environmentally responsible way. We’ve always been good neighbors down there,” Minora said.
Awareness coalition raises concerns about gas drilling
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Awareness_coalition_raises_concerns_about_gas_drilling_10-06-2010.html
Posted: October 7, 2010
Updated: Today at 12:30 AM
Awareness coalition raises concerns about gas drilling
Consultant says WVSA is contemplating expansion to process drilling frack water.
By Sherry Long slong@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
HANOVER TWP. – Hanover Township and other parts of the Wyoming Valley have not been affected by the gas drilling centered in the Back Mountain region.
Yet, some might be affected in the future if the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority expands its Hanover Township plant to serve the needs of drilling companies.
Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition members Janine Dymond and Scott Cannon each gave presentations Wednesday night on: gas drilling; the fracking process and the dangers involved with the chemicals used; air and water pollution and heavy truck traffic. The coalition is a nonprofit volunteer member organization that works to educate people about gas drilling.
Cannon told the 40 people in attendance at the township building that if the gas drilling companies tap into vast underground gas pockets in Luzerne County as planned, a frack water treatment center might be constructed in Hanover Township by the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority (WVSA).
Addressing the crowd, John Minora, a consultant for the WVSA, said the authority is considering expanding its facility to treat used water from the drilling sites or possibly selling wastewater to the drilling companies. No decision has been reached, he said.
He said if an addition is built to process frack water, it would process 50,000 to 100,000 gallons daily. He added that public speculation that a million-gallon-a-day plant may be built is not on the drawing board.
“The water has to go somewhere. It can’t sit out there in those pits (at drilling sites),” Minora said, adding anything the WVSA does will be environmentally friendly and also generate revenue in hope of keeping residential rates low.
In a video shown by Cannon, state Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, stated she introduced a bill to put a one-year moratorium on issuance of new gas-drilling permits, but the state did not enact a moratorium.
Citizen Dave Gutkowski said state lawmakers should pass a moratorium.
He said he doesn’t understand why there is a big rush to start drilling for the gas when he said the shale has been around for 300 million years and will supply gas to the country for decades.
“Let it sit there a bit until we know how to do it safely,” Gutkowski said.
Dymond said a moratorium is a step in the right direction. Yet once one is passed, then lawmakers and state agencies need to begin working to establish new guidelines to monitor and regulate these gas drilling companies and protecting residents’ rights, Dymond said.
Sherry Long, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7159.
Drillers split on Pa. severance tax
http://citizensvoice.com/news/drillers-split-on-pa-severance-tax-1.1044193
Drillers split on Pa. severance tax
By Robert Swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: October 6, 2010
HARRISBURG – Segments of the natural gas industry are taking different positions on acceptance of a severance tax for Pennsylvania.
The diverging views come as House Democratic and Senate Republican leaders face a narrow window to negotiate a compromise severance tax bill on natural gas production as the legislative session winds down.
The industry is united in their opposition to the House-approved bill to levy a significant severance tax rate at 39 cents per thousand cubic feet, or mcf, of natural gas at the wellhead. Senate GOP leaders want a severance tax that sets a lower tax rate during a well’s early – and most productive – years of production.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association and firms like Range Resources-Appalachia criticized the bill approved last week by House lawmakers as setting a tax rate that would hurt development of the Marcellus Shale reserve in Pennsylvania.
But they part company when it comes to opposing any severance tax as a cost of doing business.
The coalition has urged lawmakers to link a severance tax with changes in state law to require the pooling together of land parcels for drilling operations and making drilling a permitted use for local zoning, thus allowing for quicker issuing of local zoning permits.
“A competitively structured tax in Pennsylvania, that allows for critical investment, coupled with smart regulatory and legislative modernizations, is key to ensuring that this historic opportunity is realized in ways that benefit each and every Pennsylvanian,” said coalition executive director Kathryn Klaber.
The Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association is opposed to any severance tax.
“PIOGA encourages the state Senate to reject, outright, any severance tax on natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania,” said association president Louis D’Amico. PIOGA represents both traditional shallow-well drillers and Marcellus-oriented companies.
A severance tax will eat up too much of the profit from production on natural gas wells and make it more difficult for companies to compete for capital to develop natural gas supplies, D’Amico said.
Somewhere in the middle is Range Resources, a firm with operations in Southwest Pennsylvania and Lycoming County.
“We are not against the severance tax,” spokesman Mike Mackin said.
Pennsylvania should structure a severance tax to allow drillers to recover capital investment spent on drilling a well so companies have money to reinvest, he said. Texas and Arkansas have structured severance taxes along those lines, he said.
“There is some place in the middle,” Mackin said. “All we are saying is, `Let’s be competitive.'”
Senate Republicans have proposed taxing a deep well at 1.5 percent of market value of gas produced for the first five years with a 5 percent tax rate kicking in after that.
Gov. Ed Rendell has said he won’t sign legislation with that specific phase-in, but added he is open to compromise.
rswift@timesshamrock.com
Proposal would allow holdout landowners to be forced to lease below-ground gas rights.
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Polling_for_gas_drilling_not_popular__especially_before_election_10-03-2010.html
Posted: October 4
Updated: Today at 12:20 AM
Polling for gas drilling not popular, especially before election
Proposal would allow holdout landowners to be forced to lease below-ground gas rights.
MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer
HARRISBURG — Pooling isn’t popular.
If you haven’t heard of it, it’s an obscure provision that was at the top of the list of changes to Pennsylvania law being sought this year by companies unearthing natural gas from the rich Marcellus Shale formation that sits below much of the state.
But senator after senator in Harrisburg has voiced opposition to the concept, which, simply put, could be used to force holdout landowners to lease their below-ground gas rights under certain conditions.
Landowners would be paid for the methane sucked from beneath their turf, and no well would be drilled on their land — but they’d be unable to say “No” to a drilling company.
Opponents call it tantamount to government taking property rights to benefit private companies, and say industry representatives could wield it as a weapon to limit a landowner’s ability to negotiate a better lease.
Senate President Joe Scarnati, a key industry ally, said he’ll continue to try to develop a provision that satisfies the concerns of his fellow senators. But he acknowledged that concern regarding taking property rights is a major hurdle.
Citizens “take it seriously and I think that it’s maybe a toss-up — take their property or take their guns,” Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said. “But I’ve got to tell you, you’re treading on some thin ice when you try to take either. So we’re very sensitive to that and we’re going to certainly do the commonwealth right in whatever the final product is.”
Scarnati had hoped to put a pooling provision into a wider bill addressing Marcellus Shale issues, including an extraction tax sought by House Democrats since shortly after the drilling boom began two years ago. However, pooling is likely to be punted into next year.
The Senate’s last scheduled voting day this year is Oct. 14 and no pooling proposal has received a public hearing or even a lengthy floor debate.
The issue is thorny enough, even if legislators were not facing an election in four weeks.
An industry spokesman said Friday that he hadn’t given up on the provision.
“The ongoing negotiations on taxation and modernizations to the statutory framework for our industry will likely ebb and flow over the next two weeks,” said David Spigelmyer, vice chairman of the industry group, Marcellus Shale, and the director of governmental relations for Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp.
Monroe, Pike not prime for gas drilling, says initial testing
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101004/NEWS/10040313
Monroe, Pike not prime for gas drilling, says initial testing
By Michael Sadowski
Pocono Record Writer
October 04, 2010 12:00 AM
When the Delaware River Basin Commission releases its regulations for companies that intend to drill Marcellus Shale in its watershed, the industry interest in the Poconos could rise.
But it might not be immediate, and it likely won’t be as widespread as it has been in other regions of the state, if preliminary geology is any indication.
David Yoxtheimer, an extension associate at the Penn State Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research, said the region is not yet particularly well-mapped for Marcellus Shale density. However, he said Marcellus Shale deposits in Monroe and Pike counties appear to be further below the surface and not as thick as the deposits in the burgeoning northern tier of the state.
“The drilling time and costs may be greater if they need to drill deeper,” Yoxtheimer said of natural gas companies, making the region a less attractive shale site.
Yoxtheimer said Marcellus Shale deposits are found about 5,000 to 7,000 feet under the surface in the northern tier of the state, like Susquehanna and Bradford counties and parts of Wayne County.
However, in Monroe and Pike counties — part of the DRBC’s authority — it’s found as deep as 8,000 feet under the surface.
Also, the most abundant Marcellus Shale areas of the county in the northern sections have a thickness of about 75 to 100 feet. The deposits in the southern areas of the county are less than 50 feet. In the state’s northern tier, deposits could run as thick as 250 feet.
“Which would put Monroe County on the outer fringe of Marcellus play,” Yoxtheimer said.
According to state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources geology figures, a very small piece of Barrett Township is the only area of the county with deposits that could be as thick as 100 feet.
Portions of Susquehanna, Wayne and Bradford counties have deposits as thick as 250 feet, according to state figures.
“Initially, (drilling) probably won’t be as extensive in Monroe as it will be in northern Pike or Wayne counties,” said state Rep. John Siptroth, D-189. “Monroe County has vast deposits; they’re just down much deeper. Companies are going to go where (they would make the smallest) investment.”
Keith Schmidt, spokesman for Newfield Exploration Co., said his company recently completed its third exploratory well drilling in Wayne County.
He said the company needs to evaluate data at those sites before there is any development elsewhere. “That will take time,” Schmidt said.
Pat Carullo, a founding member of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, said when shale drilling does come, Monroe County residents will know.
DCS was formed two years ago to protect water quality in the Delaware River, something the group believes will be tampered with if Marcellus Shale drilling is permitted to come to the region.
“They won’t have to look very far,” he said. “They’ll see hundreds and hundreds of new trucks on the road, they’ll see transient workers and camps set up — it will be easy to see.”
Lawmakers discuss Marcellus Shale benefits
http://standardspeaker.com/news/lawmakers-discuss-marcellus-shale-benefits-1.1041896
Lawmakers discuss Marcellus Shale benefits
By JIM DINO (Staff Writer)
Published: October 3, 2010
The Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling project has the potential to ease Pennsylvania’s $3 billion budget deficit next year, but taxes and fees derived from the gas also have to protect the environment, local lawmakers said Friday.
State Reps. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-121; Neal Goodman D-123; Jerry Knowles, R-124; and Tim Seip, D-125, answered questions from members of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Manufacturers and Employers Association on Friday at Top of the 80s in West Hazleton.
Legislators were questioned on four topics: the 2011 budget deficit, taxes, transportation and energy.
Goodman started off by painting a bleak budget picture.
“Next year, we will have a minimum $3 billion budget deficit,” Goodman said. “The $2 billion from the Obama stimulus goes away, and there’s $850 million in medical malpractice in this year’s budget that may not be coming from the federal government. And we are $1 billion short on road and bridge money. It will be like this as long as the economy stays where it is.”
Pashinski said there are only five states in the black. “They are all energy-producing states,” Pashinski said.
And now, with the Marcellus Shale project, Pennsylvania will also become an energy-producing state, Pashinski said.
Pennsylvania must assess a severance tax, a tax on the gas that comes out of the ground, he said.
“Marcellus Shale is one of the richest gas fields in the world,” he said. “There are trillions of cubic yards of gas.”
A severance tax is in the natural gas industrial business model in every state except Pennsylvania, Pashinski said.
The House approved a bill last week setting a significant tax rate at 39 cents per thousand cubic feet, or mcf, of natural gas at the wellhead. Senate Republican leaders have proposed setting a severance tax rate at 1.5 percent during the first five years of a well’s operation before a 5 percent rate kicks in.
Goodman said he expected the tax – once the House and Senate get together on the issue – to end up being between 5 and 7 percent.
But he cautioned a good chunk of the money has to go to ensuring environmental protection, including hiring state Department of Environmental Protection inspectors.
Our area should have learned from what the coal industry did to the local environment, Goodman said.
“This is coal revisited,” Goodman said. “In the early 1700s, coal operators wanted to come in, and said ‘if you don’t let us come in, we’ll go to Kentucky or West Virginia, and come back here later.’
“But look at what happened. I know a place in Girardville where orange water oozes out of the ground.
“We are the Saudi Arabia of gas,” Goodman said. “This project will create 111,000 jobs. We have to be careful.”
Knowles said the tax should be fair.
“There are 23 to 28 shale deposits in the country,” Knowles said. “We don’t want them to abandon this project. These jobs start at $20 to $22 per hour. They are good jobs.”
One problem is, Pennsylvania residents are not trained or experienced enough in the field to get the jobs right now.
“They took an old valve plant in Bradford County and turned it into classrooms,” Knowles said. “We have to work with community colleges to increase the training.”
The taxes and fees from Marcellus Shale will raise an estimated $1 billion a year. While some want to put all of it into the state’s general fund, Seip wants to put half in the general fund, and the other half into transportation – mass transit, roads and bridges.
Seip suggested revamping the state’s sales tax law to tax more goods and services – raising $6 billion to $7 billion – to fund road and bridge repairs, and to replace the property taxes on primary homes.
“The sales tax law has not been revised since 1971,” Seip said.
His so-called Sales-tax Modernization Addressing Real Tax equality plan, or SMART plan, would subject the following items to the state’s 6 percent sales tax: Newspapers and magazines, advertising, catering, investment consulting, scientific research, and admission to theaters, museums and sporting events. High school sports would be exempt.
The legislators said property owners do get gaming funds toward reducing property taxes but often don’t realize it because the rebate comes in the form of a property tax reduction.
The legislators said Pennsylvania benefits much more than other states with gaming.
“New Jersey gets 9 cents on every gambling dollar, while Pennsylvania gets 55 cents,” Pashinski said. “About 34 cents goes into the general fund, 12 cents to save the equine industry, 5 cents toward tourism, the state’s second-largest industry, and 4 cents to local governments.”
Pashinski and Goodman said their constituents receive a $200 rebate on their property taxes every year from gaming.
Goodman said the 12 cents toward the equine industry is money well spent.
“We saved about 40,000 jobs and created another 8,000, (in the gaming industry)” Goodman said. “Dealers are making $35,000 to $40,000 a year.”
jdino@standardspeaker.com