Growing concern about gas well deals

Residents have questions, few answers

By TOM KANE

DAMASCUS, PA - Some say it’s easy money and others say that whatever is paid is not equivalent to what is lost.

A group of local Pennsylvania residents gathered on January 8 at the Damascus Elementary School to stem the tide of alleged intimidation of local residents by gas companies seeking to sign leases to drill for natural gas.

For the last year, gas companies have quietly been soliciting residents and offering deals if they will allow them to drill for natural gas. It is reported that over 100 leases have been signed already in Mount Pleasant, Preston, Lebanon, Damascus, Manchester and Buckingham townships. The motivation for residents is to get on board now and get the big bucks. At one meeting that a company held with local residents, they flashed a check that was issued to a resident in another part of the state for $1 million and said such a thing was possible.

Numerous residents at the meeting said that they were being urged to sign agreements since neighbors had already signed and they ran the risk of losing out. Local and state officials have advised such people to seek the guidance of an attorney about whether to sign or not.

The principal gas utility that is currently soliciting Wayne County residents is the Chesapeake Utility Corporation of Dover, DE. They are not purchasing land but are seeking the leasing of land. They have held several meetings locally in Wayne County over the past month. The meetings were not publicly announced and members of the press were not aware of them, including this writer.

Pennsylvania law allows companies to get permits to do drilling and, some say, gives them more rights than individual communities possess.

Home rule, which holds that local municipalities have the right to regulate land-use practices, doesn’t apply, according to Ed Lagarene, zoning officer of Damascus Township. “The township can pass no law that is more restrictive than state law,” he said.

Some, however, are questioning that position.

It was also revealed by Wayne County Conservation District staff that the companies were exempt by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2006 from the regulation of the federal National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), which controls water pollution by regulating companies that discharge pollutants into water. The reason for the exemption was not entirely clear.

At the January 8 meeting, people were shown pictures of the devastation caused by gas drilling companies in the Allegheny National Forest in western Pennsylvania that were taken by the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.

They projected, in grim air and land photographs, the work of the gas explorers that showed wide destruction that caused water pollution, depletion of the water table, air pollution, soil erosion, uncontrolled stormwater runoff, improperly constructed roads that cut across the forest, habitat fragmentation, harm to wildlife, loss of scenic landscapes, loss of forest cover, recreational sites and increased heavy truck traffic.

“Information from the industry says that it takes an estimated one to six million gallons of water to fracture the deep rock when a well is dug,” Damascus resident Jack Fitzgerald said. “A gas driller can drill more than once to make it work right. If they’re going to drill about 100 wells as they say, it could take an average of 300 million gallons of water to do the job.”

Drilling companies take the water from the water table in the surrounding area.

At an earlier meeting held by the gas company, a resident who had attended said the company representatives stated that the exploration would not adversely affect property values.

“I have been selling real estate around here for 35 years, and I can tell you categorically that you will have great trouble selling your land if it has a lease for gas drilling on it,” local realtor Jennifer Canfield said.

“Unfortunately, the role of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is to issue permits and not to protect,” said Ben Price, projects director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit Pennsylvania organization that works to protect the environment. “DEP is rubberstamping the destruction of our communities,” he said.

“I cannot comment on that statement because I don’t know who the speaker is nor his organization, but I can tell you that there is a strict permit and monitoring regulatory process that DEP follows strictly along with the county conservation districts in the state,” said Mark Carmon, DEP community relations director for the Northeast Pennsylvania region.

Community members expressed deep concern and asked if nothing can be done to stop or control this exploration and devastation. “There are things a community can do, but it won’t be easy,” Price said. “If they want to protect their community, they’re going to have to pick a fight. They can’t do it on the defensive. They will have to go on the offensive.”

Some communities in the state have already taken means to pass laws that aim to stop or control the drilling. “People have to assert their rights by passing laws that say things like ‘corporations may not engage in practices that destroy our community’ or say that an unjust law is something that they will not abide and that they mean to exercise their right by passing a local law. It’s crucial that they get the leadership of the township behind this effort,” Price said.

How do they do that?

Consistently attend every township and planning commission meeting in numbers, he said.

(Editor’s note: Another article next week will discuss the role of the Department of Environmental Protection and the county Conservation Districts in regulating gas drilling companies.)