State to lease more land

Gas tapped for PA budget shortfalls

By SANDY LONG

CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA — When hunters returned to their favorite sporting grounds in Sproul State Forest in Renovo recently, some were shocked to discover nearly a dozen new clearings for natural gas well pads. Over time, the outdoor sporting and recreation community can expect to see more such activity, as the state prepares to open an additional 31,967 acres of state forest for lease.

The PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Acting Secretary John Quigley recently unveiled a plan for leasing state forest lands that he said balances the state’s environmental and fiscal obligations on behalf of the public. The state’s fiscal crisis led to the requirement that DCNR generate $60 million by leasing more land.

The department will open six tracts of land for a lease sale of subsurface oil and gas rights. The tracts are located in the Elk, Moshannon, Sproul, Susquehannock and Tioga state forests in Cameron, Clearfield, Clinton, Potter and Tioga counties.

Quigley said the department was especially diligent in evaluating which tracts to make available and that the acreage represents just a small fraction of the state’s 2.1 million acres of state-owned forest land.

While natural gas drilling has been present in Sproul for decades, those shallow wells bear little resemblance to the horizontal drilling beginning to take place there.

As reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the new well pads necessitate clearings of approximately four acres, roughly the size of three football fields, on which is erected a 200-foot drilling rig. The mammoth rigs require 80 trucks to transport and approximately a month to bore into the deeply buried reserves of natural gas known as the Marcellus Shale.

Sproul district forester Douglas J. D’Amore, along with bow hunters seeking familiar grounds, have been surprised at the huge scale of the drilling operations sprouting in Sproul’s 305,000 acres in Clinton, Centre and Cameron counties.

Hunting is now off limits around active rigs patrolled by security staff, and the large increase in truck traffic needed to transport millions of gallons of water is causing disruption to established wildlife communities. The drilling company, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, has agreed to reduce truck traffic during hunting season to minimize impacts.

A shift in public land management

The presence of the Marcellus Shale and advancements in the horizontal drilling technology used to access it are transforming the way Pennsylvania’s public lands are managed. With 660,000 acres of state forests under lease, DCNR expects a rapid escalation in drilling, even as budget cuts impact the agency’s ability to monitor more than the drilling operations it currently does.

DCNR is seeking bids for leasing by January 12, 2010 and requiring a minimum of $2,000 an acre and royalties of 18 percent. Although the primary lease term is 10 years, that term may be extended, since gas wells may produce for several decades or more. Last year, DCNR generated $166 million from 74,000 acres.

Jan Jarrett, president of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, objects to the use of state lands for such a purpose. “We don’t believe the state forest system ought to be viewed as a cash cow for the state budget,” said Jarrett. “We ought to put on the brakes until a study can be conducted to analyze what kind of impacts the drilling is having.”

The Chesapeake Bay Journal reports that the independent Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies that Pennsylvania’s forests meet or exceed standards to maintain sustainability, has asked the state to study the long-term effects of the rapidly increasing drilling. A primary concern is the fragmenting impact of roads, pipelines, well pads and compressor stations on large tracts of unbroken forest habitat.

Ryan Talbott, executive director of the Allegheny Defense Project, said he sees fewer species that depend on such habitats—like cerulean warblers, northern goshawks and rattlesnakes—and more invasive plants, now that 2,000 miles of roads and infrastructure have been put in place.

In a report issued December 1, the environmental advocacy group PennEnvironment called for tighter regulation of the natural gas industry to protect sensitive natural areas and water supplies. The group has requested a freeze on additional leasing of state forest land until the effects of current drilling operations are fully assessed. PennEnvironment is also advocating for a severance tax on drillers, as well as increased funding for regulators to improve oversight of drilling operations.

Attempts to offset budget shortfalls by imposing a gas tax on drillers have failed thus far.

“Our approach to making state lands available for natural gas drilling has always been to limit the impact on the surface and on other uses of the land,” said Quigley. “For each tract, we have identified the number of well pads that will be allowed and we will encourage developers to use existing roads. There are portions of the tracts that cannot be developed on the surface in order to protect wild or natural areas, ecosystems, water bodies, recreational opportunities, and visual impacts from vistas and trails.”

Quigley will address the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee at its meeting on December 15 at 11:30 a.m. regarding the impact of budget cuts on the agency and provide a status report on leasing state forest land for natural gas drilling.

Visit www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/gaslease.aspx for more information on areas offered for lease.