NARROWSBURG, NY — National Park Service (NPS) regional and local staff, Delaware River Basin Commission and Army Corps of Engineers staff journeyed west for the National Park Service Natural Gas Summit in September. They viewed Pennsylvania’s gas fields and gas facilities as far afield as Susquehanna and Bradford counties and spoke with people there and in the Upper Delaware.

NPS Superintendent Kris Heister presented a slideshow and reported to the Upper Delaware Council about the training trip on December 4.

Cabot Oil and Gas provided access to facilities for the tour. Cabot has some 40,000 employees in the state, leases for 200,000 acres in Susquehanna and Wyoming counties, has drilled more than 300 wells and plans to drill 3,000 more over the next 30 years. The slideshow showed clean settings and well maintained equipment.

The hydraulic fracturing “fracking” process involves horizontal “non-conventional” drilling to depths of about 6,000 feet. Multiple wells are possible from a single pad. Chemicals used include: biocide (chlorine), acid (like hydrochloric), friction reducer (like dish soap), sand to keep fractures open and lots of water.

Drillers recover about 40% of the water they pump in, the rest being absorbed. Recovered water is recycled.

Major concerns of fracking opponents involve leaks in the joints of drilling pipe that allow the escape of chemical-infused water, migration of methane gas associated with natural gas, and the final destination of the 60% of absorbed water.

The tour finished up with presentations at the Equinunk and Basket Historical societies, and concluded at Lander’s Café with “a diverse group of local business people who shared their perspectives on the gas industry.”

Heister said those conversations really “gave a flavor for the pros and cons” and were valuable for everyone involved.

Heister concluded by pointing out differences in the landscape between Bradford and Susquehanna counties and the Upper Delaware region. With decades of energy production anticipated, she said her main concern for water quality is the deforestation of the landscape. She said that the one thing that maintains and protects water quality is heavily forested land. Heister presented a list of potential impacts for UDC. They included habitat and landscape-scale fragmentation; water quality and flow; scenic quality; air quality; visitor experience and recreation; safety and law enforcement challenges; noise; cumulative impacts of infrastructure needs such as road construction, storage and staging; influx of temporary and permanent workers; and the rapid pace of change needed to support such development.

Now what?

Some believe that the NPS is between a rock and hard place in dealing with fracking.

The Obama administration has largely dealt with social issues over the past six years. However, Mother Jones reported that the President’s “accession to office coincided (coincidentally) with the widespread adoption of hydraulic fracking to drill for natural gas, resulting in a sudden boom in supplies and a rapid drop in price, to the point where gas began to supplant coal as the fuel of choice for American power plants.”

Growth of the industry also provided much of the job growth as the country recovered from deep recession.

In his last State of the Union address, the President spoke of natural gas, saying, “If extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change.”

However, recent studies have concluded that methane releases related to gas development have been much greater than earlier estimates. Methane combines with and retains the sun’s energy at much greater ratios (25 times by some measurements) than carbon dioxide, which has been labeled as the principal cause of global warming.

Earlier this year the NPS, in comments on Bureau of Land Management fracking policy, cited a September New York Times op-ed by a Cornell scientist who noted growing methane releases and questioned natural gas as a bridge to renewable energy.

Following a complaint from a Utah congressman who chairs the Natural Resources Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Subcommittee, NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis had those comments withdrawn, saying they had not been fully reviewed.

On the other side of the issue

The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) continues to express fracking concerns.

The NPCA study, “National Parks and Hydraulic Fracturing: Balancing Energy Needs, Nature, and America’s National Heritage,” (www.npca.org/about-us/center-for-park-research/fracking/) included 10 areas nationally and highlights five, including the Upper Delaware and Delaware Water Gap.

“A current drilling moratorium is in place by Delaware River Basin Commission, but it could be lifted. Test wells drilled just outside of the park border in New York State confirm that gas resources in the area are plentiful.

“These parks are among America’s most visited because they provide a peaceful respite on the busy East Coast. Energy extraction and infrastructure, and its associated noise, development and visual impacts, would completely impair the parks’ natural calm.

“Water degradation resulting from potential groundwater contamination or wastewater spills would seriously threaten wildlife in one of the last major undammed rivers in the eastern U.S.…

“Consequently, the NPCA recommends that policymakers require a measured, thoughtful approach to fracking, especially near national parks and in their surrounding landscapes. We must make every effort to understand and anticipate potential consequences—before they become irreversible.”

Aiming at Pennsylvania’s new governor, Valerie Naylor, former NPS superintendent of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, co-authored a November 30 op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette with Matt Elliot of NPCA in Pennsylvania.

“In North Dakota, we watched oil and gas development around Theodore Roosevelt National Park grow from a minimal impact to a heavy impact in just five years. Visitors approaching the beautiful park are now confronted by an industrial landscape of drilling pads, pipelines, rail loading facilities and heavily-trafficked roads. A lack of adequate planning and regulations has left the park forever altered by the nation’s biggest oil boom...

“This threat has come quickly to the Commonwealth and is knocking at the door of the Delaware River Basin… .”

They wrote that as members of the DRBC, “Pennsylvania and Governor-elect Tom Wolf, have an opportunity before them that North Dakota did not. They can take important steps to strengthen gas drilling regulations now to better protect Pennsylvania’s parks, forests and clean water and air… Let’s benefit from the lessons learned at Theodore Roosevelt National Park and protect Pennsylvania’s treasured places now before it’s too late.”