Posts Tagged ‘Department of Transportation’

BY STACI WILSON (Staff Writer)
Published: July 2, 2010

HOP BOTTOM – Linda and Bob Lewis didn’t sign up to be part of Susquehanna County’s natural gas plan, but the industry is coming to them anyway.

The Lathrop Twp. property owners live along Route 2002, outside Hop Bottom, where Chief Gathering, a subsidiary of Chief Oil and Gas, is constructing a 12-inch pipeline headed to a nearby compressor station.

The pipeline construction is taking place on private property along a state Department of Transportation right of way.

It is the construction along the road that has Mrs. Lewis alarmed.

“They’re going right through the yard,” she said. “I’m so upset about it. PennDOT has given out permits to run the pipeline through the right of way and they say there is nothing we can do about it.”

PennDOT spokeswoman Karen Dussinger confirmed that the agency granted the gas company permission to install the pipe in its right of way. Ms. Dussinger said the right of way varies from place to place and could range between 25 feet and 50 feet from the centerline of the road.

“Property owners often believe they own the land right up to the road itself, but that isn’t so,” said Ms. Dussinger.

She explained the right of way is an easement the state gives PennDOT in order to maintain the roads.

Mrs. Lewis is concerned about the proximity of the pipeline to her home.

“I don’t know how they can go so close to homes with a 12-inch pipeline,” she said. “If that thing blows, we’re off the map.”

She said she has known about the pipeline coming through the area since January, but only recently learned it would be built along the side of the road she lives on. She said she has tried to contact Chief Oil and Gas for months but her calls were not returned.

Officials at Chief Oil and Gas could not be reached for comment.

Department of Environmental Planning, Bureau of Oil and Gas spokesman Dan Spadoni said the agency requires erosion and sediment control plans along proposed pipeline routes. He said a storm water discharge plan may also be required on pipeline projects.

DEP would also require a construction and encroachment permit if the pipeline was going to cross any streams or impact a wetlands area. DEP does not regulate the material and construction standards or set a minimum depth the pipeline has to be laid below the ground.

“It’s scary to have a 12-inch pipeline right out in front of your home,” Mrs. Lewis said. “That’s a lot of pressure.”

Contact the writer: swilson@independentweekender.com

View article here.

Copyright:  The Scranton Times

BY JEREMY G. BURTON (STAFF WRITER)
Published: June 24, 2010

Pennsylvania authorities found environmental and safety violations on more than 130 trucks hauling wastewater from natural gas wells during a three-day enforcement blitz last week, the state Department of Transportation said Wednesday.

Overall, officials inspected 1,137 trucks between June 14 and 16 during the multi-agency operation, which was focused on Marcellus Shale drilling sites. Of the 210 commercial vehicles ordered out of service for violations, 131 were transporting wastewater used in the process called hydraulic fracturing.

The added enforcement has been made necessary by the growing gas industry’s heavy truck traffic, especially in rural counties, state police Commissioner Frank E. Pawlowski said in a statement.

Also participating was the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

In Troop R – which covers Lackawanna, Pike, Susquehanna and Wayne counties – officials shut down 25 vehicles and issued 141 citations during 142 inspections.

Sixty-six vehicles were shut down and 358 citations issued in 166 inspections within Troop P, which covers Bradford, Sullivan, Wyoming and part of Luzerne counties.

One hundred nineteen vehicles were shut down in western and central Pennsylvania.

Inspectors especially looked for safety deficiencies that could lead to crashes, authorities said.

Contact the writer: jburton@timesshamrock.com

View article here.

Copyright: The Scranton Times

Legislators want adequate tax share for municipalities fiscally hit by gas drilling.

STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@timesleader.com

Much legislation has been written recently to address concerns about natural gas drilling into Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, but little has been signed into law.

And one issue, it seems has been overshadowing and holding up action on all the others: a state severance tax on natural gas extraction.

Several bills addressing a severance tax have been put forward by state legislators, and Gov. Ed Rendell also has proposed implementing such a tax.

“The biggest concern for legislators is that an adequate portion of a severance tax would come back to local governments that are financially impacted by drilling activities,” said Adam Pankake, representing Sen. Gene Yaw, a Republican from Lycoming County and one of the few legislators to have a Marcellus-related bill he sponsored signed into law.

Senate Bill 325, sponsored by Rep. Anthony Melio, D-Levittown, didn’t muster much support in the House because it authorized an 8-percent severance tax, all of which would go to the state’s General Fund, Pankake said.

State Sen. Raphael Musto, D-Pittston Township, proposed a severance tax plan in Senate Bill 905 that mirrors Rendell’s plan, directing all proceeds of a 5-percent tax and a 4.7-cent charge on every 1,000 cubic feet of gas extracted into the General Fund.

A bill by state Rep. Bud George, chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, would send only 60 percent of a 5-percent tax to the General Fund.

The remainder would be divvied up, sending 15 percent to the Environmental Stewardship Fund; 9 percent split evenly between counties and municipalities in which wells are drilled; 5 percent to the Liquid Fuels Tax Fund; 4 percent split evenly between the Game and Fish and Boat commissions; 4 percent to the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund; and 3 percent to a program to help low-income residents with heating bills.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Andrew Dinniman, D-West Chester, would send half of a 5-percent severance tax to the General Fund. Another 44 percent would be split evenly between the Environmental Stewardship Fund and municipalities in which a well was drilled; the remaining 6 percent would be split between the Game and Fish and Boat commissions.

Legislators are also considering severance tax models used in other states, such as a phase-in approach used in Arkansas, Pankake said.

Marcellus-drilling industry advocates describe it as a fledgling industry that a severance tax could cripple because of the financial resources needed to build a pipeline infrastructure where none previously existed.

Matthew Maciorski, spokesman for state Rep. George, D-Clearfield County, said severance tax legislative proposals have been “coming in fast and furious. Everyone has their own take on how the revenue should be divided.”

Maciorski said Marcellus Shale issues are “very complicated and integral to the whole budget debate.”

Some legislators use some pieces of legislation as bargaining chips in negotiations with the gas industry. For example, the industry doesn’t support a severance tax, but the industry is pushing for a law authorizing forced pooling – compelling landowners who don’t wish to lease their mineral rights to be part of a drilling unit with others that do.

“Sometimes there are alliances that have to be built. &hellip Sometimes we rely on members to tell us when it’s time to strike. It gets complicated going between the House and the Senate. Members want to have all their ducks in a row to prevent there being (additional delays) in the process,” Maciorski said.

Bob Kassoway, director of the House Finance Committee for the Democratic Caucus, said any severance tax bill will likely be passed as part of the 2010-11 state budget, and it’s likely that little if any other Marcellus-related legislation will be passed until that happens.

Sen. Yaw was pleased that Act 15 was signed into law on March 22. Based on his Senate Bill 297, it repeals five-year confidentiality for gas production financial records and requires well operators to submit semi-annual reports to the state. It also requires the state Department of Environmental Protection to post well data online.

But while the debate continues over the severance tax, legislation on issues important to lease holders, to residents with environmental concerns and to members of the gas industry continue to languish in the House or Senate or their committees.

In addition to severance tax legislation, there are at least four Marcellus-related Senate bills and at least 17 House bills pending.

For example, legislators are holding off a vote on Rep. Bill DeWeese’s House Bill 10, which would enable counties to assess value to gas and oil for taxation purposes, likely because it hasn’t been decided what – if any – percentage of a severance tax will go to counties.

Introduced 16 months ago, House Bill 297 remains in the House Transportation Committee. Sponsored by Rep. Mark Longietti, D-Hermitage, it would require the state Department of Transportation to publish by the end of the year a revised schedule of bonding amounts for roads damaged by heavy truck traffic and to update the amount at least every three years.

PennDOT last revised the schedule in 1978, Longietti said, leaving officials in municipalities damaged by drilling trucks with insufficient guaranteed funding to repair their roads.

Rep. George’s House Bill 2213, which increases bonding amounts for wells, boosts the number of required well inspections by DEP and adds protections for water supplies, has gained much local support. But after an amendment in the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee in May, it was re-committed to the House Appropriations Committee.

Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, announced in May she is working on a series of bills to provide additional protections to drinking water sources that could be harmed by drilling.

State Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, issued a statement last week stating that she also was working to develop legislation to protect drinking water from gas drilling practices.

Painfully aware of the slow legislative pace in Harrisburg, Boback is urging the governor to issue an executive order implementing additional protective rules before more well-drilling permits can be issued.

Copyright: Times Leader