Posts Tagged ‘director’

Senator drafting legislation to improve the emergency response at oil and gas wells.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

At a hearing he chaired on Monday in Pittsburgh, U.S. Sen. Robert Casey sought input on legislation he plans to introduce to improve emergency response at oil and gas wells.

The Faster Action Safety Team Emergency Response Act of 2010 would empower the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to draft regulations that would enhance emergency response procedures at oil and gas wells.

Specifically, the act would let OSHA draft regulations requiring well operators to:

• Have an employee, knowledgeable in responding to emergency situations, present at the well at all times during the exploration or drilling phase.

• Make available a certified response team, within one hour of ground travel time, if an emergency situation arises.

• Contact local first responders within 15 minutes of an emergency situation beginning.

• Contact OSHA and the National Response Center within one hour of an emergency situation beginning.

• Provide communication technology at the well site (for example, mobile communication or satellite phone).

• Provide annual training to local first responders on the hazards of a well site and proper emergency response techniques.

• File an annual report with OSHA that names the certified response team assigned to each well of the operator.

OSHA would define the term “emergency situation” and would have 18 months to finalize the regulations under the act.

Casey, D-Scranton, sought input on the legislation from panelists at a field hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee titled “Emergency Response in the Marcellus Shale Region.”

“Because of the recent incidents at several gas well sites, I have called this hearing to investigate the current emergency response procedures and determine where we need improvement,” Casey said.

Panelists testified on current emergency response procedures and whether increased regulation is needed.

Among those testifying was Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Director Robert French, who said Marcellus Shale drilling has inherent risks, as demonstrated by the recent blowout at a well in Clearfield County and a fire at a separator tank in Susquehanna County. In the past year alone, there have been at least 47 incidents at natural gas operations that required an emergency response by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

French said PEMA has had to elevate efforts in response to industry growth, conducting tabletop exercises and meetings with industry and local officials and assisting county 9-1-1 centers with concerns about identifying drilling sites – often in very remote locations – so first responders can more quickly react.

French said state budgetary constraints can impact training and emergency response capabilities, and noted that part of a natural gas severance tax proposed by Gov. Ed Rendell would go to local governments and emergency responders for planning, training and equipment.

Barney Dobinick, emergency management coordinator for Lake Township, where Encana Oil & Gas USA plans to begin drilling a gas well later this summer, said Encana and the township already have everything in place that the senator’s been discussing.

“In fact, we exceed those (requirements) 10 times over in our plans,” Dobinick said.

Copyright: Times Leader

Canonsburg, Pa. – Tonight, Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) president and executive director Kathryn Klaber will deliver the following remarks at a public EPA forum on hydraulic fracturing. Excerpts and full text — as prepared for delivery — of her remarks are below:

• “Fracturing is considered a safe and essential part of the responsible development of natural gas, which studies have shown has the potential to create nearly 212,000 new jobs throughout Pennsylvania over the next decade.”
• “Our industry is working tirelessly to ensure that fracturing is done effectively, prudently and in a way that continues to create thousands of good-paying jobs and stable supplies of homegrown energy for U.S. consumers.”

My name is Kathryn Klaber, and I have the tremendous privilege of serving as the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s first president. And on behalf of the MSC – the organizational body that represents the vast majority of shale gas producers and midstream companies operating in the Commonwealth – I appreciate the opportunity to discuss the significant role hydraulic fracturing continues to play in the responsible development of clean-burning, job-creating natural gas.

As the MSC said at the outset of this study in March, our industry is confident that an objective, science-driven, and peer-reviewed evaluation of fracturing will reach the same conclusions produced by a host of other studies, including most notably one issued by your agency in 2004.

In that report — the product of an intensive, four-year course of study first initiated under the Clinton administration — EPA found “no evidence” suggesting the fracturing of shallow coalbed methane reserves posed a threat to underground drinking water supplies. Certainly you’re aware that coalbed methane strata reside thousands of feet closer to the water table than shale formations, and that the technology used today to access clean-burning natural gas from these formations is much more advanced and sophisticated than what was available in the past.

Here in Pennsylvania, fracturing has been in use for more than 50 years, and has been tightly regulated by the state almost before we had a name for it. Today, as you know, fracturing is considered a safe and essential part of the responsible development of natural gas, which studies have shown has the potential to create nearly 212,000 new jobs throughout Pennsylvania over the next decade.

Because of tight regulations and laws in place, coupled with the commitment from industry to protect the environment, there’s never been a single case of groundwater contamination associated with fracturing, as noted by PA DEP, top EPA officials, other state regulators, and the Groundwater Protection Council.

As EPA’s study moves forward, it’s critical to consider what the top officials responsible for regulating fracturing in the Commonwealth have said. Scott Perry, director of DEP’s bureau of oil and gas management – with whom my members work closely with – said this in May:

• “We’ve never seen an impact to fresh groundwater directly from fracking.”
• “No one’s ever documented drinking water wells that have actually been shown to be impacted by fracking.”

Pittsburgh Congressman Mike Doyle has said that state officials have “done a great job in regulating” Marcellus Shale exploration.

Unfortunately, while perceptions remain that our industry continues to resist regulations, the truth is quite the opposite. In fact, my member companies met earlier today with top DEP officials about well-casing standards; the second of such productive meetings in just months.

Our industry is working tirelessly to ensure that fracturing is done effectively, prudently and in a way that continues to create thousands of good-paying jobs and stable supplies of homegrown energy for U.S. consumers.

Once again, thank for the opportunity to speak here tonight about the critical role that hydraulic fracturing continues to play in realizing the Marcellus’s promise.

NOTE: Click HERE to view these remarks on-line.

Landowners, communities challenge Delaware River Basin Commission to explain rationale, authority behind denying opportunity of the Marcellus to Northeast PA

Translated literally from French it means “superior force,” but translated practically into American law, the term force majeure is a clause used by parties that encounter a situation so severe that it’s actually designated as an “Act of God” by the courts. Floods, famines, earthquakes, volcanoes – these are the kinds of events that trigger the rare invocation of the clause, allowing all parties involved in a contract to shield themselves of obligation in light of the extraordinary and unforeseen events that transpired after it was signed.

Actually, there’s one other event that has historically fallen under the rubric of force majeure: acts of war. Unfortunately, in the case of the West Trenton, N.J.-based Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), that’s precisely the action that was taken against landowners in eastern Pennsylvania last month, with the Commission instituting a de-facto, back-door moratorium on all activities within its sprawling jurisdiction even tangentially related to the development of clean-burning natural gas from the Marcellus Shale.

The upshot? This description comes from the June 30 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Of course, with potentially thousands of jobs at stake in the area – and millions of dollars in much-needed payments to landowners and state and local governments – folks who actually live and work in the Northeast PA counties affected by the DRBC promulgation aren’t exactly taking the decision lying down.

Case in point: Later today, the DRBC will hold a regularly scheduled hearing on a whole slate of issues related to regional water use and management, including a draft water withdrawal request from an energy operator in the area. Among the folks expected to attend? A busload of landowners from the Northern Wayne Property Owners Association (NWPOA), and from the information we’ve been able to glean from its website, the group is expecting a significant showing among residents in the area concerned by the implications of DRBC’s historic overreach on natural gas. To wit:

Back in June, the Marcellus Shale Coalition released an issue alert on the DRBC moratorium decision, wondering aloud if the modern-day DRBC would have let George Washington cross the Delaware without first initiating a years-long review procedure aimed at stalling the process and ultimately executing a pocket-veto of the entire enterprise. Needless to say, the denial of energy and mineral rights to landowners across the border in Pennsylvania wasn’t exactly what the creators of DRBC had in mind 50 years ago when the commission was created.

Earlier this week, the MSC expanded on its previously stated objections to the DRBC moratorium in a letter sent to Commission director Carol Collier. You see, in extending its initial ban to include a moratorium on doing even the most basic things to test the future viability of natural gas wells in the affected counties, the Commission cited “the risk to water resources” as the reason for pulling the plug on exploratory work in the area. But as MSC president and executive director Kathryn Klaber makes plain in her letter to DRBC this week, no water would be put at risk under such an approach – and very little of it will need to be withdrawn from surface areas under DRBC jurisdiction:

Of course, if DRBC’s review and approval of permits in this context is considered appropriate, then “it likewise would be appropriate for the development of a multitude of projects over which the Commission, appropriately, has not sought to assert jurisdiction, such as malls, hotels, restaurants, and residential subdivisions,” according to the letter from MSC.

So why is natural gas so different? That question, unfortunately, is not one that DRBC has answered with any degree of specificity just yet –content instead to simply assert its primacy over the matter and issue sweeping, multi-state declarations with significant implications for the clean-energy future of Pennsylvania and the economic security of those who live here. Hopefully, with the help of groups like NWPOA, the Commission will soon find itself in a position to better understand that the actions it makes from West Trenton, N.J. have real-world consequences for residents in the Commonwealth.

Copyright: Marcelluscoalition.org

Study says millions of PA residents relying on private water wells that may contain contaminants – none of which are related to the Marcellus Shale

Nearly 20,000 new wells are drilled in Pennsylvania every year. And among these, not a single one of them has anything to do with oil or natural gas.

Instead, these wells are drilled for the purpose of accessing underground sources of water. In Pennsylvania, more than three million residents rely on private wells for essential sources of potable water – second most in the entire nation behind Michigan. So lots of wells must mean lots of good, high-quality drinking water, right? Not according to a report issued last year by researchers from Penn State.

The study, available here and commissioned by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, was conducted over two years and drew on samples from more than 700 individual private water wells installed all across the state. What did the researchers find? For starters, a full 40 percent of tested wells failed to meet the state’s drinking water standards for safety. Keep in mind that Pennsylvania supports more than 1 million private water wells – which means it’s possible that more than 400,000 water wells, serving roughly 700,000 residents, are of a quality and nature of potential concern. And the worst thing about it? According to the survey, very few of these well owners even knew they had a problem.

With more than 1,300 Marcellus wells developed in Pennsylvania this year, it’s become a popular thing to assume that wells drilled for the purpose of tapping enormous and clean-burning reserves of natural gas 5,000 to 9,000 feet below the water table are having a deleterious impact on underground drinking water. The alleged culprit? A commonly deployed well stimulation technology known as hydraulic fracturing, a technique that’s been used more than a million times over the past 60 years not just for oil and natural gas, but forgeothermal production and even by EPA for Superfund clean-ups.

But as mentioned, the report on private water wells from Penn State was issued in 2009, roughly 50 years removed from the first-ever application of fracturing technology in the Commonwealth — and five years after the fracturing of the first-ever Marcellus Shale well. In other words, hydraulic fracturing has been around an awful long time in Pennsylvania, and so has the development of oil (1859) and natural gas (1881). So if the critics are right, those activities must have been identified by researchers as the greatest threats to the state’s underground water resources, right?

Take a look for yourself:

Of the 28 variables measured for each well, the results demonstrated that natural variables, such as the type of bedrock geology where the well was drilled, were important in explaining the occurrence of most pollutants in wells. Soil moisture conditions at the time of sampling were the single most important variable in explaining the occurrence of bacteria in private wells. … Inadequate well construction was strongly correlated with the occurrence of both coliform and E. coli bacteria in wells.

That’s right – we forgot to mention the fecal coliform (exactly what you think it is) and E. coli bacteria. According to the report, it turns out that 33 percent of private water wells in PA were found to be contaminated with the coliform, while a staggering 14 percent tested positive for E. coli. Another contaminant of concern is naturally occurring arsenic. Two percent of tested wells had increased levels of that, which potentially translates into 20,000 water wells across the state. According to the report, arsenic “most often occur[s] naturally from certain types of rocks but it can also come from treated lumber and pesticides.” Incidentally, Pennsylvania is among the only states in the nation without regulations governing the construction of private water wells or the periodic testing of the quality of water that comes from them.

This presentation prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey will take a minute or two to load, but take a look at slide 23 if you get the chance. Turns out Pennsylvania’s water wells are among the only ones in the nation with “high contaminant concentrations” for every one of the Big 3: arsenic, nitrates and radon. Again: Nothing in the report remotely related to Marcellus Shale activities. But don’t take our word for it – ask DEP (by way of Scott Perry, director of DEP’s Bureau of Oil and Gas Management):

“If there was fracturing of the producing formations that was having a direct communication with groundwater, the first thing you would notice is the salt content in the drinking water. It’s never happened. After a million times across the country, no one’s ever documented drinking water wells that have actually been shown to be impacted by fracking.”

Protecting underground sources of drinking water is and will always be our top priority – after all, we live here too. But if we expect the quality of our water to improve, first we’ll need to be honest about how it got where it is today, and then we’ll need to get serious about what needs to be done to improve it. That, we think, is what you’d do if you genuinely cared about the state and status of Pennsylvania’s private water wells. Unfortunately, too many folks seem all too willing to blame the entire phenomenon on the development of the Marcellus Shale – irrespective of the science, and blind to the history of the past 60 years.

Copyright: Marcelluscoalition.org

BY STEVE McCONNELL (STAFF WRITER)
Published: June 28, 2010

With the boom in Marcellus Shale natural gas development throughout the region, area educational institutions are growing to keep up with work force demands.

New training, certification and degree programs are being created at local schools to ensure local job skills are tailored to white- and blue-collared job needs related to the natural gas drilling industry.

Already, Lackawanna College and Johnson College in Scranton, Keystone College in LaPlume and the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport represent the growing trend of educational institutions offering course work and the hands-on training needed to become employable in one of Pennsylvania’s growing industries.

And, college administrators agree the reason for the trend is simple: There’s a demand for it by both the industry and potential workers who want the training and the jobs that come with it.

An industry-financed study conducted by Penn State’s department of energy and mineral engineering, which offers an undergraduate degree in natural gas engineering, expected Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction efforts to create more than 200,000 jobs in the state and have an overall $18 billion economic impact by this year.

“Marcellus Shale is going to be big business,” said Christopher Kucharski, Lackawanna College spokesman. “Problem is there is just nobody trained to handle the positions they want filled.”

It appears a change is under way.

Larry Milliken, director of Lackawanna College’s energy program and a natural gas instructor, just finished guiding the first class of 18 students through its first year of study to earn an associate degree in natural gas technology.

Based at the college’s New Milford campus in the center of the action near gas fields in Susquehanna County, the program is preparing students for well tender jobs – a position that requires monitoring and maintaining natural gas wells during their lengthy production phase.

There is generally one well tender employed for every 20 to 40 natural gas wells, Mr. Milliken said, and the entry-level annual salary is $36,000. Sixteen students have paid internships with natural gas drilling companies this summer in western Pennsylvania, he added.

“The industry has been very supportive of wanting to get (our students) on board,” he said. The college also is hiring three additional instructors this year to accommodate the increase in students who have enrolled in the natural gas technology degree program for the 2010-11 school year.

At Lackawanna College’s new campus in Hawley, college administrators recently announced a new certificate course for fall centered on training accounting assistants, accounting clerks and administrative assistants specifically for the oil and gas industry.

Tracy Brundage, managing director of work force development at Pennsylvania College of Technology, said administrators decided to take the leap into offering natural gas drilling-related courses this year. The decision followed an in-house study that determined growing employment opportunities because of the prevalence of natural gas development under way in the region.

“The jobs are going to be around for a long time,” Ms. Brundage said. “We’re just getting started … to get our arms around what is happening … and how we need to respond.”

Pennsylvania College of Technology has just begun offering training and certification classes in welding specialized for the industry’s infrastructure and commercial driver’s license classes, and has tweaked some of its academic majors – including diesel and electrical technology – to include natural gas drilling-related coursework.

So far, about 350 students have enrolled in the non-degree programs.

The college plans to expand its offerings, perhaps to include training for natural gas well operators and emergency response technicians, Ms. Brundage said.

Keystone College, known for its focus on the liberal arts, is also jumping on board.

Robert Cook, Ph.D., the college’s environmental resource management program coordinator, said the college will be offering a handful of new courses early next year that include mapping underground natural resources tied specifically to natural gas.

The environmental resource management degree, a four-year Bachelor of Science, has had its “highest level of interest this year” in part because of the Marcellus Shale boom and an expectation that jobs will be available for graduates, Dr. Cook said. The degree, which includes environmental law courses, can also prepare a would-be environmental regulator, he added.

“It’s clear energy is going to be an important subject for decades,” said Dr. Cook, a professional geologist. “It’s thrilling to see our discipline become an important skill set.”

Keystone is also hiring a new instructor to teach undergraduate courses within a new natural gas and petroleum resource curriculum that is now under development.

Marie Allison, director of continuing education at Johnson College, said the college will be offering its first class in pipe welding next week tailored to techniques needed by the natural gas industry. The college also will offer a class for advanced welders to prepare for certification in a specific style of welding demanded by the industry.

The college’s welding program had been defunct since 2001, because of declining enrollment, but the multitude of pipes and fittings that will be laid by the industry in the coming years yields greater demand for skilled welders, she said.

“They need welders,” Ms. Allison said. “We want to give someone the fundamentals and give them the opportunity to find a job.”

Contact the writer: smcconnell@timesshamrock.com

View this 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

State county commissioners association is working to broaden taxing authority.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Counties, municipalities and school districts aren’t seeing any significant tax revenue related to Marcellus Shale development under current tax law.

But the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania is working to change that, lobbying for legislation that would give those governmental bodies property taxing authority on natural gas similar to taxes levied on coal extraction.

“We have to have the assessment law changed. The reason (is that) other minerals are assessed. It’s not fair to the other mineral (extraction companies) and it’s not fair to the rest of the taxpayers who have to pick up the burden of their exemption,” association Executive Director Douglas Hill said of natural gas and oil companies.

Hill said the state Supreme Court in 2002 ruled that counties had no statutory authority to tax oil and gas because state assessment law specifically includes coal but makes no mention of oil or gas.

Since that time, oil and gas interests have been escaping local property taxes, which had been paid in oil and gas-producing counties since at least the early 1900s, according to a position paper released by the association.

“Producers of other minerals such as coal and limestone already pay their fair share of the property tax. Counties support reversing the Supreme Court’s 2002 decision to assure that oil and gas companies contribute their share to the local tax base as well,” the paper states.

Hill said House Bill 10 of 2009, sponsored by state Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Greene County, would restore property tax assessment authority on oil and gas.

The levy proposed in the bill would apply only to proven wells. “If there’s nothing to be extracted or (the gas) can’t be extracted, then there is no value,” Hill said.

Hill said there is, of course, opposition to the bill from the oil and gas industry. But he pointed out that other oil and gas producing states assess oil and gas extraction. Hill also said that large, multinational companies involved in Marcellus Shale exploration already had payment of such a tax built into their business plans and were surprised to learn that Pennsylvania counties can’t assess natural gas extraction.

Another association position paper points out several ways local communities are impacted by Marcellus Shale exploration that justify taxation.

“Some of the most visible impacts have been to township roads, county bridges and other infrastructure as developers bring drilling rigs, construction equipment and truckloads of water to and from drilling sites. &hellip Hotels might be filled with workers associated with Marcellus, impacting both the tourism industry and the county hotel tax,” according to the paper.

“Workers from out of state and their families have utilized social services such as drug and alcohol treatment and children and youth services. County jails, county probation and law enforcement have been affected. Even county recorder of deeds offices are affected, flooded by title searchers confirming ownership of subsurface rights,” the paper states.

House Bill 10 is still in the House Finance Committee for consideration.

“We’ve been working on getting agreement to move on it. We want to have things in place for a vote in the House and prepare for going to the Senate. We’ve also been working on an introduction of a bill in the senate,” Hill said.

Generally, legislators understand the issue, Hill said, but it “gets confusing at times because they are looking at a state severance tax,” and the county and local taxation issue “gets tied up in all the other issues related to the Marcellus,” he said.

Currently, there are at least five Senate bills and at least 17 House bills pertaining to Marcellus Shale exploration as well as one House bill, two senate bills and a budget proposal from Gov. Ed Rendell that address the imposition of a severance tax, according to information provided by state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township.

In the meantime, county assessors are waiting for some legislative determinations.

Luzerne County Assessor’s Office Director Tony Alu feels pretty confident that legislation eventually will be adopted and that the county will see some tax revenue from natural gas extraction.

Alu said assessors from various counties had been discussing among themselves various taxation formulas that would be most appropriate to tax natural gas extracted.

“We’re waiting on the state to make a determination so that we can all be uniform. &hellip We just want to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” Alu said.

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7311.

Copyright: Times Leader

Official lays out efforts to protect environment

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

DALLAS TWP. – The man in charge of ensuring the oil and gas industry complies with environmental regulations in Pennsylvania spoke at a well-attended Back Mountain presentation on Tuesday, informing the public about protections in place and what is being done to improve public safety.

Scott R. Perry, director of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Oil and Gas Management, provided an overview of how drilling into the Marcellus Shale formation differs from other forms of natural gas drilling and discussed the bureau’s current work and future plans to protect the environment.

Misericordia University President Michael MacDowell welcomed Perry to the school’s Lemmond Theater, and assistant professor Julie Kuhlken, who teaches environmental philosophy, moderated a question-and-answer session afterward.

Oil and gas drilling began in Pennsylvania in 1859, Perry said. But new technology that enables horizontal drilling into the 5,000- to 7,000-foot-deep Marcellus formation has brought to the state energy companies that have until recently focused their efforts in western states.

“One of the things we noticed is that people from Texas and Oklahoma aren’t really familiar with hills. Pennsylvania has them, and we also have rain, more so than Texas, and so there have been some struggles in developing these well sites,” Perry said.

Pennsylvania, he noted, is the only state that requires an approved erosion and sediment control plan before a drilling permit is issued.

In his computerized slide show, Perry showed a photo of an erosion-and-sediment control violation at a state drilling site. Controls on the main level were fine, but farther down a hill, a DEP inspector found “a bunch of hay bales” and “silt fence that’s not doing any good.”

“I asked the inspector who took this picture what he thought they were thinking. He said, ‘I think they were thinking I wasn’t going to walk down that hill,’ ” Perry said, eliciting laughter.

DEP forced the operator to put proper controls in place.

Perry noted the DEP hired 37 inspectors in 2009 and is hiring 68 more this year to nearly double the size of the inspection staff to 193. Three-fourths of those employees will oversee the oil and gas industry; higher permit fees pay for it all.

Perry said he believes there are adequate regulations in place to protect public health and safety and the environment, but he supports several provisions in proposed legislation, such as one that would increase bonding requirements for drilling companies.

Perry said DEP officials are “always evaluating” regulations, and when they’re inadequate “we’re strengthening them. … For example, we’re evaluating the permit requirements for air quality. … We’re not done with the evaluation and regulation process for this industry. They’re just getting started and so are we.”

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7311.

Copyright: Times Leader

Bill would have rollback taxes assessed only on land impacted by wellhead permanently.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Luzerne County Assessor’s Office Director Tony Alu still doesn’t know how Marcellus Shale development on land with “Clean and Green” designation will affect the land’s tax status.

“We don’t have a clear-cut plan yet. … I’m turning over every stone to get as much information as possible. We won’t be doing anything until I’m sure what our options are,” Alu said Monday.

Clean and Green is a program authorized by state law that allows land devoted to agricultural or forest use to be assessed at a value for that use rather than at fair market value.

The intent of the program, which is administered through county government, is to encourage property owners to retain their land in agricultural, open-space or forest-land use by providing real estate tax relief.

Property owners benefit through lower taxes as long as their land isn’t used for housing developments or other uses inconsistent with agricultural production, open-space or forest-land use.

If a property owner decided to use the land for a purpose inconsistent with the program, the landowner would have to pay “rollback taxes” – the difference between fair market value and use value of the land – for as many years as the property had been designated Clean and Green, up to a maximum of seven years.

Although it’s a state-authorized program, with maximum use values set annually for each county by the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Farmland Preservation, the bureau offers no guidance on how drilling for natural gas on a Clean and Green parcel would affect the tax status.

“The (state Farmland and Forest Land Assessment) Act is silent in that regard, so it’s left up to each individual county how to address it,” said bureau director Doug Wolfgang.

However, Wolfgang said, in March 2009, state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, introduced a bill that would amend the act, allowing for natural gas drilling on Clean and Green land, with rollback taxes being assessed only on the portion of land that would be permanently impacted by a wellhead. State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, was a co-sponsor of that bill.

Yaw represents Union and Sullivan counties and parts of Susquehanna, Bradford and Lycoming counties, which together boasted a total of about 200 natural gas wells by the end of last year.

The bill won Senate approval in February and is before the House for consideration.

Yaw has said the bill would provide counties across the state with “a consistent interpretation” to follow and would “help to prevent differing opinions on how many acres of roll-back taxes should be levied on landowners who have leased for natural gas development.”

He has said farmers and landowners need the bill to become law “so that there isn’t any confusion on how the Clean and Green Program operates.”

The bill also would exempt land with underground transmission or gathering lines from roll-back taxes and would allow for one lease for temporary pipe storage facilities for two years. Each property would have to be restored to its original use.

Regardless of whether the bill becomes law, Lake Township Supervisor Amy Salansky said neither she nor her husband, Paul, will have to pay rollback taxes on their Clean and Green land, on which EnCana Oil and Gas USA intends to drill a natural gas well in August. If county officials decide to assess rollback taxes, the lease with EnCana makes the energy company responsible for paying them.

Salansky noted neither she nor her husband own the mineral or gas rights to the land.

The couple bought the land after the owner died so they could farm it, but the owner had willed the mineral and gas rights to his nephew, who retained them in the sale.

The Salanskys are crop farmers, growing oats, corn and hay. They own and work more farmland nearby, Amy Salansky said.

Even if the entire 50-acre parcel is kicked out of the Clean and Green program, Salansky said she would reapply to have the parcel accepted back into the program, minus the 6 acres that would be used for the gas-drilling operations.

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7311.

Copyright: Times Leader

April 5, 2010

EILEEN GODIN Times Leader Correspondent

Well-water testing in advance of natural gas drilling operations in parts of Luzerne County could give homeowners with wells knowledge, a baseline for future testing and a legal leg to stand on if their water becomes tainted, some experts say.

Marcellus Shale gas drilling is coming into Luzerne County this summer. EnCana Oil and Gas USA Inc., based in Denver, Colo., will be starting a site in Lake Township off Zosh Road in June or July.

Drilling could also be coming to other mostly Back Mountain area communities. Some area groups have voiced strong opposition to the drilling, and some landowners in counties where drilling is already taking place have said their water wells have been inversely affected by gas drilling activities.

EnCana Community Relations Adviser Wendy Wiedenbeck said her company has drilled 8,700 gas wells and has not had “any instance of well water becoming contaminated.” She said EnCana takes great pains not to damage water wells.

“It is in our best interests not to impact water supplies,” she said. Wiedenbeck said that besides using the standard cement casing at the gas-drilling site to protect underground water sources, a second cement casing will be used for added protection.

She said the casings are inspected regularly throughout the life of the well.

Encana’s zero tolerance of spills means its employees are specially trained for operating valves at drilling operations or transporting liquids, she said.

All spills are reportable, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency has a toll-free line to report them at (877) 919-4372.

“We are very proud of our environmental record,” she said.

To be prepared, residents within a mile radius of the drilling sites are advised to have their well water tested, Wiedenbeck said.

The trick is knowing what kind of testing is needed and the proper way to take a sample.

Aqua-Tech Laboratory Director Joseph F. Calabro, Mountain Top, said well water owners should have a state Department of Environmental Protection-certified lab do the testing. Someone who is certified with the lab should draw the water and a chain of custody for the water sample should be followed, he said.

A chain of custody for the sample is a log that is signed and dated by the person taking the water sample and given to the lab, where it is signed and dated upon receipt. Calabro said this log will stand up in court.

A listing of state-certified labs, by county, can be found at http://water.cas.psu.edu. Click on “information” on water issues related to Marcellus drilling. Then, on the right side of the screen, click on “find a lab.”

Calabro said homeowners should know what is normally in their well water. He said small amounts of minerals such as barium, sodium, manganese and iron, are already in well water, along with many other minerals.

He said that once this baseline for what’s in the water is established, then testing for industry-specific indicators can be performed.

He advised that if homeowners notice a change in taste, clarity or smell of their water, they should have it tested right away.

Concerned that nervous residents could be charged for more testing that what is really needed, he said he is willing to attend municipal meetings to discuss minerals and industry-specific indicators to watch for.

Wilkes University geologist Brain Ora said he is hoping homeowners will be willing to share their testing results to compile a database, by zip code, to show water quality history. He said that over time the database will track changes of water quality.

Copyright: The Times Leader