04/22/24 - 117 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/9bh4zbtr
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Opinion- Residents Need To Realize Risks Involving Natural Gas Drilling
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By Rep. John Siptroth It's time to evaluate impact of gas drilling on our state forests Tucked in the 1,005 pages of Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year is a plan to lease even more of our state forests above the Marcellus Shale formation to the natural gas industry.
While I and other lawmakers like the prospect of creating jobs through this budding industry, we also believe it's time to take a step back and evaluate its impact on state forest land that is essential for another important industry in our area — ecotourism.
Pike County has 65,000 acres of state forest land and another 25,000 acres of state game lands. The great outdoors of northeastern Pennsylvania has been a draw for people looking to relax and escape the cities. Tourism provides a living for many people in our region.
The pristine environment also is one of the many reasons people chose to live in the Poconos. Hunting and fishing are a way of life for many.
That's why we need to be careful in leasing our land.
The Marcellus Shale formation lies about a mile below 60 percent of Pennsylvania and neighboring states. Embedded in the formation, experts believe, are vast quantities of natural gas.
What concerns me is the method used to extract it and how little we know about its impact on our environment. Fracking, as it is called, involves pumping millions of gallons of water mixed with chemicals into the ground to fracture the shale and release the natural gas
Fracking just one well usually requires more than a million gallons of water, plus clearing several acres for a drilling pad. And there are other impacts, such as building roads to reach the site and construction of a water sediment basin.
Currently, just a handful of wells are in place. But DCNR says there could be thousands.
There already have been incidents outside of state forests, including a large fish kill in Dunkard Creek in western Pennsylvania.
A kill of that magnitude would have a devastating impact on our region.
We have made 692,000 acres of state forest across the state are available for natural gas production, including 32,000 that were auctioned in January.
Instead of leasing more state forest land to balance the budget, Pennsylvania should impose a severance tax on gas drillers.
The industry is starting to mature and almost every other state where natural gas is extracted imposes such a tax.
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3/1/2010 |
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