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FracTracker Alliance: Lycoming Creek Watershed Oil & Gas Drilling Impact Analysis In Lycoming County

In 2021, the FracTracker Alliance released a watershed oil and gas drilling impact analysis for Lycoming Creek in Lycoming County, one of four watershed reports on drilling impacts in the Susquehanna River Basin.

In May 2021, using FracTracker’s mobile app, a group of 11 volunteers drove the backroads in the Lycoming Creek watershed documenting the oil and gas industry’s industrialization of the watershed and impacts of well pads, pipeline cuts, and other associated infrastructure.

This Atlas represents both the observations made that day, and data collected from public sources that help to illustrate the often out-of-sight resource uses in the Lycoming Creek watershed.

The Atlas is filled with maps, photos and narrative related to oil and gas industrialization impacts.

The Lycoming Creek watershed is almost entirely in Lycoming County with small portions in Sullivan and Tioga counties.

The 272-square mile watershed flows 37 miles to its confluence with the West Branch of the Susquehanna River in Williamsport. Only 1 percent of the watershed is developed and 81 percent is covered by forests.

The watershed includes a portion of the Tioga State Forest and Loyalsock State Forest and several designated natural and wild areas as well as State Game Lands 335 and 133.

Over 412 miles of streams in the drainage area are designated High Quality-- 76% of the watershed’s 542 stream miles.

The water quality in an HQ stream can be lowered only if a discharge is the result of necessary social or economic development, the water quality criteria are met, and all existing uses of the stream are protected.

The first unconventional shale gas well was drilled in the Lycoming Watershed in May 2007.

As of June 28, 2021, 384 unconventional gas wells have been drilled in the watershed of the 592 unconventional wells that received permits,

DEP issued a total of 634 notices of violation associated with unconventional wells and well pads: 41 (6%) related to erosion and sedimentation concerns, which could harm aquatic life; 379 (60%) citations were for spills, leaks, or pollution discharges that degraded surface or groundwater; and 41 (6%) were for other water issues.

The remaining 173 (27%) violations were for various other shortcomings—most issued for improper handling of waste materials.

DEP has collected fines totaling $2,460,700 from four operators in the watershed. Range Resources leads the way with $1,461,000 in fines, followed by Seneca Resources with $600,000, East Resources with $380,700, and Chief Oil & Gas with $19,000.

In the Lycoming Creek watershed, operators reported generating 9,064,377 barrels (380.7 million gallons) of liquid waste and 416,248 tons of solid waste between January 2011 and April 2021.

There is record of 124 waste facilities in the Lycoming Creek watershed, including 121 well pads, one landfill, one residual waste processing facility, and one temporary storage site, pending future reuse or disposal.

The field teams also recorded natural gas leaks from compressor stations and natural gas processing facilities in the watershed.

As author and professor Colin Jerolmack references in his recent article for The New Republic, some landowners who willingly leased their mineral rights to oil and gas companies now view the industry’s activities with consternation.

Incessant noise, traffic congestion, and foul odors have tarnished the once peaceful countryside.

Even more disconcerting for property owners, the industry often operates however they please, with little consultation or consent—making some feel that they have lost their decision-making power and agency.

According to Colin Jerolmack—when writing about this very place in Up to Heaven and Down to Hell—one’s decision to lease, “… alienates others’ rights to liberty and property.” [ii] This paradigm, “prevents many community stakeholders from having a say in decisions even though they absorb the externalities.”

Another big ecological concern in the punctured watershed centers on the fragile Eastern hellbender populations.

Peter Petokas has been studying Eastern hellbender populations in the Lycoming watershed for 16 years.

He is very concerned for the future of the species in the watershed, which holds one of the richest populations in Pennsylvania, concentrated in one of the few remaining streams with optimal water quality.

Click Here to view the entire Lycoming Creek StoryMap.

FracTracker Alliance has put together similar watershed impact analysis StoryMaps for--

-- Towanda & Schrader Creeks Watersheds, Lycoming County

-- Loyalsock Creek Watershed, Lycoming County

-- Pine Creek Watershed, Clinton, Lycoming, Potter & Tioga Counties

The Johnstown-based FracTracker Alliance supports groups across the United States, addressing pressing concerns about the health effects and exposure risks to communities from oil and gas development.

They provide timely and provocative data, ground-breaking analyses, maps, and other visual tools to help advocates, researchers, and the concerned public better understand the harms posed by hydrocarbon extraction.

Click Here to sign up for regular updates.

(Photos: Top- Unconventional oil and gas facilities in the Lycoming Creek Watershed; a string of shale gas drilling pads and access/pipeline routes; Middle- Natural gas leaks from gas processing facility; One of many natural gas pipeline routes; Bottom- Compressor station and example of truck traffic serving the natural gas infrastructure.)

Oil & Gas Compliance Dashboard:

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Nov. 19 To 25 [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment [PaEN]

NewsClips This Week:

-- AP: Court Plea Hearing Scheduled Tuesday On Criminal Charges Against Coterra Energy [Fmr Cabot Oil & Gas] For Contaminating Water Supplies In Dimock, Susquehanna County

-- AP: PA American Water To Provide Clean Drinking Water To Residents Of Dimock, Susquehanna County Who Have Gone Without For 14 Years Due To Contamination From Shale Gas Drilling

-- Post-Gazette Editorial: Catastrophic Natural Gas Storage Well Leak In Cambria County Shows Need For New Regulations; Incoming Shapiro Administration Should Expand DEP Oil & Gas Methane Leak Rule

Related Articles This Week:

-- DEP Oil & Gas Advisory Board To Hear Updates On Chapter 78 Regulation Changes; Federal Abandoned Well Plugging Program Dec. 1 [PaEN]

-- EQB To Meet Nov. 30 To Consider Emergency Regulation Setting VOC/Methane Limits For Conventional Oil & Gas Facilities [PaEN]

-- Delaware River Basin Commission Meets Dec. 7 On Shale Gas Fracking Wastewater Regulations [PaEN]

-- FracTracker Alliance Announces 7 Winners Of 2022 Community Sentinel Award For Environmental Stewardship; Including PA’s Laurie Barr [PaEN]