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Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group Asks DCNR To Protect State Forest Land From Seneca Shale Gas Drilling Well Pad, Comply With PA Supreme Court Decision, Protect Recreation, Wildlife

On May 18, Tioga Publishing reported the Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group issued the following letter to Cindy Adams Dunn, Acting Secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources--

“Tioga County’s Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group opposes the imminent Bureau of Forestry approval of a Seneca [Resources] Shale-Gas well-pad on Mt. Nessmuk in Tioga State Forest.

“As an environmental organization, we have accepted the ‘fact’ of our state’s natural gas leases, but have worked for the past 15 years to minimize the disruption and damage caused to our state forest by Seneca’s industrial-scale footprint.

“On May 1, Pa. Bureau of Forestry staff, several from the Oil and Gas section, gave us a slide show and Tract #007 tour to show us (with Seneca staff in accompaniment) the plans awaiting final approval.

“To our surprise, their projected map clearly showed Seneca’s horizontal-bore lines extending thousands of feet south (outside) of TSF [Tioga State Forest], and the well-pad in a (presently) ‘undisturbed’ area of TSF.

“Originally Seneca personnel had told a PCHPG representative that geologic considerations ‘necessitated’ the site choice almost two miles south of Baldwin Run Road.

“But during our tour we learned that the pad was not situated to allow the extraction of state forest-leased gas with minimum impact on TSF, but instead to accommodate Seneca’s access to adjacent private land.

“Indeed, [DCNR] Bureau of Forestry personnel Craig Chapman and Jason Albright stated that placing the pad-site within a section of TSF remote from existing gas exploitation was chosen to allow Seneca’s horizontal drilling to reach privately owned-leases outside TSF.

“As state employees negotiating implementation of a state lease with Seneca, Mr. Chapman stated several times that their obligation is to benefit both state and private property owners equally.

“Placing pad L where Seneca and Bureau of Forestry Oil and Gas section employees propose would cause immediate harm both to nature and to public use and enjoyment.

“Mt. Nessmuk is criss-crossed with numerous hiking trails, is the water source of the pristine aquifer which fed the USGS Fishery Research Station and many private wells, and is home to ‘interior-forest-dwelling’ wildlife, from birds to reptiles.

“It includes part of the annual Green Monster trail course, and is used extensively both by local folks and by tourists for hiking, birding, mountain biking, hunting in season and for solitude as well.

“PCHPG believes that pad L placement must be as close to Baldwin Run Road as possible, since that route has become an ‘industrial highway’ (Seneca employee terminology), and already a major fault-line dividing TSF into northern and southern sections.

“PCHPG strongly objects to the (mis)understanding of BoF (state) employees’ role, particularly in light of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision of June 2017.

“In its ruling, the Court found that DCNR/Bureau of Forestry ‘must at all times fulfill its role as trustee...(of) our public natural resources’, which entails complying with all the legal/ fiduciary requirements of a trustee.

“Equating their responsibility to state-owned as opposed to privately-held properties is a clear failure by state officials to act in compliance with the Supreme Court decision.

“Their obligation under the ruling is unequivocal: to give maximum protection to state property for future generations’ enjoyment and benefit.

“In closing, we quote the 1971 Constitutional Amendment, “People have the right to clean air, pure water and to the preservation of the natural, scenic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of those resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain these for the benefit of all the people.”

“Thank you for your consideration of our request that you review the BoF [Bureau of Forestry] preliminary approval, and we hope that you will agree the facts (and law) mandate a re-consideration of pad L’s placement.”

The Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group was established in 1987 to promote the local citizens' awareness of the high value of Pine Creek, to emphasize its uniqueness as a natural resource, and to show it can be preserved for aquatic life, wildlife and for all people to appreciate and use.

Visit the FracTracker Alliance Digital Atlas documenting shale gas drilling industry impacts in the Pine Creek Watershed.

Visit DCNR’s Natural Gas Management webpage for more information on gas development on State Forest Land.

(Photo: Example of Pine Creek Watershed shale gas drilling industry impacts, FracTracker Alliance.)

Related Articles - Seneca Resources:

-- TiogaPublishing: Pine Creek Headwaters Group Asks State To Protect Land From Gas Drilling Impacts

-- DEP: Seneca Resources Ignores NOVs On DCNR Shale Gas Well Pad Cleanup For 7 Months & Counting; Citizen Complaint Finds Homeowner Well Venting Gas; Multiple Tanker Truck Spills [PaEN]

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