A Report on the Marcellus Shale Muster

State College, PA
January 31, 2010 

I first became aware of the impact of gas well drilling when I found bass in the summer in areas of Kettle Creek that formerly sustained trout; caught chubs from lies that once were homes to stream-bred browns and brookies; and caught a single wild brookie in the remains of the upper Kettle that was formerly loaded with a self-sustaining population of this threatened fish. Hatches for the last two years have been out of their usual timing, sparse or non-existent in some stretches of stream. After an unusually rainy summer, stream levels are still lower than they should be. 

It was almost two years ago that I read in the local newspaper that local gas wells were extracting 300,000 gallons of water per month from the Kettle and Sinnemahoning Creek watersheds for a process called ‘hydraulic fracking.” Come rain or drought, they took this water, and I could get no answer on whether there were any minimum flow regulations in place or anyone monitoring the activity. There was also the disturbing news that the chemicals added to the water for fracking were considered “proprietary information” and not disclosed to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and this wastewater containing unknown chemicals was being pumped back down into holes in the ground as a means of disposal. 

The conference I attended was mainly concerned with this effluent, and the problems of the actual construction of the mines and their support systems. Keynote speakers included PA House Environmental and Energy Committee Chair “Bud” George, PA House Finance Committee Chair David Levdansky, and representatives of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC), Game Commission, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), and others. Much of the information was disturbing. 

The impacts I noticed were from only a few gas wells. Only three tapping the Marcellus Shale formation are currently in production. Governor Rendell, in order to balance the State budget, insisted our State Forests pay their own way by gas well leasing, generating at least $60 million. They actually leased $128 million, which was to go in the Oil and Gas Lease Fund to maintain and protect our State Parks and Forests. Instead, Rendell shanghaied $103 million for the general fund to balance his budget, despite the State legislature voting to leave the fund as it was. Incidentally, there will be as many as 1500 new gas wells on these new leases. There will be an increase of 500 times more water sucked from our streams as now, and 500 times as much toxic effluent to deal with. 

What are the immediate effects of gas drilling? TU has already documented streams drained entirely dry and fish “rotting on the ground”. Existing gas operations dig additional wells as disposal pits and pump the fracking water down them, a solution containing salt brines, chlorides, and silt, that we know of. There have been leaks during extraction from loose pipe joints (lawsuits pending in Allegheny County) and truck spills of effluent. Ozone leakage from compressors has caused appreciable forest damage, and does not meet current EPA NO regulations, let alone the tighter ozone standards that are in the works. Aerial photographs in Tioga County (Pine Creek drainage) shows a maze of gas well pads, access roads, and pipelines fragmenting the formerly-unbroken forests; this leads directly to run-off containing high sediment Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) levels, which smothers insect and fish eggs, warms the streams, and even smothers fish directly. 

Speaking of EPA, the Federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 declared the gas industry exempt from pollution laws and the need to get environmental-impact agency permits. That information certainly opened MY eyes as to why these agencies were ignoring the plight of our local streams! According to a 2008 court case sites that are not required to have permits do not have to account to DEP for effluent and runoff pollution. The abuse continues: Permits are required in Pennsylvania for sites of five acres or more. It is no accident that most well sites are 4.99 acres or less. In addition, the Governor’s 2007 (note the year, which corresponds to when the stream quality here began its rapid deterioration) streamlining of the permit process lets the companies have their own employees report on environmental impact with no investigation by the State or Federal agencies, which has resulted in such abuses as wells in the middle of wetlands and on floodplains. Isn’t this putting the fox in charge of the hen house? Permits have been issued in as little as two days! 

The DEP and the DCNR, over the last few years, have seen their funding cut by 24 to 45%. The PFBC admits that they have too few personnel to both police their own laws and do research, and that their research budget has historically been concentrated in the high-development areas of the State. Tim Schaeffer of the agency admitted that no baseline studies of the Pennsylvania Wilds streams have been done, so fishery quality assessments are not in place to legally defend the area’s watersheds. At least not by the PFBC; Note the map done by independent conservation organizations. It’s amazing how the range of the brook trout has been impacted by the timber, oil, and coal development in the State, and how the remaining tiny acceptable range correlates with the Marcellus Shale formation. This could easily be the death knell of wild brook trout in Pennsylvania, ironically our State Fish. 

Some other facts: Unique Pennsylvania laws in place for the last half-century have effectively separated surface ownership and mineral rights. Eighty percent of our State Forests and Parks own only the surface, so are subject to development under these laws without the income of leasing the rights themselves. Add in private lands, and 90% of the lease money from Marcellus Shale is going into private hands, regardless of surface ownership. Mostly private hands out-of-State, and, incidentally, the energy companies so far have brought their own specialists in and not hired local employees except for temporary construction jobs. Average lease royalties in this state run 15%, as opposed to 25% in other gas producing states. Thirty-nine of which, out of 41, tax the well operations, which is called a “severance tax.” Pennsylvania is one of the two states that does not. This makes Pennsylvania a gold mine for the gas industry, not to mention being located right in the middle of the biggest market consuming their product. Just a clue: Exxon/Mobil is investing $31 billion in developing Marcellus. With Pennsylvania’s low lease rates, they can certainly afford to pay a 6% severance tax, and the State House proposed one last year, which was shot-down by the Senate and the Governor. If this tax had been passed, the last quarter of 2009 would have seen $23 million generated just by existing wells. Environmentalists at every level are not only urging that this tax be put in place, but that significant amounts of the income be set aside for research, monitoring, and policing of the development by, DCNR, DEP, PFBC, and the Game Commission. This is House Bill 1489. 

In addition, House Bill 2213 will require inspections, more rigorous permit procedures, disclosure of fracking chemicals, and capping and closure bonds to deal with cleaning up after the well has gone dry. Chairman George said, “We have a responsibility to insist on responsibility.” 

Still not addressed by the conservation community is the issue of removing water from our streams, which was the first negative impact I noticed. I had to do extensive research, online, in print, and face-to-face with a PFBC representative, to discover that Minimum Flow Requirements in this State are a watershed-by-watershed restriction; three major watersheds have headwaters in Potter County, draining into the Great Lakes, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico. The Susquehanna watershed has Minimum Flow Regulations that stipulate “the amount of water present during the worst year of a ten-year drought cycle.” That certainly explains the condition of Kettle Creek. And the agency representative admitted that even this pitiful protection has not been enforced, claiming lack of manpower and no baseline assessment of the fishery quality. The Ohio River drainage has no flow regulations at all; I could find no data on the Genesee. No organizations I could find were giving this problem a priority. They all suggest that concerned individual citizens write their legislators to insist that Minimum Flow Restrictions be set in place in local rivers and streams, and that our exceptional fisheries be classified as such. Doing the latter would increase those minimum flow restrictions to the point where trout might survive; Saving our native brook trout will take the complete package: Enough DEP, PFBC, and DCNR funding to classify and monitor our Pennsylvania Wilds streams; a moratorium on developing the Marcellus Shale leases until these baselines can be set, then careful and responsible exploitation of the energy resources; and a severance tax to fund enforcement of sound conservation practices and pay for any mistakes and the restoration of the sites. 

The gas is there. The technology exists to get it out. There is a huge energy market. We can’t stop the exploitation of the Marcellus Shale beds, but we can, as Chairman George said, insist that it be done responsibly, with all respect for the natural values of the land. As individuals, we can contact our State Legislators in support of the bills mentioned above, and in favour of considering the worth of this aesthetic natural area and the self-sustaining, billion-dollar tourist industry it supports. We must also let Governor Rendell know that our public lands are important to us, and stealing their funding is unacceptable. I also strongly urge every fly angler, nature photographer, hiker, bird watcher, kayaker, cyclist, and camper to add your name to at least one of the roster of organizations spearheading the movement for responsible development: Trout Unlimited, PennFuture, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and others. 

--Rabbit Jensen--
Spring 2010 Issue