Gas drilling foes, backers clash

By: AMANDA CREGAN The Intelligencer

Hundreds of residents attended a hearing conducted by the Delaware River Basin Commission as it moves toward adopting regulations governing the extraction of natural gas in the Delaware River watershed.

Passions ran high as landowners struggling to save family farms and create jobs upstate clashed with area environmentalists who worry natural gas drilling will poison the area's drinking water supply.

Hundreds filled Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton on Thursday for the last of three public hearings in the region regarding the Delaware River Basin Commission's draft gas drilling regulations.

Property owners, who are eager for drilling to begin, criticized the DRBC for regulations that are overbearing and three years late.

"Our main priority is that we keep the power in our state," said Mariah Schweighofer, executive director of Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance, who accused DRBC commissioners of taking too much control from individual states. "The United States in not a dictatorship, and neither are we as Pennsylvania citizens."

Like dozens of others who spoke Thursday, Gunther Unflat feels Pennsylvania's gold mine of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale means more freedom from foreign energy companies, many of which are embroiled in Mideast turmoil.

"In this country we have been drilling for oil and gas for over 100 years," said Unflat, noting that without royalties from the gas company he might lose the 400-acre horse farm that's been in his family for generations.

"It's more important at this time that we start drilling on our land to improve our economy and get national energy independence."

Without cheaper energy, local, small business owners ultimately suffer, said John Harmon, president of the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

"We need a steady supply of cheap, reliable energy," he said. "At the end of the day, what we're really talking about is the regulation of the business industry."

But it's the long-term costs that are devastating, argued Tracy Carluccio, on behalf of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

"Property values decline, and drinking water contamination and stream and land pollution has led to unexpected expense," she said. "This does not translate into a public, economic recovery. Let's get real. They don't even tax gas in Pennsylvania and New York."

"What it comes down to: who makes a fast buck, but who pays the ultimate cost?"

Madeline Rawley of Doylestown agreed.

"The most basic need is water. I ask you to please wait. What is the rush?" she asked the DRBC.

About 15 million people rely on the Delaware River for drinking water each day.

Jan London, who owns property in New York, warned that local drilling might not equal profits for American workers.

"Sure it will make a few landowners wealthy, but at what cost?" he asked. "With China, India, Norway and other countries buying shares in the gas companies, I expect our promised energy independence will just be sold to the highest bidder."

In total, the commission, a multistate agency that oversees water quality and quantity in the Delaware River watershed, will review 18 hours of public testimony before finalizing its rulebook for gas drillers.

Gas drilling is on hold in this region until the DRBC enacts the new regulations.

Though there is no set deadline, the commission could cast a final vote on the regulations by late summer or early fall, said DRBC Executive Director Carol Collier in an interview before Thursday's session.

In addition to the public comments, more than 1,700 people have already submitted written opinions to the DRBC regarding the proposed gas drilling regulations.

The commission has been criticized by environmental groups and local and state lawmakers for moving forward with the regulations before a federal, cumulative impact study of the drilling's potential impact on human health and wildlife can be done.

"We are moving forward with these regulations to have something on the ground, and have the Delaware protected, and we will revise as needed," said Collier.

Within the commission, which votes on behalf of state governors of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware and the Army Corp of Engineers, there is division.

New York wants the draft rules halted until the impact study is done.

And Pennsylvania is the most eager to see the drilling regulations advance, said Collier.

Hearings were also held this week in the Lehigh Valley and New York.

Next week, the commission will decide if it will honor repeated requests to extend the 90-day written comment period beyond March 17, and hold additional public hearings in more urban areas, near Philadelphia and New York.

As written, the regulations govern water withdrawals, well pad siting and wastewater disposal, and require drilling companies to post a bond of $125,000 per well to cover the plugging and restoration of abandoned wells and the remediation of any pollution.

Environmental groups and their supporters criticize the regulations as too lax, and giving too much power to the gas-drilling industry to regulate itself.

But several landowners said the regulations are so restrictive that no drilling would be allowed.

Opponents say the DRBC should hold further hearings and wait years until there are further studies on the effects of drilling - which uses "fracking," a technique that injects water, sand and toxic chemicals underground to break up shale and release gas - on air and water quality.

Once rules are enacted and drilling can begin, it's estimated that 15,000 to 18,000 gas wells could line the Delaware River watershed over the next 30 years.

In all, 90 billion gallons of water must be pulled from the Delaware River for hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking."

The water is mixed with a gas company's recipe of chemicals, flushed deep into the Earth to release the natural gas trapped in the rock below, discharged into an open, lined pit on site and then trucked to an approved wastewater treatment site.

Of that 90 billion, only about 18 billion gallons of water would be recovered, according to the DRBC.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Amanda Cregan can be reached at 215-538-6371 or acregan@phillyBurbs.com 
Follow Amanda on Twitter at twitter.com/AmandaCregan

 

February 25, 2011