Pennsylvania Plans to Open Parks and Forests
to Deep Oil and Gas Drilling

On May 8 and 9, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) will auction off 499,585 acres of state forest and park land for deep oil and gas drilling. Acreage in parts of six state parks, numerous state natural areas and wild areas and Pine Creek Gorge -- the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon -- is included in the 141 tracts the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources plans to offer to the highest bidder. The total acreage offered for lease amounts to 25 percent of the state's 2.1 million acres of forest land, the largest single offering ever. Leases will require that lease owners drill for oil and gas or lose control of the lease.

The only notice was a legal advertisement for bids from oil and gas corporations that was placed in some local newspapers. The DCNR did not solicit any public input and did not prepare an environmental analysis regarding the proposed sell-off of oil and gas rights.

"The Sierra Club is concerned about the potential for serious environmental harm associated with this decision," said Dave Coleman, chair of the Pennsylvania Chapter's State Forest Committee. "Pollution, habitat fragmentation, and negative impacts on forest recreation such as hunting, hiking, and fishing are all predictable outcomes from DCNR's decisions. We are astounded that the agency has failed to perform an environmental impact statement for a decision of this magnitude," Coleman continued.

"This auctioning off of Pennsylvania's public resources takes secret energy dealings on public lands to a new level," said Jim Kleissler, Forest Watch Director with the Allegheny Defense Project (ADP), a Clarion based forest protection group. "This stands to be the single largest sell off of our public resources to private energy corporations in Pennsylvania and no one in the state administration thought to involve the public or to prepare an environmental impact statement."

"The state is planning to sell off in two days the drilling rights to an area the size of the Allegheny National Forest," said Bill Belitskus, a Kane, PA, citizen who has fought oil and gas development near his home. "In the national forest we have a catastrophic crisis with oil and gas drilling which the U.S. Forest Service claims they can not control because private corporate interests control the drilling rights there. It is rare in this state for the public to have control over any of these resources, but here we are giving up control over that which we do own."

Oil and gas corporations have been aggressively trying to gain control of drilling rights in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, and Kentucky. These states lie over the Trenton-Black River, two underground formations from the Ordovician period. Pockets of "very beautiful" natural gas have formed in the dolomites of these formations, and it is worth millions of dollars. The Trenton-Black River runs under much of the central Appalachians. As of September 2001, oil and gas corporations have acquired the drilling rights on at least 4 million acres, and they are aggressively pursuing additional right. They have already been drilling in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. They stand to make millions more by tapping into the Trenton-Black River play.

According to sources, this plan originated when the oil and gas industry approached the DCNR with maps detailing where they wanted to drill. These are the same areas the DCNR is now offering up for auction.

This action of approaching the agency responsible for public land management has precedent. Oil and gas corporations asked the U.S. Forest Service to lease the rights to drill under the Finger Lakes National Forest in New York. After careful public involvement and environmental review, the Forest Service determined that drilling was not in the best interest of the American public. In choosing not to drill in the Finger Lakes, the Forest Service noted that there is already a sufficient supply of natural gas to meet existing demands, and there is no significant oil in these deep formations.

There was no public involvement in this process. According to Gretchen Leslie, a DCNR spokeswoman, the department is not required to solicit public comment or prepare an environmental impact analysis. The only notice was a legal advertisement for bids from oil and gas corporations that was placed in some local newspapers. The DCNR did not solicit any public input and did not prepare an environmental analysis regarding the proposed sell-off of oil and gas rights. Normally, a notice would appear in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, but that did not happen in this situation. Even many of DCNR's advisory committees were not informed. In his testimony before the Pennsylvania Senate on February 28, 2002, Secretary John Oliver made no mention of the plans to lease drilling rights on state land, although the plan was underway at that time.

No environmental analysis was done, either. The DCNR adopted some new provisions that they claim will limit environmental impacts, but they did not prepare an environmental analysis to see if these would be effective. At the same time they added new conditions that would allow many of these protective provisions to be waived, on a case-by-case basis, and without public notice or environmental review.

The Trenton-Black River formations are buried as much as 14,000 feet below the surface, where the gas will be extracted under intense pressure and high water flow. Large well sites covering 3 to 5 acres each will be required for the drilling operations, which in total will clearcut up to 4,000 acres of forest for well pads and require the construction of hundreds of miles of roads and pipelines.

"These Trenton-Black River formations are very deep and require a lot of pressure which just increases the risks to the environment and local communities," explained Ryan Talbott, Forest Watch Coordinator for the ADP. "Besides the incredible noise and light pollution caused by these wells, the drilling itself results in the production of heavy metals and potential ground water contamination. The gas from these sites is under such intense pressure that these well sites often result in the need for huge flare-offs, which pose an obvious safety risk."

Conservation groups raised serious concerns about the volatility of these well sites. According to reports, the first Trenton-Black River well ever drilled was in 1936 and the drilling rig was burned to the ground. A recent environmental impact statement completed for drilling of Trenton-Black River well sites in New York found that environmental risks included blowout potential, soil compaction, contamination, erosion and loss, groundwater contamination and disturbance, sedimentation of streams, noise and light pollution, forest fragmentation, and numerous other impacts. The New York environmental impact statement led to a decision not to tap into the Trenton-Black River under the Finger Lakes National Forest.

The lands that will be most affected are in Fayette, Cameron, Lycoming, Tioga, Potter, Clinton, and Huntingdon counties, in the north-central section of the state. Over 450,000 acres are in the Susquehannock, Tiadaughton, Tioga, Elk, and Sproul State Forests. Drilling will also occur in Forbes and Rothrock State Forests. Drilling is planned under:

• Algerine, Trough Creek, Asaph, and Hammesly Wild Areas
• Bucktail, Cotton Point, Leonard Harrison, Trough Creek, Lyman Run, Ole Bull, and Sizerville State Parks
• Black Ash Swamp, Reynolds Spring, Algerine Swamp, Forest H. Dutlinger, and Pine Creek Gorge (aka Pennsylvania Grand Canyon) Natural Areas

The conservation group ADP pointed out that this drilling plan contradicts statements made by the DCNR just recently that restoring Pennsylvania's native bio-diversity is their highest priority. Conservationists also pointed out that while the DCNR claims that state forests are certified as being well managed, the failure to provide for public comment contradicts a commitment that the DCNR entered with certification outfits to build public involvement into the process of state forest decision making.

"At a time when the Pennsylvania legislature is considering legislation to increase accountability of state government, it is striking that the state would secretly sell off our natural resources without first involving public review and comment," said Rachel Martin, Outreach Director for the ADP. "Selling off a half-million acres of drilling rights in one fell swoop contradicts the very foundation of conservation which requires that you not exhaust all of your natural resources at one time."

"With the ongoing public outcry over the Bush Administration's secretive corporate energy plan we expected better from Pennsylvania's Secretary of Conservation and Natural Resources John Oliver," said Martin.

This article was taken from information provided by Allegheny Defense Project.

Click here to read some facts about the environmental impacts of drilling.

Go to the Allegheny Defense Project website for more information, including a fact sheet that explains the environmental impacts of drilling.

Read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on the proposed auction.

Copies of the auction announcement can be obtained from http://www.assetauctions.freemarkets.com

For maps of the sites contact the DCNR at (717) 783-7940.

Please contact DCNR Secretary John Oliver and let him know that you oppose the May 8 and 9 oil & gas lease auction of our State Park and Forest land. Tell him that the auction plans should be suspended immediately, and that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) should be performed and a public comment period held before any further action is taken. Use the following message, or draft your own, in a postcard or letter to DCNR Secretary John Oliver, and mail to:

John Oliver, Secretary of the DCNR
7th Floor
Rachel Carson State Office Bldg.
PO Box 8767
Harrisburg, PA 17105-8767
(717) 772-9084

Dear Secretary Oliver,

Pennsylvania’s public forests and parks are the property of all the people, not the oil & gas industry. I urge you to cancel the planned sale of 500,000 acres of State Park and Forest oil & gas lease rights. At a minimum, DCNR should do an Environmental Impact Statement, and then hold public hearings.

Just because the state has a budget deficit doesn’t mean we should sell off our natural resources with this environmentally-risky proposal. Cancel the oil & gas lease auction!

Sincerely,

(your name)

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