I didn't have time to read over this, but here is un update and new comment period:
Allegheny Forest: Neither side happy with drilling plan
Monday, August 10, 2009
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Environmental groups and the oil and gas industry are unhappy about proposed rules to manage widespread drilling in the Allegheny National Forest.
The Forest Service proposal would establish standards and guidelines specifically for private oil and gas development in the 513,000-acre forest, including additional guidelines protecting views along the North Country National Scenic Trail, reclamation of drilling and well sites, and special regulations for deep drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale.
The rules are similar to but more specific than the standards and guidelines that were thrown out of a 2007 forest-management plan by the Forest Service because they were not publicly vetted and did not take into account the cumulative effects of more than 12,000 wells operating in the forest.
The new proposal drew immediate fire from the well-drilling industry for being restrictive and from environmentalists for again failing to assess all of the environmental impacts of drilling in the state's only national forest.
Steve Rhoads, president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association, which represents most of the industry in the state, said the association was still reviewing and studying the 143-page document, but it rejects any Forest Service controls on drilling in the national forest, where the federal government owns the surface land, but 93 percent of the underlying mineral, gas and oil rights are privately owned.
"We believe we have a clear property right to access the minerals, a clear right to drill," Mr. Rhoads said. "We have a relationship of accommodation with the Forest Service, which owns the surface land, and we have to do what is reasonable. But if we can't agree, the drilling can proceed because the mineral rights are the dominant estate in the land.
"What the Forest Service wants is the veto right in the form of issuing a permit, but it's trying to create that out of whole cloth. It doesn't exist."
What's at issue is how much regulation the federal government can impose on private subsurface owners with superior property rights. It's a question that likely will be settled in court and four lawsuits are already pending.
As oil and gas prices increased over the past few years, drilling has boomed in the national forest, 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Last year, 984 new wells were drilled in the forest and 1,300 were drilled in 2007.
Environmental groups have said that's too many because of the cumulative impacts of the drilling on streams and groundwater, forest fragmentation, erosion, and endangered and threatened wildlife populations.
Ryan Talbot, Allegheny Defense Project forest watch coordinator, criticized the Forest Service for limiting the scope of its environmental impact study and for using outdated well-drilling statistics to calculate the industry's impacts on the forest. He said the Forest Service is basing its analysis on an annual average of 512 wells drilled before 2006.
"The Forest Service has the authority to regulate surface activities, the settlement agreement said so. Now they just need to do it and follow through," Mr. Talbot said.
That settlement agreement of a federal lawsuit by three environmental groups against the Forest Service allows drilling of 588 wells this year but delays all other new wells until another forestwide environmental study is completed in April. That stipulation will postpone action for a year on pending applications to drill about 440 oil and gas wells.
Allegheny National Forest officials will hold three public meetings on the new proposed rules, which were published in the Federal Register July 31. The public has 90 days to comment on the plans, but no public testimony will be taken at the meetings, said Lois DeMarco, an Allegheny National Forest spokeswoman.
The public meetings begin today at the Warren Holiday Inn, Warren County. They also will be held tomorrow, in Rice Auditorium on the University of Pittsburgh's Bradford Campus, McKean County, and Wednesday in Still Hall, Clarion University, Clarion County. All meetings begin at 7 p.m.
Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.
First published on August 10, 2009 at 12:00 am
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09222/989802-113.stm#ixzz0NmMcPcGD
