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From the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission teams with gas drillers
By Bob Frye, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The details
The Fish and Boat Commission's gas leasing and water access programs will offer resources with some restrictions.
• No wells can be drilled on commission property, nor can any equipment can be installed there.
• Companies wanting water will have to pump it off site, rather than backing tanker trucks up to a lake.
• Water withdrawals will be monitored with gauges and will come to a halt when certain levels are reached.
• No water withdrawals will be allowed on high-use angling days, like the trout season opener.
About the writer
A state agency responsible in part for making sure gas drillers don't harm the environment is going to take money from those same corporations.
If its hand is being forced — as some say — at least anglers and boaters will benefit.
This past week, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissioners adopted a natural gas leasing program with an eye to selling the Marcellus Shale gas that lies under its 43,000 acres of property. Commissioners also adopted a water access program that will allow the agency to sell water from its lakes to drillers.
Neither program will lead to more wells being drilled, and both might lead to less, said commission executive director John Arway. They will give the commission some say in the process either way.
"This is just understanding that this is going on around us and we need to either be part of this or we're going to be impacted negatively, at least on the financial end," Arway said.
"We have to be good stewards, not only of the water in our lakes, but of the gas under our lakes, because we hold that in trust."
Drillers already have asked about Donegal Lake in Westmoreland County and the drained Dutch Fork Lake in Washington County, he said, and commissioners might be asked to approve individual leases for those or other properties as soon as this summer.
No one could say how much money the programs might generate. But the commission had no choice but to get involved, said board vice president Bob Bachman of Lancaster County.
"Marcellus Shale is here. There isn't anything the Fish and Boat Commission can do to make it go away. The question is, what can we do that's in the best interests of the resource?" Bachman said.
Still, several commissioners said voting for the programs was not easy.
Commissioner Len Lichvar of Somerset County said the board had no choice since lawmakers opened the state to drilling before it was ready and have since failed to enact an impact fee on the gas industry.
"Both of these failures compel us as an agency to control our own destiny in both oversight and income generation within our ability to do so, and we will," he said.
Commissioner Warren Elliot of Franklin County was the only one to vote against the gas leasing program and one of two — with commissioner Ed Mascharka of Erie County — to vote against the water program.
"I have a fundamental concern with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission contracting with and receiving funds from companies that it has regulatory oversight and enforcement powers over," Elliott said.
Arway, though, said both programs will benefit sportsmen.
The top priority will be to use revenues to repair high-hazard dams. The commission has a $36 million backlog of repairs at those dams, at least two of which — Upper and Lower Hereford Manor in Beaver County — are scheduled to be breached this spring because there's no money to bring them up to Department of Environmental Protection safety standards.
John Ball, president of the Hereford Manor Lake Conservancy and Watershed Group, was thrilled to hear of the potential funding.
"If all of this is true, and people mean what they said, this could be a huge breakthrough for funds for Hereford Manor," Ball said.
And if the money is coming from a source no one could have predicted years ago, that's the new reality, Arway said.
"I believe we would be irresponsible if we didn't do this," he said.
More Outdoors headlines
Hunters' increase in buck kills leads to greater deer harvest
Weekly tips for the area outdoorsmen
Notes from the outdoors
Range permits required starting next month
Marcellus Shale info available for sportsmen
Outdoors notices
Prepping for trout season no easy task
Subscribe to the Tribune-Review today
Read more: Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission teams with gas drillers - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/outdoors/s_727160.html#ixzz1GUcbGAkL
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission teams with gas drillers
By Bob Frye, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The details
The Fish and Boat Commission's gas leasing and water access programs will offer resources with some restrictions.
• No wells can be drilled on commission property, nor can any equipment can be installed there.
• Companies wanting water will have to pump it off site, rather than backing tanker trucks up to a lake.
• Water withdrawals will be monitored with gauges and will come to a halt when certain levels are reached.
• No water withdrawals will be allowed on high-use angling days, like the trout season opener.
About the writer
A state agency responsible in part for making sure gas drillers don't harm the environment is going to take money from those same corporations.
If its hand is being forced — as some say — at least anglers and boaters will benefit.
This past week, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissioners adopted a natural gas leasing program with an eye to selling the Marcellus Shale gas that lies under its 43,000 acres of property. Commissioners also adopted a water access program that will allow the agency to sell water from its lakes to drillers.
Neither program will lead to more wells being drilled, and both might lead to less, said commission executive director John Arway. They will give the commission some say in the process either way.
"This is just understanding that this is going on around us and we need to either be part of this or we're going to be impacted negatively, at least on the financial end," Arway said.
"We have to be good stewards, not only of the water in our lakes, but of the gas under our lakes, because we hold that in trust."
Drillers already have asked about Donegal Lake in Westmoreland County and the drained Dutch Fork Lake in Washington County, he said, and commissioners might be asked to approve individual leases for those or other properties as soon as this summer.
No one could say how much money the programs might generate. But the commission had no choice but to get involved, said board vice president Bob Bachman of Lancaster County.
"Marcellus Shale is here. There isn't anything the Fish and Boat Commission can do to make it go away. The question is, what can we do that's in the best interests of the resource?" Bachman said.
Still, several commissioners said voting for the programs was not easy.
Commissioner Len Lichvar of Somerset County said the board had no choice since lawmakers opened the state to drilling before it was ready and have since failed to enact an impact fee on the gas industry.
"Both of these failures compel us as an agency to control our own destiny in both oversight and income generation within our ability to do so, and we will," he said.
Commissioner Warren Elliot of Franklin County was the only one to vote against the gas leasing program and one of two — with commissioner Ed Mascharka of Erie County — to vote against the water program.
"I have a fundamental concern with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission contracting with and receiving funds from companies that it has regulatory oversight and enforcement powers over," Elliott said.
Arway, though, said both programs will benefit sportsmen.
The top priority will be to use revenues to repair high-hazard dams. The commission has a $36 million backlog of repairs at those dams, at least two of which — Upper and Lower Hereford Manor in Beaver County — are scheduled to be breached this spring because there's no money to bring them up to Department of Environmental Protection safety standards.
John Ball, president of the Hereford Manor Lake Conservancy and Watershed Group, was thrilled to hear of the potential funding.
"If all of this is true, and people mean what they said, this could be a huge breakthrough for funds for Hereford Manor," Ball said.
And if the money is coming from a source no one could have predicted years ago, that's the new reality, Arway said.
"I believe we would be irresponsible if we didn't do this," he said.
More Outdoors headlines
Hunters' increase in buck kills leads to greater deer harvest
Weekly tips for the area outdoorsmen
Notes from the outdoors
Range permits required starting next month
Marcellus Shale info available for sportsmen
Outdoors notices
Prepping for trout season no easy task
Subscribe to the Tribune-Review today
Read more: Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission teams with gas drillers - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/outdoors/s_727160.html#ixzz1GUcbGAkL
