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Attorney cites dangers of natural-gas drilling
VILLA MARIA, Pa.
Local laws can offer residents more protection from problems associated with gas-well drilling than Pennsylvania state law can.
A Washington County lawyer described hazards of natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale and some potential pitfalls for landowners who sign leases for drilling on their property.
About 100 people attended a town-hall meeting Wednesday at the Villa Maria Community Center where they heard Atty. John Smith, of Smith and Betz, LLC, and solicitor for Robinson Township. Smith said his firm has handled more than 1,000 natural gas leases, and he has also drafted ordinances to help local municipalities address the dangers.
Smith said that though Pennsylvania law appears to shield residents from some hazards, in reality there is little protection. He said that one answer is for local governments to pass laws to regulate such drilling.
He said that before a 2009 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision, all local gas and oil-drilling ordinances were superseded by state law, but that court decision gave local governments more power to regulate the industry.
He said local power is important because of the weak state regulations.
Local governments can adopt regulations to deal with odors, water contamination, health risks, leaking methane, noise and dust problems that can be caused by the drilling, he said.
Drilling also impacts local roads, Smith said. He explained that though 1,300 heavy trucks will travel to a well site over its life, only a $2,500 bond is required to protect each mile of road; it costs about $600,000 to replace 1 mile of road. Danger to school buses also can be addressed by local governments by regulating the hours the trucks can be on the road and requiring flagmen to be present.
Another concern, he said, is that it is not unusual to have the workers living on site. He described the situation as “75 men from Texas aged 18 to 25 years old living in your backyard.” He said the living conditions are not regulated and no notice is even required that they are coming.
He also pointed out that the sites can have high gas- pressure fires or chemical spills, which local volunteer fire departments are not trained to deal with. He said that local regulation could require notification of local fire officials and regulate training of local emergency crews.
He also said local regulation could require fencing for frack pools, which could consist, for example, of a “10-acre chemical pond,” which is dangerous to humans, wildlife, domestic animals and birds, but unregulated and not even required to be surrounded by a fence like a swimming pool.
Homeowners’ wells are also a concern. For example, Smith said that the presumption under the law is that if you are within 1,000 feet of drilling and your water goes bad, it is the driller’s fault. But that holds for only six months after the drilling, and sometimes water goes bad after six months. He said the only one policing the well water will be the landowner who should repeatedly test it.
He said there are many pitfalls in leases and that landowners who sign leases should also ask for non-surface instead of surface leases.
Non-surface leases keep drillers off the property and force them to drill horizontally from other land.
With surface rights, however, a driller can put a rig 200 feet from the landowner’s home with no warning.