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Mineral rights are issue for drilling in Pa. parks
By JEANNE STARMACK
HARRISBURG, Pa.
Pennsylvania’s 120 state parks have been free so far of drilling in the rush to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale rock formation.
But that doesn’t mean drilling and a controversial method of gas extraction called hydraulic fracturing is out of the question in the 61 state parks that sit atop the Marcellus. In western Pennsylvania, those parks include McConnell’s Mill, Moraine, M.K. Goddard and Pymatuning.
The state does not own the rights to the minerals underneath 80 percent of all park land, said Chris Novak, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
The DCNR manages the state parks.
“We are legally required to allow access,” Novak said.
On the 20 percent where the state does own the mineral rights, it does not allow drilling, she said.
The state does own 80 percent of the mineral rights in its state forests, she said.
Of 2.2 million acres in the forests, 700,000 of them are leased for drilling.
“They’re treating [the forests] like a cash cow,” said David Masur, director of PennEnvironment, a nonprofit, citizen-based advocacy group.
Masur believes, however, that it would be “bad PR” for gas companies to drill in the parks.
“But they could if they wanted,” he said.
In hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a vertical drill pierces the Marcellus about 7,000 feet below the ground. Horizontal drills then bore through the shale for up to a mile away, and a fluid that contains sand, salt, water and chemicals is pumped into the shale at a high pressure to fracture it and release the gas.
The chemicals in the fluid have included toxins such as benzene and toulene, which are found in solvents. Environmentalists fear that if the wells are not constructed properly, the concrete and steel that encases them can fail. If the casing fails, the vertical well becomes a conduit for fracking fluid to enter groundwater thousands of feet above the shale, they believe.
There also is the potential for accidents, such as well blowouts, which would spew fracking fluid or rupture gas lines.
One well pad, which can house more than one well, needs six acres. Pipelines, trucks, drilling rigs, noise and even air pollution are common complaints from people who have had to live near gas well sites.
Masur said that if mineral-rights owners want to exercise those rights under state parks, there is nothing the state could do to stop drilling.
“In the commonwealth, we tip the scales heavily toward mineral-rights owners vs. property owners,” he said.
He said that for the most part, the state does not know who owns mineral rights. “There’s no tracking,” he said.
He said the state could buy mineral rights, which is not a practical option because of cost.
He also said changing the law to give surface-property owners more rights would take “a dramatic shift in the power in Harrisburg.”
The fossil-fuel industry is powerful, he pointed out, and can spend millions of dollars on consultants, public-relations firms and lobbyists.
“There’s little stomach for it in Harrisburg,” he said. “We have well-funded, deep-pocket interests that want the status quo.”
Masur said legislators could pass requirements for protections during drilling and for public input.
He also said one attitude that may be saving state parks from drilling is the fear of a “firestorm” of angry public opinion.