Pa. Lawmaker Proposal Would Strip Feds of Water Regulation Authority in Allegheny National Forest

• Susan Phillips
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  Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

A bill that would strip the U.S. Forest Service of regulation over water withdrawals in the Allegheny National Forest is sneaking its way through the legislature. Last week, the state Government Committee approved House Bill 1904, which would amend a law passed by the General Assembly back in 1911. That law allowed the state to sell 800 square miles of land in northwestern Pennsylvania to the federal government, which in 1923, turned it into the Allegheny National Forest. The purchase was part of a larger 6 million acre acquisition of land that created the country’s National Forest system 100 years ago in order to protect watersheds, rivers and streams.
Given the original federal legislation that allocated $200,000 dollars for the purchase of land clearly states the goal of water resource protection, it’s unclear how the state could then strip the Forest Service of their water regulatory duties. But House Bill 1904, sponsored by Republican Representative Kathy Rapp, who represents the Allegheny National Forest area, does just that.

(4)  No laws nor rules under this section may supersede, invalidate or modify the common law of the Commonwealth or a statute of the Commonwealth respecting any of following:
(i)  The storage, control, use or development of water resources in this Commonwealth or any riparian rights appurtenant and incident to water resources.
(ii)  The development, use or ownership of mineral resources in this Commonwealth.

Natural gas drilling in the forest has staunch opponents. And the controversial issue made its way to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals this year after the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, and Warren County, sued the Forest Service over a drilling moratorium. In 2009, the Forest Service, under pressure from environmental groups, decided to conduct an environmental impact study before allowing any more drilling on forest land to continue. But the problem is, the Forest Service never purchased the mineral rights when they bought the land back in the early 1900’s. So county officials, and private citizens argued they would lose money if the Forest Service halted drilling until an environmental impact study was completed. The Third Circuit agreed with them, and in September, 2011 told the Forest Service to open up the land to drillers.
HB 1904 seems to codify that court decision, which has the folks at Trout Unlimited worried. “The Allegheny National Forest supports small headwater streams,” said Katy Dunlap, the Eastern Water Project Director for Trout Unlimited. “This is where trout populations are intact…unregulated water withdrawals could deplete stream flows and impact trout populations.”
It’s unclear from the legislation’s current language, who, if anyone, would regulate water withdrawals in the Forest. No river basin commission exists in that part of the state, so the likely candidate would be the Department of Environmental Protection. Although the proposal has passed through committee and is now before the full House, it’s unlikely HB 1904 will get a hearing before lawmakers break for the holidays. After all, they’ve still got an Impact Fee bill to figure out.

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