DCNR Agrees to Discuss Drilling in the Loyalsock State 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.

For months, environmentalists and residents living near the Loyalsock State Forest in Lycoming County have been pushing the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to openly discuss plans to drill in sensitive areas of the forest and accept public input. But time and again, they were rebuffed. On Friday, DCNR announced it’s planning to hold a public meeting. It will also have its own experts participating in a web-based information session next week about plans to drill in the forest.
“DCNR has heard from numerous individuals and organizations on this issue through letters, phone calls and in a meeting this month with local stakeholders,” DCNR Secretary Richard Allan said through a release. “This webinar gives us an additional opportunity to exchange information and respond to questions about potential gas development in the Loyalsock, where the state does not own the subsurface gas rights.”
Plans to drill in the state forest are complicated by the fact that the state does not own the mineral rights on about 25,000 acres. Anadarko Petroleum owns about 50 percent of those rights. Another company owns the rest. Due to previous court decisions, DCNR has no say over what happens on 7,000 acres, which the energy companies could decide to develop at any time. But the agency says it’s unclear how much control it can exercise over the surface use of the remaining 18,000 acres.
DCNR spokeswoman Chris Novak tells StateImpact that the 7,000 acres where the state has no control, happen to also be the most ecologically sensitive.
“When we don’t own the mineral rights,” says Novak, “we do always attempt to talk with companies because it helps us protect a resource and it also helps them, by providing some certainty related to their development plans.”
Novak says no agreements have been made with either company. But DCNR had been in conversations with Anadarko. Because the state does not own the mineral rights in question, there would be no royalty payments. But Novak says an offer of about $15 million by Anadarko was rejected by the agency, which made a counter offer of about $22 million. That money would go towards the oil and gas lease fund, which is earmarked for recreation, conservation and flood control projects.
Environmentalists have been pushing the agency to exercise full surface rights on the 18,000 acres, in order to control any detrimental impacts of such a pristine forested area. Ralph Kisberg, with the Responsible Drilling Alliance, says a meeting is a good start, but DCNR should take public input.

Another company, Seneca Resources, is already drilling in the Loyalsock State Forest having purchased leased subsurface rights, sold off during the Administration of former Governor Ed Rendell. DCNR’s Chris Novak says those wells have been producing high volumes of gas.
“And so one would imagine that makes gas development in this area attractive,” said Novak.  
A spokeswoman for Anadarko Petroleum says so far the discussions with DCNR have “focused on the identification and protection of important species and habitat.”
“We recognize the importance of public lands in Pennsylvania including the Loyalsock State Forest,” wrote Mary Wolf in an email. “As with all of our operations on state forest land, we are looking to minimize surface disturbance and protect special places like Rock Run.  We will work with DCNR and PADEP to communicate any approved plans as appropriate.”
State Rep. Greg Vitali (D), says there will be a House Democratic Policy Committee hearing on the issue in May.

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