Posts Tagged ‘local gas drilling activity’

Intent is to have inspectors based closer to local gas drilling activity.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

For some time, local legislators and environmentalists have complained that local oversight of natural-gas drilling is too difficult because the closest inspectors are in Williamsport.

With the industry preparing to ramp up activities in Susquehanna and Wayne counties, the state Department of Environmental Protection addressed that complaint on Wednesday by announcing the opening of an Oil and Gas Management office in Scranton.

“Our communities need the economic boost that gas drilling will provide, but we simply cannot afford to have state government shortchange oversight,” said state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, in a news release.

She had asked Gov. Ed Rendell to open an office closer to local drilling activity, the release noted, because “given the increase in drilling activity expected to take place in the region, and the potential environmental consequences of mistakes, long-distance oversight was not an acceptable answer.”

The site hasn’t been finalized, but it will be within the city, according to DEP spokesman Tom Rathbun, and will house 10 employees who have yet to be hired. Most of those will be “field personnel,” Rathbun said, meaning “they’ll be handling inspection and compliance.”

No date has been set for the office’s opening, but Rathbun assured it would be “as soon as possible.”

“We’re anticipating continued growth in Wayne and Susquehanna counties, according to what the industry is reporting, so we’re responding to that,” he said. “That’s based on the industry forecasts where they’re doing next year, what they expect to do.”

Funding for the employees and regional office will be paid for through increased permitting fees the industry is paying to drill in the Marcellus shale, “which was the original intent behind increasing the fees: to make the program pay for itself,” Rathbun said.

The shale is a rock formation a mile underground stretching from New York to Kentucky and is estimated to store enough gas to supply the nation’s current consumption for two decades.

The employees will be part of 68 new DEP hires that Rendell announced last week to handle increased gas drilling, Rathbun said.

Copyright: Times Leader