Delaware Watershed Gets Set for Drilling, Supporters Say It'll Preserve Land, Rural Life

Transcript

The natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale underlies about two-thirds of Pennsylvania, and drilling has pretty much taken off across the state. Except in the Upper Delaware River watershed in northeastern Pennsylvania, where there's little industry but lots of support for drilling. The Allegheny Front's Anthony Brino visits Wayne County in the watershed, where the stage is set for drilling sometime this year.

BRINO: Betty Sutliff is a retired school teacher and a pretty good wildlife photographer. She's flipping through some photos of deer and coyotes she took while an exploratory gas well was drilled on neighboring property.

SUTLIFF: People were thinking, 'Oh, watch the animals. And see how scared they are.' They went about with their strutting and mating season like nothing was happening.

BRINO: Sutliff expects animals will be equally unphased when a gas well is drilled on her farm. She and 1,500 other landowners have formed the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance. They've leased nearly half the county to energy companies. Sutliff notes that most Alliance members are farmers, who've maintained forests along streams to prevent agricultural run-off. The fact that this point gets lost among drilling's critics really bothers her.

SUTLIFF: The water up here is special waters in the Upper Delaware. But the reason it's special waters is that we were such good stewards of the land. And now, it seems like we're being promoted as like the anti-environmentalists.

BRINO: Sutliff maintains the Alliance has taken great pains to protect the basin's land and water. Under their lease agreement, energy companies will have to pay for third party water testing and use evolving technologies, like UV lighting instead of biocides in hydraulic fracturing water. She emphasizes that the group has been cautious even though the local economy is bad and county farmers are going out of business. But $230 million in bonus payments for Alliance members was for a while threatened by a continued moratorium. Sutliff started wondering why the Delaware River Basin Commission has dragged its feet on opening the watershed to drilling.

SUTLIFF: In July, this past summer, I in fact wrote a letter to Carol Collier stating that, because this has dragged on for years, one of the things that she had accomplished in a short period of time was to awaken a sleeping giant here in the northeast--a giant that not necessarily protests, but one who votes.

BRINO: Wayne County residents voted overwhelmingly for pro-drilling politicians who might push the Commission to move. Politics aside, DRBC executive director Carol Collier says the multi-state agency had no idea the Marcellus industry would take off so quickly.

COLLIER: We did not see it coming. It just all of a sudden landed on the plate. And the fact that the Marcellus underlies the top third of the basin--the headwaters, the most sensitive part of the basin--really had us jump into action.

BRINO: Collier now thinks the DRBC's proposed regulations should address environmental concerns and please landowners. Well pads won't be allowed on steep slopes, in flood hazard zones or wetlands. Companies will have to prove where their water comes from, how it's used and where it goes. And wastewater will have to be stored in closed steel containers instead of open pits. But that doesn't satisfy Tracy Carluccio, of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. The group, as well as a few locals, want the moratorium extended, until the DRBC understands how hydraulic fracturing might impact the watershed.

CARLUCCIO: We have to get this right, and there's absolutely no excuse for moving ahead in a headlong fashion like they're doing throughout Pennsylvania and other states in the Marcellus Shale right now.

BRINO: The Philadelphia and New York City councils agree. They essentially told the DRBC the same thing last year. The Upper Delaware supplies both cities' drinking water. The DRBC plans to allow drilling after a public comment period ends in March. Then theyíll do an impact analysis with the U.S. Geological Survey, provided they can get a somewhat if-y $1 million in federal funding. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network, though, can't tolerate hydraulic fracturing in the flourishing watershed. They argue it's bound to leave scars.

CARLUCCIO: This shale has been here for over 350 million years. We're not desperate in this nation for some new fossil fuel source. We don't know how to safely get it out of the ground. Why don't we just leave it there?

BRINO: For the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and a few others, gas drilling in the watershed is a step backward. For Betty Sutliff and Alliance members, it's the only way to move forward economically while holding on to a bit of the past. Sutliff stands on her front porch watching her husband mow hay.

SUTLIFF: We really feel like this is a better way to keep this area the way it is. And it's not about a way of preserving the farmland, but it's also preserving a way of life. This is what we would like for our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren--to be able to enjoy the same things that we had growing up as kids.

BRINO: For The Allegheny Front, I'm Anthony Brino.