Okay, think fast: What’s the first thing you associate with state forests? A) Hiking in the woods; B) Fishing in trout streams; or C) clear-cutting trees to drill for natural gas.
If you picked (C), you would be happy to live in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has created a fast-track permit review process to allow companies to drill for gas in state forests and elsewhere in the Marcellus Shale region, which stretches from northeastern Pennsylvania to the southwestern section of the state.
A major problem with this drilling is that it causes erosion that pollutes nearby streams. The DEP is not conducting environmental studies to make sure that waterways are protected. For this reason, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is challenging drilling permits in the Tioga State Forest and elsewhere in Pennsylvania.
“The DEP is rubber-stamping permit applications without any independent environmental review," Matt Royer, Pennsylvania attorney for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "It's putting Pennsylvania's precious waters and streams at risk."
This new wave of drilling relies on “fracking,” a technique in which water laced with chemicals is injected into the ground to fracture rock and release natural gas -- a process that some critics suggest can contaminate drinking water supplies.
In April, without any notice, DEP stripped local counties of the authority to review gas well drilling erosion and sediment control plans. In the same fell swoop, and again without public notice, DEP instituted an expedited permitting process that requires only an administrative review to determine if all permit paperwork has been submitted. Under the expedited permit process, DEP conducts no technical review of the plans designed to minimize the environmental impacts of earth disturbances caused by the drilling companies.
Without a legitimate and complete review, DEP cannot ensure protection of Pennsylvania's streams from erosion and sediment pollution. That is not what any of us want in Pennsylvania state forests or anywhere else in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
To read more, click here. To join CBF's action network, click here.
"In April, without any notice" - where is the evidence of this? I am not disagreeing with you, I just like to see facts so that I can fully understand things.
Posted by: Deanna Kefton | 07/26/2011 at 01:44 PM
The evidence would be the 'FACT' that nobody was warned!
Posted by: Chase Alton | 07/26/2011 at 01:45 PM