Letup affects state lands
Marcellus Shale slowdown muted drilling impacts on Pa. state forests, DCNR says
A slowdown in Marcellus Shale drilling generally softened the impacts of natural gas development on state-owned forests between 2013 and 2016, according to a comprehensive monitoring report released Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Far fewer forest acres were turned into well pads, roads and pipeline pathways during the fouryear study period than in 2008 through 2012, when companies moved rapidly to exploit the gasrich shale, the report found.
But more forest edges were created in recent years as pipeline construction continued to cut through blocks of forest, the report concluded, and invasive plant species more aggressively colonized sites disturbed for natural gas infrastructure.
DCNR began a distinct program to monitor the effects of shale gas development on state forests in 2010, and the agency last released a comprehensive report of its
findings in 2014.
Out of the 1.5 million acres of state forest above the Marcellus Shale, about 612,000 acres are available for gas development, either through DCNR-issued leases or in areas where the subsurface rights are privately owned. Nearly all of the development is in state forests in north-central Pennsylvania.
About 640 horizontal Marcellus wells had been drilled in state forests by the end of 2016. DCNR controls the gas rights under 473 of those. The agency said about a third of the expected Marcellus development on its leased acreage has been completed so far, and as many as 1,475 wells could eventually be drilled on the state-leased land.
Pennsylvania first began leasing state forest acres for shale development in 2008 and has not signed any new leases since 2010. Gov. Tom Wolf put a moratorium on new state forest gas leases in 2015. State courts later ruled that DCNR has the exclusive authority to decide whether to sign gas leases for state forests, and the agency has said it will not issue any more leases in parks and forests where it controls the subsurface rights.
The existing leases have been lucrative. Between 2008 and 2016, gas royalties and other payments related to drilling in state forests raised $832 million for the state, the report said. Of the more than 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas produced in Pennsylvania in 2016, 9 percent came from wells in state forests.
The trade-off has been “noticeable changes to the forest landscape” in the north-central Pennsylvania region that offers the largest block of core forest habitat in the state, the report said. Shale gas wells, roads and pipelines fragment contiguous forests into smaller parcels, reducing the amount of deep forest habitat for the plant and animal species that thrive there and changing the recreational experience for hikers, backpackers, snowmobilers and other visitors that come upon signs of the industry.
The report also found that:
• Shale gas development has not degraded water quality at monitoring sites in state forest headwaters, but the relatively short-term sampling may not reflect longer-term effects.
• Low gas prices slowed the pace of new drilling — and its associated impacts — in recent years. Between 2013 and 2016, shale companies built 41 pads for wells and other infrastructure in state forests, down from 224 pads in 2008-12. About 1,425 acres of forest had been converted for shale gas infrastructure through 2012, but only an additional 334 acres were converted between 2013 and 2016.
• Natural gas development “has increased the opportunity for invasive plants to colonize otherwise robust forest habitats.” Of the 238 shale infrastructure pads monitored during the current study period, only 29 were free of invasive plants. At the 127 pads that were surveyed more than once, researchers detected more invasive species at almost all of them during the second survey.
DCNR said its monitoring efforts will continue with a 15-member team and contributions from outside researchers.
“While after more than eight years we can begin to see some trends, natural resource monitoring is a longterm endeavor, and it may take longer to discern other trends in resource change and conditions,” Pennsylvania State Forester Ellen Shultzabarger said in the report.
Out of the 1.5 million acres of state forest above the Marcellus Shale, about 612,000 acres are available for gas development, nearly all of it in north-central Pennsylvania.