|
|
|
Conservation Dept. posts new data and a warning: any more drilling will damage state wilderness
Conservation Dept. posts new data and a warning: any more drilling will damage state wilderness
 |
CP's ongoing coverage of the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania. Email us for regular updates, or use this handy link to the Clog's "fracktrack" category.
While a state House bill, sponsored by state Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware), that would ban further leasing of state forest for Marcellus Shale gas drilling lingers in the state Senate, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) has quietly supplied supporters of the bill – and, for that matter, opponents and those undecided – with new data showing the impact of current drilling, and the potential impact of any more drilling on state forest land.
"There are proposals, that the governor is supporting, to have a moratorium on additional leasing of state forest land. What we wanted to do is make accessible to the public the thinking about the future of leasing of state forest in [that] context," DCNR Secretary John Quigley told me over the phone today.
Quigley says the idea is to show "that there are limits to the amount of leasing that can be sustained – and that we're probably there."
They've posted a small mountain of highly-technical documents – much more than I can sift through on my own. So, readers: help yourself and please report back anything you find that seems worth reporting – either by email, or by posting a comment below.
That said, the feature presentation – a 46-page .pdf slide show – gets the main point across: Using a map of the state's forests, the presentation shows a step-by-step layering of drilling sites and potential drilling sites along with factors that DCNR says should render land ineligible for drilling – like sensitive and wild areas and areas identified as "priority" forest patches.
In other words, take this patch of forest in northern PA
Now take out everything already leased and which cannot sustainably be leased, and you get this:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by IsaiahThompson, IsaiahThompson and IsaiahThompson, Philly News Now. Philly News Now said: Forests Dept. posts new data and a warning: any more drilling will damage state wilderness: CPÂ’s ongoing coverage... http://bit.ly/91yEP9 [...]
It is my understanding that most of the land acquired last century for State Forest was cut over once or twice, that the original legislation barred acquisition of agriculturally useful land, and that forest of high value for recreation or ecology has been dedicate as State Parks, e.g. Ricketts Glen and Hickory Run. Many Philadelphia area residents think that the State Forests are a pristine, untouched Yosemite in PA (there is a California, PA). So, wouldn't it be appropriate to: 1. include on the maps the old and current logging roads. The DCNR Regs on drilling state that drilling equipment traffic is of the same impact as logging trucks 2. The forest themselves are examples of the resilience of "Penn's Woods". Left to itself a few years, the land will re-forest. It has! We certainly can hasten it though. 3. Rep Vitali is the leading advocate for solar photovoltaic power (PV), which requires considerable area to produce a significant amount when the sun shines, and, of course, needs to be accompanied by a fossil or nuclear fueled powerplant to meet the demand when the sun doesn't shine, or shine brightly enough. Isn't it correct that the projected btu/kw yield from one Marcellus Shale gas well "harvest" from a "footprint" of 700 acres is equal (in daylight) to about 700 acres of PV panels. Of course, the acres of solar panels would represent 100% replacement of photosynthesis with photovolataics. However with the pad-based directional drilling method, all but 10- 20 of a 700 acres module is used for pads, roads, etc. The rest stays forest.
[...] week the Philadelphia City Paper (http://citypaper.net/blogs/clog/2010/07/21/forests-dept-posts-new-data-and-a-warning-any-more-drilli...) highlighted a mountain of data on the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ [...]
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
