Harrisburg, May 6, 2011 – Sen. Judy Schwank (D-Berks) today welcomed the PA Department of Environmental Protection’s decision to return enforcement authority of Marcellus Shale drilling operations to DEP field investigators.

Schwank, Democratic chair of the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, on April 11 called on Corbett to have the authority restored after DEP took the unheard of step of ordering that all enforcement efforts would need approval by the Secretary. 

Schwank noted that proper enforcement is an economic concern as well as an environmental one because the drilling is taking place primarily in rural and agricultural areas, and agriculture is the state’s most important industry.

“Where’s the profit in opening the gates of the gas fields wide open if it weakens, maybe permanently, our largest industry?” Schwank questioned. “We have to develop and keep a sensible long view.”

Schwank said that the reversal, announced Thursday, can help ease doubts that such concerns are getting the backseat to industry interests and contributors to the governor. 

“It’s a hopeful sign that the administration recognized a mistake and changed course,” Schwank said. “We can’t permit the protection of resources to be brushed aside in the rush to reach the natural gas in the Marcellus Shale.

“Even the perception that there is a lack of real and vigilant enforcement can lead to short-cuts and rounded corners, and there is no room to doubt that would be bad.” 

Schwank noted that on Thursday she visited drilling operations in Bradford County, and was favorably impressed.

 However, she said the number of violations and accidents in the industry’s brief history and the pressure to quickly bring more wells on line raise dark echoes of the state’s long history of industrial ravages on landscapes and waterways that cannot be ignored. 

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Editor’s Note:  Senator Schwank’s Letter to Gov. Tom Corbett follows:   

 

April 11, 2011

 

Honorable Thomas Corbett
Governor
The Capitol
Harrisburg, PA

Dear Governor Corbett:

            I am writing to respectfully ask that you rescind the recent directive by Acting Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer that halts field regulatory enforcement of the natural gas industry in the Marcellus Shale region, and requires future enforcement proceedings to have his personal approval.

             As you no doubt know, more than 1,400 Notices of Violations already have been issued against the industry. It goes without saying that this is a significant number in the short time for which the industry has been exploiting Marcellus Shale fields in the Commonwealth. As the industry continues to grow, and more and more drilling sites open in the Marcellus and other potential fields, the risk of increasing numbers of violations and harm will grow. Removing the authority of field officers handcuffs the wrong side and sends an unacceptable signal to drillers that they have a friend in Pennsylvania. Sadly, it tells communities and landowners that they are on their own.

             The solution to allegations of enforcement inconsistency cannot be to turn the executive office of our environmental protection agency into a downfield blocker for industry violations, in the meantime dropping the ball on many other matters that require executive-level attention at DEP. This administration instead should do what any well-run business would do, and ensure that field personnel have proper training and supervision.

            This move also deepens suspicion about the relationship between drilling interests and the administration, with implications about the impact of political donations and influence on public health and safety concerns that have not been seen since the days of the coal, rail and steel barons.  Decades and billions of dollars in remediation efforts have not yet removed the deep scars that they left on our mountains and valleys.

            We can have economic benefits and jobs without surrendering the people’s interests to multi-national corporations. The state Constitution that you swore earlier this year to uphold includes the provision that our natural resources are “the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”  I urge you to honor those words as sincerely as any others you may hear.

            Give the natural gas drilling industry the same type of regulatory enforcement that every other industry faces, and untie DEP’s hands.

 Sincerely,

 

Senator Judith L. Schwank
 Dem. chair, Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee 

JLS:wc

 

CC: A/Secretary Krancer