At the Center of a Boom, a Pennsylvania Forest in the Balance
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Ralph Kisberg, at Sharp Top vista, looking south from the Old Loggers Path. Photo: Reid R. Frazier
Rock Run is a crystal clear stream that runs down through Loyalsock State Forest. It drains a part of the Old Loggers Path, one of the state’s best hiking trails. There is drilling to the North, and to the South. But until recently, it looked like trail and the stream would be spared from development in the Marcellus shale.
For Ralph Kisberg, that changed last summer.
“Someone called me to say, what’s going on in Rock Run? The frackers are up there! They’re all over the place!”
Kisberg is president of the environmental group the Responsible Drilling Alliance. White pickups were seen running up and down the small forest roads above Rock Run.
"One family I’m close with said, if they get rock run, we’re leaving. That’s it. We’re out of here," Kisberg said. "They love it here, but they’re not sticking around if Rock Run is part of this development."
Kisberg drove around the forest, and realized the trucks were there to conduct seismic testing -- a preliminary step before drilling can take place.
A FOREST MYSTERY
The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), which manages the forest, made no public statements about the testing. So Kisberg did some research of his own.
With an attorney, he researched the land records for the Old Loggers Path, and found out that Anadarko, a Houston-based energy company, owned half the mineral rights to the land beneath the trail.
That explained the seismic testing. Anadarko has drilled 150 deep shale wells on state forest lands in the region near Williamsport, including in nearby Sproul and Tiadaghton State Forests.
But the research turned up something else. The land under the Old Loggers Path is subject to a complicated legal history, and its future could hinge on an obscure clause inserted into an 80-year-old land deal.
Full article at http://www.alleghenyfront.org/story/center-boom-pennsylvania-forest-balance
Note: According to PennEnvironment, ( http://www.pennenvironment.org/page/pae/about-pennenvironment), ANADARKO has already been cited for OVER 150 DRILLING VIOLATIONS in Pennsylvania.
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