Natural Gas Companies Could Start Drilling In National Parks

Natural gas companies with rights to mineral and gas reserves below state and national parks could start drilling in otherwise protected areas, reports National Geographic in a series by Marianne Lavelle, who focuses on the impacts and problems of drilling in Pennsylvania. Sixty-seven companies already have stakes in the Marcellus shale geographic formation, a 389-million-year-old rock bed more than a mile beneath the Appalachian Mountains stretching from West Virginia to New York that likely holds large quantities of natural gas reserves. In many cases in Pennsylvania, mineral rights were separated from surface rights in the 19th century in deals that encouraged mining operations. As a result, the state has little ability to deny the mineral rights owners access to the mineral underground, though it will attempt to ensure that impact from extraction and drilling is limited. The state estimates that it owns mineral rights for just a fifth of the state's park areas. More than 2,480 permits for gas wells in Pennsylvania have been issued this year, and the industry expects more than 3,500 annually within a decade.

A total of 33 national park sites could be affected by the drilling, including 13 directly above the shale formation, among them a memorial to honor the passengers killed on United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed on September 11, 2001, and the site of George Washington's first military campaign. Gas companies are already drilling on private lands adjacent to state forests, and the state does not own the mineral rights to about 15 percent of state forest lands -- additional areas for potential gas drilling.

The dispute has implications for larger issues for the federal government which, like Pennsylvania, does not own most mineral rights in parks and historic areas near the Marcellus shale formation. The government can only require gas companies to obtain approval and attain bonds to pay for reclamation if the company must cross federally-owned land or water to get to the drill site. If not, the regulations may not apply. ProPublica has also reported on the conflict between government agencies and gas companies in Pennsylvania, reporting in early October about the poor quality of drinking water that resulted from the drilling. 

Comments

[Neng Northeastnaturalgas]

03:07 PM on 11/16/2010

I think we are going to see more and more restrictions and precautions put in place as gas companies and bodies of government collide. The gas industry needs to protect the land as much as the people do. And people need to become educated on what gas drilling entails and what the pros and cons are. Northeastnaturalgas.com has some answers and is a great place for more information on this new natural gas development.

[sneez54]

02:44 PM on 11/10/2010

As usuall the republicans will use the National park system to cut the budgets and make profits. They do this to hide not raising taxes on the uber rich. They will outsource everything. Then they will tell you they cut the budget. The contracts with those outsourcing companies will run out. The National Park service will of cut back to far on personel to be able to negotiate a low cost to taxpayers contract. The outsourced companiies will of put thier types of equipment in the parks. It will be to late for National Parks to go back to governing the Park.
I am seeing for a fact that tent campers are being pushed out of Yosemite. More money can be made on the large RV campers. The outsourcing companies will push for more and more of that.

[hellboundtrain]

09:31 PM on 10/28/2010

We shouldn't want to sacrifice every single piece of pristine forest, air and water to scarring them in pursuit of energy - at any cost. Is nothing sacred?

[Eyeheartfreedumb]

02:37 PM on 10/28/2010

If the politicians really want to protect these lands they could require very expensive permits for drilling equipment to drive on federal land. Otherwise the companies can feel free to drill laterally from land (whose owners will get paid by the company) miles away to get to their claims (underground, not on the surface) at a sizable cost to themselves.

[Phillip Rhoades]

12:31 AM on 10/28/2010

This isn't an issue of Republicans versus Democrats but instead is an issue of long established American land practice. Separating land, water and mineral rights has been alive and well for a long time. It can work in the favor of protection, such as the cultural resource protection in Central Utah, and it can work against conservation in this case. This is not likely to be an easy fight if anybody actually takes it head on. The deadly combination of mineral extraction, water rights and private property are the bastions of modern conservatism.

[wdw505]

08:50 AM on 10/28/2010

agreed.......as it should be

[Cat9]

11:56 PM on 10/27/2010

We allow illegal aliens and drug cartels to do business there, why not?

[Eyeheartfreedumb]

02:38 PM on 10/28/2010

Did I just drop acid? What are you talking about? You don't make sense.

[Joseph J Schuler]

03:09 PM on 10/27/2010

Fracking needs to be better regulated and monitored. Unfortunately certain forces in Comgress have passed laws exempting them from many regulations including EPA regs. Apparently even the fluid additives that they use can be toxic. I am sure science can make this safe, but greed and payoffs make it cheaper to get the gas as cheaply as possible and let the environment be damned.

[Eyeheartfreedumb]

02:40 PM on 10/28/2010

I just wish we'd come up with a way for the poor people around a fracking area to sue over contaminated water (etc.).

[Rope-A-Dope]

01:48 PM on 10/27/2010

I don't have all of the facts on the topic but I do know that there are plenty of government land leases already in existence and less than 15% of those (250 million plus acres in the west) are being explored or exploited. I also know that allowing business to regulate itself has proven to be a failure in every single area of American business. Until business demonstrates a commitment to the nation and the American workforce I support a heavily regulated environment. If that makes it difficult for business I say good - maybe they will be forced to change.

[Rope-A-Dope]

01:37 PM on 10/27/2010

Needless to say a GOP majority in Congress will not help to protect the parks. VOTE! Vote your own interests! READ! LEARN! VOTE!

[forrtec]

12:07 PM on 10/27/2010

Not only National Parks but places like the Wind River Range in Wyoming one of the last bastions of absolute wilderness in the lower 48. For those of you who don't live near these areas and think it is all made up, think again. I have recently moved from Wyoming. It makes you very sad, toxic waste from the coal and gas people in the water, trains moving every 10 minutes leaving a stream of coal dust in their wake in the Wyoming wind. I am finally getting well after living in this for the last 4 years. I moved to the NW

[SimJack]

11:24 AM on 10/27/2010

Hayduke may have to come out of retirement.

[Phillip Rhoades]

12:27 AM on 10/28/2010

Someone might have to take those shoes from Doug Peacock as he doesn't seem in tune with his alter-ego brandished by Abbey anymore. Just read "Walking It Off" which deal with that very topic.

[Ozark Homesteader]

11:55 PM on 10/26/2010

Excuse me, but what happened to eminent domain? As long as the Supreme Court doesn't get bought off again, the federal government can take the mineral rights to preserve the national parks and battlefields.

[Dunkleberger Karl]

05:59 AM on 10/27/2010

ED does not apply to mineral rights , you cant build on a lump of coal, he only way to fix it would to rejoin mineral rights to the land owner! I saw what this did in colorado, I tought Pa was imune ! I guess I am wrong!

[tjconkster]

09:17 PM on 10/26/2010

Not only is RepubliCorp turning us into a third world country...if they regain power they will also turn us into a toxic waste dump....

[wetdentist]

11:01 AM on 11/02/2010

the 2 go hand in hand

[Daper]

08:13 PM on 10/26/2010

Why don't we just blow up the planet and get it over with?

[VikingQuest]

07:45 PM on 10/26/2010

"Natural Gas Companies Could Start Drilling In National Parks"

And I COULD be abducted by aliens.

[Eric Courer]

11:18 PM on 10/26/2010

Hide in your bunkers!

[Dunkleberger Karl]

06:01 AM on 10/27/2010

just dont "get it" or maybe you work for the guys who poison our wells!