LOCK HAVEN - The uncertain costs of the growing natural gas drilling industry across Central Pennsylvania will see a little more certainty as a result of a decision made at Monday's work session of the Clinton County commissioners.
A decision to request from county department heads data concerning the costs to their departments in connection with the drilling grew out of a dialogue between Commissioner Tom Bossert and state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Bellefonte.
Corman opposes taxing the industry at this time, and the commissioners have repeatedly cited the need for tax revenue to cover the financial impact the growing industry might have on the region.
The senator cited the need to "grow our long-term economy" with the creation of new, good-paying jobs and says one industry that is growing and bringing new jobs to the Commonwealth is the development of Marcellus Shale.
He argues that the imposition of a severance tax favored by the county would result in an 11 percent decline in rate of return and a 30 percent reduction in wells drilled - figures the commissioners say are dubious at best, having been provided by industry insiders.
Bossert said he talked to Corman about those issues, and was told to provide concrete data about the costs. Bossert said when he went to look for that information, he ran into problems.
Bossert said the county is already incurring costs in connection with its responsibilities for mapping, assessment, roads and emergency services, and Commissioner Joel Long agreed, noting the county is seeing some adverse impact to its roads.
Bossert also said he talked to representatives of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP), but that agency had "only general areas of impact."
What's more, according to CCAP officials, no other county government has looked at the possibility of developing specific data on government costs.
"This is something that CCAP should be monitoring," Long commented. "We are fortunate we are a little behind other counties because we can learn from the others."
To justify the county's stance that the industry should be taxed, and some of those taxes should return to county government, some "hard data" is needed, Bossert said.
To that end, he said, department heads should be requested to document costs from the beginning of the year, and come up with cost comparisons based on previous years.
Long also recommended the departments take a look at the future projecting expenses they anticipate in coming years accompanying the industry growth.
"We just need to know the rules of the game," Bossert said, indicating the data should be made available in the near future, given the large number of competing legislative proposals making their way through the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Bossert said he would likely also contact Lycoming County officials for data, given that they are "ahead of the curve" when it comes to Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling activity.
"The sooner we get it, the sooner we can show our legislators the importance of (the taxing proposals)," Long said. "It removes any reason for them not to take action."
Both commissioners said Clinton County hasn't yet seen a true avalanche of drilling activity, but a large increase is expected.
Companies generally use pressurized "frac" water and sand to break up the shale beneath the ground and release the natural gas. The interest here accompanies the discovery of natural gas deposits in the Marcellus Shale, an energy-rich layer of rock deep beneath the surface of this region.
Local resident Richard Morris offered the opinion that the "Commonwealth" in Pennsylvania's name should mean more than a simple covering of the local costs, and that government could justifiably require some benefits to be derived from industry activity.
He also questioned Corman's motives in asking for the information, and suggested the senator might use specific costs in the early going to lowball any taxes that might actually be assessed by state legislation.
Everybody at county level appears to agree that some costs will occur to local government at varying levels, and townships, city, borough and county governments are all struggling to assess the impact, but because of the relative infancy of the drilling effort, they are having a difficult time coming up with actual figures.
The industry re-uses and ultimately must dispose of the massive amounts of water it needs to free gas trapped in the shale. The process, called "hydro-fracturing," involves pumping millions of gallons of pressurized water mixed with sand and chemicals into the ground to pulverize the shale and release the gas trapped within it.
That requires a lot of trucks to ship water, and it requires new treatment facilities and approved discharges of treated water into local creeks and rivers.
Beyond traffic and treatment, there have been fears that the fracturing process itself might result in contamination of groundwater.
The water that returns to the surface is contaminated by salt and very low-level, naturally occurring radioactive material, which must be cleaned out at a certified treatment center.
