Without doing an environmental impact analysis or seeking public comment, the state is auctioning off mineral rights to two deep oil and gas formations under 500,000 acres of public forest and park lands.
The acreage under which drilling rights to the Trenton-Black River geologic formations will be leased is slightly larger than the Allegheny National Forest but scattered through seven state forests in Fayette, Cameron, Lycoming, Tioga, Potter, Clinton and Huntingdon counties.
Acreage in parts of six state parks, numerous state natural areas and wild areas and Pine Creek Gorge -- the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon -- is included in the 141 tracts the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources plans to offer to the highest bidder.
The total acreage offered for lease amounts to 25 percent of the state's 2.1 million acres of forest land, the largest single offering ever.
The online lease auction is scheduled for May 8 and 9.
The auction was advertised in legal notices in some small newspapers near the state forests. Environmentalists have complained that there was no notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, where major state rules, regulations and actions typically are announced.
Gretchen Leslie, a DCNR spokeswoman, said the department was not required to solicit public comment or prepare an environmental impact analysis. She said 400 to 500 shallower gas and oil wells have been operating for 50 years on 90 percent of the state forest acreage now offered for auction, and that no public notification or hearing was done for them.
DCNR Secretary John Oliver made no mention of the auction in testimony before the state Senate Feb. 28, although his department has been piecing together the lease document since last year. But the department asked oil and gas companies about which lands would be most desirable for lease.
"It's very disturbing that the state decided to take the stealth approach on this lease," said Jeff Schmidt, the Sierra Club's Harrisburg lobbyist and a member of the DCNR's Recreation Advisory Committee, which was not informed of the lease sale.
"We were blindsided by this but now that we've looked at it, we see that some of the state's most spectacular and pristine forest and park lands are now in the bull's-eye."
Schmidt said DCNR officials didn't know how many miles of road and pipelines would be built, how many five-acre clear-cuts would be needed for drilling pads or what the effects of pipeline and road construction would be on intact forests or biodiversity.
The Trenton-Black River formations are 2 to 3 miles deep. Because the wells will be so deep, well head pressure will be much higher than that of the shallow wells already operating in the state, heightening the risk of explosions and fire.
Schmidt said that although the DCNR denies it, selling the oil and gas leases at a time when the state is facing a budget shortfall of more than $750 million was "an attempt to balance the budget on the shoulders of the environment."
Schmidt said the Sierra Club was urging the DCNR to suspend the May lease bidding until all potential environmental impacts can be identified and analyzed and the public is given a chance to comment.
"This auctioning off of Pennsylvania's public resources takes secret energy dealings on public lands to a new level," said Jim Kleissler of the Clarion-based Allegheny Defense Project. "This stands as the single largest sell-off of our public resources to private energy corporations in Pennsylvania, and no one in the administration thought to involve the public."
The DCNR didn't mention the lease sale to its own Conservation and Natural Resources Advisory Committee. It updated its Ecosystem Management Advisory Committee on the leasing plans last week but didn't ask for its opinion or approval.
"None of us were aware that an online auction was under way until last week," said Caren Glotfelty, chairwoman of the DCNR's Ecosystems Management Committee and director of environmental programs at the Heinz Endowments. "It raises concerns, and the biggest our group has is there has been no evaluation of the cumulative impact of this many leases on forest fragmentation and water pollution."
The DCNR's Leslie said the state was considering the leases now because of interest expressed by the oil and gas industry and because experience in New York suggests the drilling can be done safely.
"We've been drilling for oil and natural gas for 50 years on state forests and the public doesn't know that because it's been done safely," she said.
"We may have erred in not notifying some of our key constituents, but the bid document is public now and can be viewed by anyone."
Leslie said well drilling would not be allowed within state parks, natural areas or designated wild lands, but slanted, directional drilling from outside a 660-foot buffer zone around those areas will allow companies to tap gas deposits under them.
Because it will cost $3 million to $5 million for seismic testing and drilling of each of the deep wells and because the lease limits wells to one per square mile, Leslie said, the department estimates a "couple of dozen" will be drilled. The leases offer the potential for 780 wells.
"Every well has stringent safeguards, needs a [state] permit and will be under the control of the local forester," Leslie said.
The lease document drafted by the DCNR contains numerous provisions for waiving environmental protections on a well-by-well basis. And while the lease document prohibits drilling and well pad construction in state parks and special natural areas, it doesn't prohibit road and pipeline construction, compressor stations and seismic exploration, sometimes using explosives, in those areas.
