Council hears opinions on shale drilling dangers, limits
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Engineering and law experts told Pittsburgh City Council today that Marcellus Shale gas drilling could have dramatic impact on quality of life in the region, but all did not agree on whether the booming industry can be banned in the city limits.
Courts are "very likely" to hold that a city ban on drilling is pre-empted by the state Oil and Gas Act, said Jules Lobel, a University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor, who noted that he was not speaking for the school. "I think the city would still have rough sledding in the courts. . . . There is still a very good reason to go forward," he said, noting that courts sometimes respond only after "a drum beat of agitation" on an issue.
"I think that Pittsburgh has some legal grounds to enact some zoning limits that would control this to a degree, including some of the noise issues," said Emily Collins, of the University of Pittsburgh Environmental Law Clinic. But to try to ban drilling could open the door to litigation alleging the "taking" of part of the value of property in the city and demands for compensation.
Peggy Utesch, a Colorado community activist, said that her rural community faced massive impact from shale gas drilling, including an underground gas leak that affected wells, crops and cattle, before it negotiated rules for the industry. "We must find a way to produce energy in this country in a way that is not conducted like war, with assumed and accepted collateral damage," she said.
John Stolz, a professor of biological sciences at Duquesne University, whose faculty members joined Pitt's in noting that they did not speak for their employer, said the millions of gallons of water and hundreds of chemicals involved in fracturing the shale are "non-trivial."
"There's traffic. There's road degradation. There's noise. There's pollution," he said. "And of course, there will be spills."
And Kent Moors, a political science professor at Duquesne involved with its Energy Policy Research Group, said the relatively low cost of drilling here is driving the gas industry to the Marcellus, even though there is a glut of gas on the market. That, he said, will likely continue.
"We need the community, we need the citizen action groups, we need the companies, we need to come together in a transparent way and put all of the major problems on the table, and start dealing with them," he said.
Council is considering two bills that would deal with the drilling of wells into the gas-rich shale a mile below ground.
A bill by Councilman Doug Shields, crafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which was also represented at the meeting, would ban Marcellus Shale drilling in the city.
A bill by Councilman Patrick Dowd would impose zoning rules that would severely restrict, but not ban, drilling.
First Published October 18, 2010 3:51 pm
