W-B attorney named to pipelines task force

Mike Helbing, a PennFuture staff attorney since June 2013, was recently appointed to the new Pennsylvania Pipeline Infrastructure Taskforce. The task force was established by Gov. Tom Wolf and is comprised of 48 members who will develop recommendations on natural gas pipeline infrastructure to be submitted to the governor by February 2016. Task force meetings beginning later this July will be open to the public and streamed live, according to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Mike will serve on the Environmental Protection workgroup, which is one of twelve covering specific areas. The task force is expected to address a range of issues and develop best practices and strong policies for the significant number of planned gas pipeline projects across Pennsylvania.

Mike transferred in July from our Philadelphia office to our Wilkes-Barre office, just one county over from his native Lackawanna County. Prior to coming to PennFuture, he was an associate chief counsel for litigation at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is an alumnus of Penn State University and Yale Law School.

Mike's work covers water quality, stormwater, and gas drilling issues focusing on the Delaware and Susquehanna River watersheds, and includes reviewing and filing comments on pipeline and transmission line permit applications and on revisions to DEP’s oil and gas regulations. In a win for citizen participation and water quality, he was a lead negotiator on a November 2014 settlement with DEP to improve Pennsylvania's municipal stormwater permitting process.

Kate Gibbons is northeastern Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Wilkes-Barre.

Speak up at public hearings on oil and gas regulations

On April 4, 2015, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a “Notice of Final Rulemaking” regarding the state’s updated oil and gas regulations (Chapter 78 and 78a). Over a year ago, the state sought public input on proposed requirements for oil and gas operations and received over 24,000 comments. Some of those comments were incorporated into the revised rule, which was released this month.

The DEP will hold three public hearings on these latest revisions. This is our last chance to weigh in on Chapter 78 and 78a of the PA code (78a, which addresses unconventional “fracked” wells, begins on page 121).

Add your voice at the upcoming hearings to submit concerns about the final rule and to show your support for strong drilling standards. We need our regulators to prioritize our health and communities – to reduce toxic air pollution, preserve our waterways and prevent the harmful fragmentation of our natural lands. 

Listed below are a few of our comments and concerns. We continue to review the proposed rule and will incorporate updates here. You are welcome to use these points to guide your testimony. Feel free to contact us at souter-kline [at] pennfuture.org, with any questions.

PennFuture Chapter 78 and 78a rulemaking comments and concerns:

• We support the DEP’s decision to prohibit new on-site pits for storage of flowback wastewater at unconventional operations, and to require those pits that are currently in use to be closed. 
• The revised rule makes clear that earth disturbance operations must comply with the agency’s Chapter 102 regulations, use best management practices for erosion and sedimentation control and stormwater management, and incorporate the agency’s forest buffer guidance. Further, unconventional well operators that propose to work in a high quality or exceptional value watershed must comply with the anti-degradation requirements of Chapter 102.These improvements will help to protect our most pristine waterways from degradation due to erosion and deforestation. 
• The revised rule recognizes that schools and playgrounds are important public resources, and requires an operator proposing to locate a well within 200 feet to demonstrate what will be done to avoid or mitigate harm to that resource. PennFuture continues to have serious concerns about the impact of air pollution caused by shale gas drilling operations on our children. Young lungs are especially vulnerable to pollution and we would like to see expanded buffers around schools. 
• PennFuture supports the proposal that any affected drinking water supplies must be restored either to Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) standards or, if pre-existing water quality was higher than SDWA standards, to the better pre-existing condition.
• While we support including a noise mitigation plan requirement, we are concerned that the provision will not result in meaningful noise reduction or control at well sites. As outlined, the noise requirement is vaguely worded and fails to set an objective standard for evaluating problems, making it difficult, if not impossible, to assess compliance. 

Valessa Souter-Kline is western Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Pittsburgh. She tweets @ValessaSK.

Know your Environmental Rights

What is Pennsylvania's Environmental Rights Amendment? How did it come to be? What is the future of the environmental movement in Pennsylvania in light of the Supreme Court’s decision that invalidated sections of the state's Oil and Gas Act, saying the people have a fundamental right to clean air and water?

These and other questions will be addressed at an environmental symposium on Sunday, April 12 at the Market Square Presbyterian Church in downtown Harrisburg.

The speakers are:

•Franklin Kury, former state legislator and author of the Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution, adopted by voters in 1971. Mr. Kury will discuss the origins of the amendment, its legislative history, and its intent.

•John Dernbach, distinguished professor of law at Widener University. Mr. Dernbach will speak on the amendment's history after adoption and its treatment by the courts.

•John Childe, attorney with the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation. Mr. Childe will cite the amendment in a pending suit against the commonwealth involving the leasing of public lands for natural gas development.

This event is open to the public. Free parking is available in the Market Square Garage, adjacent to the church.

Date: Sunday, April 12, 2015

Time: 3:00 pm

Location: Market Square Presbyterian Church

                 20 South 2nd Street

                 Harrisburg, PA 17101

Pennsylvania's Environmental Rights Amendment states:
 

“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”

In 2012, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed Act 13, a law meant to further natural gas development by limiting local regulation of oil and gas operations. After significant outcry from citizens, a case was brought before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court by municipal and environmental parties. After considering both sides' arguments, the Court struck down several provisions of Act 13. A plurality of justices on the Court, basing their decision on the Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution, reasoned that those provisions violated both the environmental rights of citizens and the Commonwealth’s obligations as a trustee of public natural resources under the Amendment.

This landmark decision has breathed new life into the Environmental Rights Amendment and marked the first time the amendment was interpreted by the courts in such a manner as to have any meaningful impact.

The event is sponsored jointly by the church, the Pennsylvania Sierra Club, and Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture).

Jennifer Quinn is central Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Harrisburg. She tweets @QuinnJen1.