Matthew Bieniek
Cumberland Times-News The Cumberland Times-News Mon Aug 29, 2011, 11:21 PM EDT
MCHENRY— The county with the most to gain, or lose — depending on who you talk to, on both the economic and environmental front, will host the next meeting of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission.
The meeting is set for Oct. 7 in Room CE-224 (the Continuing Education Building Lecture Hall) at Garrett College in McHenry. The meeting is currently scheduled to start at 1 p.m. and run until around 4 p.m.
State Department of the Environment staff are preparing briefings on liability and revenue issues, said Brigid Kenney of the MDE. The meeting will be the second one for the committee following the initial meeting at Rocky Gap in early August. The meetings are open to the public.
Among Garrett County members on the shale commission are county commissioner James Raley, Sen. George Edwards, Shawn Bender of the Garrett County Farm Bureau and Paul Roberts, a Garrett County resident, citizen activist and owner of Deep Creek Cellars winery.
The liability and revenue issues brought a number of comments at the first meeting. The liability issues concern how the state can assure repairs to roads and land damaged by drilling as well as funding should a disaster occur, among other concerns, commission members said. Commission members are also trying to figure out the best mechanism for permitting costs and taxation and how tax revenue should be divvied up.
Chairman David Vanko, a dean in science and mathematics at Towson University, has said commission members would have a steep learning curve.
Some commission members have advocated a baseline scientific fact-gathering, possibly paid for by the natural gas industry. One problem has been that it’s impossible to tell if methane in the water of some Pennsylvania communities occurred naturally or because of gas fracking, mainly because no studies or measurements took place before fracking began.
The commission will present recommendations by the end of the year on legislation to tax drilling and establish liability standards.
Recommendations on best practices for natural gas exploration and production are to be delivered by Aug. 1, 2012, and a final report including environmental impacts of drilling is to be issued by Aug. 1, 2014.
Marcellus shale formations throughout the Eastern U.S. harbor large untapped natural gas resources.
The total value of the natural gas in Allegany County’s Marcellus shale could be close to $15.72 billion, with the average well earning $65,000 to $524,000 yearly, University of Maryland Extension staff has said.
In order to get the gas trapped in Marcellus shale to the surface chemicals, water and sand are pumped underground to break apart rock formations and free the gas.
Critics are concerned about the impact on groundwater and drinking water. The technique would likely be used if drilling began in Western Maryland.
A process used in Canada, though, uses carbon dioxide gas, which is believed to have less significant environmental impact.
Vanko has said he hopes consensus can be reached on most of the issues the committee is expected to review.
Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com
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