Two Marcellus Shale Notes

Two notes in the inbox this week regarding Marcellus Shale.

A new report was released today [Nov 22nd] by the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative — a group of research organizations, including the Keystone Research Center and Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, tracking the impacts of shale drilling.


And, from the Nov. 26th inbox:

The Pennsylvania Growing Greener Coalition, the largest coalition of conservation, recreation and preservation organizations in the Commonwealth, today celebrated the approval of more than $28 million in Marcellus Legacy Fund grants to support recreation and critical land and water protection efforts throughout the state. 

“The Pennsylvania Growing Greener Coalition is pleased that funds from the Marcellus Legacy Fund will be used to support vital recreation and land and water protection efforts,” said Andrew Heath, executive director of the Pennsylvania Growing Greener Coalition.  “These grants will have a lasting impact on the Commonwealth by supporting projects that provide numerous benefits including protecting watersheds, mitigating risk of flooding, building and maintaining recreational trails and treating former mining sites.”  

A result of Act 13, which was signed into law in 2012, the ‘impact fee’ collects fees on natural gas drilling.  To date, the state’s impact fee has collected more than $400 million.  Forty percent of the fees collected are allocated to the Marcellus Shale Legacy Fund.  A portion of the Fund is administered by the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) to support statewide conservation and recreation efforts.  This initial round of grants distributed more than $28 million in grants.

The Pennsylvania Growing Greener Coalition was instrumental in ensuring that funds collected through the Marcellus Legacy Fund be made available for statewide conservation and recreation projects. 

A breakdown of the grants distributed by the Commonwealth Financing Authority is as follows: 

 ·     $5.6 million to restore streams impaired by polluted runoff in 18 counties. 

·     $16 million to support 116 greenway, trail and recreation projects throughout the state. 

·     $5.2 million to support 12 abandoned mine drainage abatement and treatment projects statewide. 

·     $700,000 to support flood mitigation projects in Blair, Bucks, Lackawanna and Northumberland counties. 

·     $225,000 to plug orphaned and abandoned wells in Allegheny and Washington counties.