Seismic rumbles in the forests

The sheer size and number of Marcellus Shale drill sites and their truck traffic are altering Pa. land use.

RENOVO, Pa. – For decades, natural-gas drilling has been part of the landscape in Sproul State Forest, a vast timberland in northern Pennsylvania pocked with hundreds of shallow wells and crossed by pipelines.

But Douglas J. D’Amore, the Sproul district forester, was unprepared for the massive size of the drilling operations that have moved into his forest in recent months to tap into the Marcellus Shale, the deep formation whose bountiful yields have triggered a frenzy that is transforming the way Pennsylvania’s public lands are managed.

“Just the scale of this Marcellus thing is much bigger than anything I’ve ever seen,” D’Amore said.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. carved out four acres of red oak and maple forest, leveling a well pad about the size of three football fields to erect a 200-foot-tall drilling rig. The directional rigs are essentially mobile industrial operations: Each requires 80 trucks to transport, and it takes about a month to bore into the shale about 8,000 feet below.

“When you first see the size of the well pad – whoa!” said D’Amore.

Early-season bow hunters returning to their favorite spots this month were shocked to discover that Anadarko had already cleared about a dozen well pads in Sproul. Active rigs are posted as off-limits to hunting, and security staff ask anybody approaching the sites for identification.

“I’m sure I’ll have a lot more complaints when deer-hunting season starts,” after Thanksgiving, D’Amore said.

This is only the beginning.

Phildelphia Inquirer