KEYSTONE ASSOCIATION 101 N. Front Street Harrisburg, PA 17101 (717) 238-7017 \vww. k ta-hi ke.org

Testimony presented to the House Democratic Policy Committee:

Drilling on State Lands to Balance the Budget

By Curt Ashenfelter, Executive Director, Keystone Trails Association

June 2, 2014

Good morning, Chairman Sturla, Representative Vitali and other members of the committee. My name is Curt Ashenfelter, Executive Director of the Keystone Trails Association.

The Keystone Trails Association works to provide, preserve, protect and promote recrea­ tional trails and hiking opportunities in Pennsylvania. Our association represents over 30 local hiking clubs throughout Pennsylvania, and the 3.8-million-strong Pennsylvania hik­ ing community.

Drilling on state lands to balance the budget is a bad idea.

Our members hike and maintain many trails in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania, including the Old Loggers Path and 19 other long-distance hiking trails. Gas drilling has already caused harm to many of these trails.

Current conflicts include:

• placing well pads directly on or adjacent to trails • expanding roads and building new roads on or near trails • loud sounds of compressor stations, bringing industrial-level noise pollution to wil­ derness settings • truck traffic continuously causing loud noises and dust • stream pollution, which makes it unsafe for hikers to purify and use stream-water for cooking and drinking. This results in a potentially life-threatening situation for backpackers who depend on restocking water supplies on the during multi-day hikes • seismic charges placed directly on hiking trails • a change in the character of the forest around the trails, from canopy loss and forest fragmentation • overzealous security guards, who chase hikers off trails

It is clear that gas drilling is harming Pennsylvania's state forests, and the hiking trails within them.

Hikers and other Pennsylvanians do not want to hike trails destroyed by gas drilling.

The Old Loggers Path (OLP) is an orange-blazed 27.31-mile long loop/ circuit hiking trail in the , in northeastern Lycoming County. It is characterized by thick woods, wild streams, and sweeping vistas. Highlights of the trail include the historically-significant ghost town of Masten (later converted to a Civilian Conserva­ tion Corps camp), the Rock Run watershed (with a stream of exceptional value), vistas over Mcintyre Wild Area, Pleas­ ant Stream, and the region.

The Old Loggers Path serves a unique niche among Pennsylvania trails, and attracts a wide spectrum of hikers and back­ packers. It is a loop, moderate in difficulty with generally gradual terrain, and the length is ideal for a weekend trip.

The Loyalsock State Forest is one of the most beloved parts of Pennsylvania's great natural heritage. This gem of the Pennsylvania Wilds is enjoyed annually by thousands of visitors, and is home to irreplaceable natural and recreational resources.

The Old Loggers Path and Rock Run watershed have been - and continue to be - a recreational Mecca for this region of Pennsylvania. The threats posed by drilling have brought out hundreds of people to public meetings and forums in a con­ certed effort to protect that section of the Loyalsock State Forest from further development.

Volunteers associated with the KTA Trail Care Program have been active in maintaining the Old Loggers Path for dec­ ades.

The Old Loggers Path benefits local communities by attracting tourism through outdoor recreation. Backpackers often frequent local communities to eat, socialize, or lodge before or after a hike.

The Old Loggers Path is featured in many publications as a premier loop trail, including KT A's Pennsylvania Hiking Trails, Tom Thwaites' 50 Hikes in Central Pennsylvania, and in Jeff Mitchell's Backpacking Pennsylvania. These guide books, along with recognition by the nationally-distributed Backpacker Magazine, have brought attention and visitors to the area. In turn, this has helped to funnel visitor's dollars to the local economy.

The beauty, isolation, and pristine environment of the Old Loggers Path is now being threatened by gas development. The massive outpouring of letters, phone calls, and e-mails by the statewide trails community, on behalf of the Old Log­ gers Path, demonstrates the importance of the trail to outdoor enthusiasts throughout the state. It is hoped that the move­ ment to protect the Old Loggers Path will succeed, and that similar action may help prevent other 'exceptional value' parts of the state from the destruction of gas development.

The Clarence Moore lands in the Loyalsock State Forest contain the Old Loggers Path. This land contains 25,621 acres of almost unfragmented forest, one of only a few large public land areas in north-central PA that have not been opened to gas development.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation is seeking to open the land to gas development, and drill wells on the Clarence Moore lands. This would include building compressor stations, water impoundments, pipelines, and new roads.

Last June, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) held a public hearing at Ly­ coming College. This hearing provided Keystone Trails Association with the opportunity to comment on the impacts of forest road expansion and the construction ofwell pads, reservoirs, pipelines and compressor stations.

At the hearing, Keystone Trails Association strongly recommended that DCNR takes steps to protect the Clarence Moore Lands in the Loyalsock State Forest from further gas drilling, through a ruling by the Commonwealth Court about a deed restriction

As hikers and volunteer maintainers, we believe that the government should be held accountable for the responsible management of our public lands, that government will act in a transparent and fair manner, and that our organization's volunteer work in the Loyalsock State Forest, and throughout the state of Pennsylvania, will be respected by policy­ makers and enforcers in Harrisburg.

The fact that the Old Loggers Path continues to be threatened by natural gas drilling - even though the state can protect the trail due to a deed restriction - is appalling.

2 Bad behavior on the part of gas drillers in other state forests cannot be allowed to be repeated in the Loyalsock State For­ est.

Gas drillers often cite studies that gas drilling will be an economic boom for Pennsylvania because gas drillers spend money on lodging, food, gas, etc. in pursuit of natural gas.

Gas drillers do not report how many people will leave the outdoors because of gas drilling activity and how much the Commonwealth and its communities would lose in revenue.

The economic benefits of trail users in Pennsylvania can be found in a report released by the Outdoor Industry Founda­ tion (The Economic Contribution ofActive Outdoor Recreation - Technical Report, 2006).

The report stated that Pennsylvania's 3 million hikers spent $955 million, support 12,500 jobs and paid $176,900,000 in taxes related to their activities in 2005.

The 2009-2013 Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan called The Pennsylvania Outdoors: The Keystone for Healthy Living funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and developed with ex­ tensive input from citizens, state and local government officials and outdoor recreationists from across the Common­ wealth recognized that Pennsylvania Outdoors is the Keystone for Healthy Living and cited 99 action steps to get more people outdoors.

Not one action step included providing more state forest land for gas drilling.

Gas drilling on the Clarence Moore Tracts will deprive the state of valuable tourist dollars, and deprive Pennsylvania citizens of healthy outdoor recreation.

Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources released its much-anticipated Shale-Gas Monitoring report in April of this year.

The 265-page report is chilling in many ways. Some for what it reports, and some for what it does not report.

It is discouraging that despite the public hearing DCNR held in June of 20 I 3, at which the Keystone Trails Association reported on four areas of shale gas impacts to hiking trails, only one item from that public testimony found its way into the report. If DCNR is only reporting on 25 percent of the impacts statewide, they are badly missing the mark.

At the public hearing last June, I reported on four areas of hiker/gas driller conflicts, including:

• overzealous security guards who chase hikers off trails

• stream pollution which prohibits hikers from taking water from streams and purifying it for cooking and drinking, a potentially life threatening situation for backpackers who depend on restocking water supplies on the trail during multiday hikes.

• seismic charges placed directly on hiking trails

• loud sounds of compressor stations bringing industrial level noise pollution to wilderness settings.

Of the four impacts to hikers, only one, the loud sounds of compressor stations bringing industrial-level noise pollution to wilderness settings, found its way into the recent DCNR report.

Concerning noise, the report states that because of the size of their land base, state forests provide a unique opportunity for dispersed, low-density outdoor recreation that cannot be obtained from small forest areas or from private ownership. The undeveloped wild character of state forests offers peace, solitude, and a feeling of remoteness for many users.

Ambient noise can dramatically affect a user's recreational experience and generate conflict. Gas compressor stations

3 produce continuous noise and thus have the potential to greatly impact the experiences of the recreating public.

The Bureau's objective is to maintain and perpetuate a visitor's anticipated recreational experience on state forest lands, and to maintain the wild character of the state forest.

The Guidelines for Administering Oil and Gas Activity on State Forest Lands include recommended thresholds for com­ pressor noise levels. When no suitable alternatives exist and a compressor station must be sited on state forest lands, the operating noise level of the compressor station should not exceed 55 db at any distance greater than 300 feet from the compressor building.

Measurements at six compressor stations monitored on state forest lands were louder than the 55db guidelines.

The six compressor stations, which all exceeded the limits - ranged from 55.61 to 69.33.

Other areas of interest in the report include:

• The Pennsylvania State Forest Visitor Use Monitoring Program surveyed state forest visitors, who reported that shale-related activity had negatively impacted their use and enjoyment (mainly by causing them to avoid drilling loca­ tions or causing them to visit the forest less often).

• Gas development activities resulted in 30 miles of new road construction, and the upgrading of 131 miles of state forest roads

• The chapter on Forest Landscape Conversion, Wild Character, Fragmentation and Restoration addresses forest val­ ues and impacts of shale-gas activities. One assessment of the current impact of gas infrastructure in showed the loss of318 acres to pads, 68 acres to roads and 144 acres to pipelines. The Tiadaghton State Forest lost over 3,250 semi-private non-motorized acres that are now classified semi-developed and/or developed. To learn more about impacts on the Moshannon, Sproul, Elk, Susquehannock, Tioga and Loyalsock State Forests, see Part Two of the report.

• This is only the beginning. With 673,000 acres available for gas development, 568 wells have been drilled with over 5,000 additional wells anticipated in the future.

• The Department of Environment Protection has issued 308 notices of violation.

The impact of shale gas on hiking trails in Pennsylvania is real, and it is significant.

Drilling on state land to raise revenue is bad public policy.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today.

Sincerely,

Curt Ashenfelter Executive Director Keystone Trails Association

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