Some heated debate followed an oil and gas drilling presentation
by Allegheny National Forest rangers Wednesday evening at the
University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

Forest Supervisor Leanne Martin, Marienville District Ranger Rob
Fallon and Bradford District Ranger Tony Scardina discussed public
involvement and the procedures for the Environmental Impact
Statement for privately owned oil and gas development on the
forest.

Martin said the first step in allowing the Forest Service to
move forward after a recent lawsuit settlement is the completion of
a forest-wide site-specific environmental analysis for proposals
not grandfathered in under the settlement. Those 58 outstanding
proposals will be governed by the 1986 Forest Plan rules, Martin
explained.

For any other proposals, environmental reviews must be conducted
prior to drilling, which detractors argue effectively halts
drilling for more than a year.

Currently, there are seven areas of the Bradford District where
oil companies have submitted proposals for development. These,
Scardina explained, will be considered under a Transition
Environmental Impact Statement with the criteria of the 2007 Forest
Plan.

Because of the recent lawsuit settlement, the Forest Service is
requiring an environmental impact analysis to be completed by
private oil and gas interests prior to drilling on the National
Forest. At this time, of the 80 companies who could develop on the
forest, only five submitted proposals to be considered with the
newer regulations, Martin said.

A handful of local citizens spoke up to express anti-drilling
concerns, while most of the audience was made up of regional oil
and gas producers expressing concerns with the social and economic
impacts of the Forest Service’s mandates for environmental
reviews.

Martin will ultimately decide between four alternatives of a
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement dealing with oil and
gas drilling. That alternative will be added as policy guidelines
to the Forest Plan.

“The thing you have to keep clear, my decision is not based on
whether or not there is going to be oil and gas drilling on the
Allegheny National Forest,” she said. “Ninety-three percent of the
subsurface is not owned by the Allegheny. There will be private
drilling. There will be impact. My decision space is very simple.
What are potential mitigation measures for minimizing surface
resource impact? There will be impact. Oil and gas drilling will
occur.”

Fallon added that in the Forest Plan, an individual well is
calculated as impacting 1.3 acres of land, including the roads that
are necessary to access the well.

Harvey Golubock, president and chief operating officer of
American Refining Group, said there’s about 12,000 wells drilled on
the forest, which means about three percent of the total forest is
being impacted.

Longtime local oil man Willard Cline addressed the forest
rangers, saying that only five companies submitted proposals and 75
others didn’t. “It shows that what you are asking us to do is way
out of proportion to what we can do.”

Golubock and Jack Hedlund of the Allegheny Forest Alliance urged
the rangers to keep in mind the social and economic impacts of
their plans. Golubock said one year without drilling will mean
several years of impact down the road.

“I’ve spent the last 12 years building this refinery to a
sustainable business when it was going to be shut down and torn
down,” Golubock said. “And there may be people here that wish it
were, but I can tell you there are 325 families that are dependent
upon this refinery for their livelihood.

“We are an economic force within the region. We pump over half a
million dollars a day into the economy by purchases of crude and
the effects of what you are planning here could be devastating,” he
said. “None of us underestimate the environmental impacts of what
we are doing and we take every effort to mitigate those ourselves
and have been for the last hundred years.

“We’re really on the same side but you’re making it like we’re
on different sides. We want to comply and we want to do what’s
right, but you’re making it almost impossible to do that in a
friendly manner. We did it for a hundred years and there were never
any issues.”

Golubock said the economic future of the area hangs in the
balance.

“I feel the social and economic impacts of what you are doing
need to be considered along with the environmental impacts,”
Golubock said. His comments were greeted with applause from the
audience.

Hedlund added one last comment to Golubock’s – “You’re going to
make it up in selling trail mix and hiking boots.”

Martin ended the meeting by asking people to submit comments and
suggestions to the Forest Service.