Gas Committee Tasks?

The Susquehanna County Commissioners have charged the Economic Development Board with making recommendations for a County Gas Committee. In an earlier post, Here , I offered suggestions and information sources to facilitate discussions about what a county gas committee might do.

This post discusses more specific action areas and tasks for a committee. They are presented in categories of actions, with questions, to stimulate discussions and decisions on priorities and tasks.

Public Data Access and Awareness - Some townships get advance notice from engineering companies about planned well pad sites and from gas companies about likely pipeline routes and road crossings. An engineering company provided their drill pad plans to my town prior to our last meeting. Do all towns get similar advance notice? Is it also the case for planned pipeline routes? Is this information and usage coordinated across towns and county offices? Could well site drilling and pipeline route planning information be aggregated by the County for sharing with towns and citizens, perhaps by a public website? This information could be used by citizens as well as town and county planning commissions.

Joint Contingency Planning and Reaction - DEP requires gas companies to place a plastic cylinder at each well site containing their contingency plan and data in the event of an emergency. Are these plans provided and coordinated with Town and County Fire and EMA offices? Is or should the County lead in joint contingency planning between towns and fire departments and adjoining districts? Should this be done also for pipeline routes since the Texas experience is that more fires and emergencies arise from the pipelines than from the wells?

Town Road Access Permissions - Who should give approval for thumper trucks to “thump” or gather seismic data along the public roads or for companies to lay pipelines along road right-of-ways? Who should be made aware of thumper or pipeline routes in advance of permission? Should landowner permission be a prerequisite to approval since they do own the land under the right-of- ways? Pipelines create extensive safety setbacks and restrictions impacting the landowner use of his property. Seismic exploration data can cover a thousand or more feet from the road and should not be gathered without landowner permission or contractual agreement. New county-wide policies or guidelines may be needed to protect property rights as well as public safety.

Paying for Exploitation Services - Gas companies make extensive use of town roads and require other services as indicated above. These new burdens should be paid for by the companies but there are no tax methods to do so at county/town level. Should the County participate in or form alliances with other counties for legislation to get a substantial portion of gas royalty income tax or severance tax allocated back to the counties and towns that produced the gas? If the gas producing counties and legislative districts combined on this issue, they would be a powerful voice if not a majority in both house.

Of course, it is up to the Commissioners to decide what they want a Gas Committee to do and to select the right mix of talent to accomplish the mission. However, some of the above ideas represent important areas of town and county coordination. If they are not being addressed already by existing offices, the committee may a good focal point for establishing coordination and actions among the towns and the county offices.