Proposal to allow some gas drilling

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Officials recommend land, resource plan for George Washington National Forest

By Sally Voth - svoth@nvdaily.com

A land and resource management plan for the George Washington National Forest recommended by the U.S. Forest Service would allow natural gas drilling in the area.

However, horizontal drilling used to extract gas from the Marcellus shale formation would not be allowed on lands in which the government owns both the surface and mineral rights.

The Forest Service released the draft plan on Wednesday. The agency picked one of seven alternatives as the preferred option.

The plan deals with everything from wilderness area designations, to forest roads, to recreational use of the forest, to gas leasing.

Under the draft, traditional gas drilling could occur in the Lee District area, in the Northern Shenandoah Valley, according to Ken Landgraf, staff officer for planning and forest ecology for the Forest Service.

Much public focus has been on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which natural gas is extracted from dense layers of rock using large quantities of water, chemicals and sand.

While there would be no fracking on land that the government owns all the rights to, about 16 percent of the forest is land where the government does not own the mineral rights, Landgraf said Thursday. In those cases, fracking would be allowed.

A three-month public comment period will follow once the Environmental Protection Agency receives a copy of the plan, Landgraf said. All comments will be evaluated before a final plan is presented around January, he said.

"We've identified much of the forest as being available for gas leasing, but we would prohibit horizontal drilling under that alternative [suggested by staff]," Landgraf said. "The horizontal drilling decision, we expect, will generate quite a bit of comment."

He said it's not known how much gas is available under the forest land, or how developable it is. Landgraf said the formation is not the same as what is being mined in Pennsylvania and New York.

"It may not have as much of a gas resource to begin with, plus the concerns about the groundwater," Landgraf said. "There have been a few test wells put in a number of years ago, and none of them proved to be very profitable."

A summary of the draft plan says that "energy production has long been a component of National Forest System management." No active gas wells exist.

"Concerns about hydrofracturing include the quantity of water needed in the process, negative effects on water quality (ground and surface), wildlife, air quality, viewsheds, forest fragmentation, and ecotourism," the summary says. "Some public comments identified that developing Marcellus shale gas is acceptable when it is properly regulated and that National Forest System land should be available for leasing Marcellus shale so that people can maintain their standard of living and meet energy needs.

"Other comments stated that there must be an effects analysis for hydrofracturing or that there should be a moratorium on development until federal/state regulations are in place and on-going EPA study is complete."

Landgraf said there are limitations on conventional gas drilling in the draft.

"The wilderness areas are absolutely not available," he said. "Some of our remote areas, we could issue a lease and drilling could happen, but they can't use the surface."

In those cases, the area to be mined would be reached through nearby property, Landgraf said.

The plan is available for view on the Forest Service's website, www.fs.fed.us. Landgraf said six workshops are planned throughout the region.