Draft plan proposes tapping natural gas

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Activists, environmentalists oppose Forest Service recommendation to allow vertical drilling on land

By Preston Knight -- pknight@nvdaily.com

WOODSTOCK -- The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday held its only local meeting to collect public comment on its proposed revised management plan for the George Washington National Forest, with drilling for natural gas topping the list of concerns of the people who attended.

The 90-day public comment period ends Sept. 1, and Wednesday night's gathering at the John O. Marsh Armory was the second in a series in which federal officials are presenting the draft plan and accepting face-to-face reactions. Comments can be sent through email and regular mail, too.

About 50 residents were in attendance Wednesday, ranging from those who have pored over most of the volumes of text available online to others who are just intrigued with what is eyed for more than 1 million acres of land, including 85,000 acres of Shenandoah County. The current forest plan was adopted in 1993, and the revised one will guide the management of the forest for the next 15 years.

"It's overwhelming," said John Proudman, a Fort Valley resident who was reviewing maps posted against one of the armory's walls. "It requires some study."

He said he enjoys hiking and horseback riding, so he was trying to find out what, if any, changes may come with recreation in the new plan. In planning staff officer Ken Landgraf's presentation, which preceded free time to talk to officials and then a small group setting to toss around ideas, recreation would get a boost, with miles of trails possibly increasing if they are relocated to more sustainable locations.

But what has drawn the most interest since the draft was released, and what has organizations such as the Shenandoah Forum urging people to send in comments in the coming weeks, was the Forest Service's recommendation that conventional vertical natural gas drilling -- in a process called hydrofracturing, or fracking -- be allowed on lands where the government does not own both surface and mineral rights. Horizontal drilling, and its associated fracking, would be prohibited on public lands.

Conventional drilling has occurred in the Jefferson National Forest without incident, Landgraf said. Fracking, though, can have an impact on water quality because of the large amounts of water it requires. Because of that, residents such as Rob Arner of Edinburg, are demanding that the Forest Service ban that practice, no matter if it's horizontal or vertical.

"My concern is when you exempt something so powerfully unregulated ... the environmental costs [are huge]," he said before the meeting Wednesday. "I want to see some financial liability with this if [companies] pollute. The science behind some of this is not the best."

In a recent letter to the editor published in The Northern Virginia Daily, Arner, who promotes himself as an "eco-facilitator" and has been involved with watershed projects locally for years, stated that fracking involves pumping 596 undisclosed chemicals and the use of as much as 8 million gallons of water per frack, creating 80 to 300 tons of pressure into the earth and jeopardizing water supplies.

For more information on the draft, and to learn how to send comments, visit www.fs.fed.us/r8/gwj. The next public meeting is July 12 in Lexington. The closest meeting remaining for Northern Shenandoah Valley residents is July 18 in Verona.