Pennsylvania Angler & Boater • May/June 2015 PFBC Facebook: PaFishandBoat5050

As state lawmakers consider enacting a severance tax on natural gas producers, the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission (PFBC) is working to ensure that a portion of the revenue would be earmarked for greater protection of streams.

Governor Tom Wolf ’s proposed 2016 budget calls for taxing drilling companies on the volume and value of the gas they sever from the state’s Marcellus and Utica Shales. Revenues would exceed a projected $765 million in the first fiscal year and would be used for education and the environment, the Governor has said.

With thousands of drilling rigs in place across Pennsylvania and a network of huge pipelines under construction, PFBC is advocating that $1 million be allocated from the tax every year to patrol the potential impacts of gas industry infrastructure on water and aquatic resources.

The PFBC also wants assurance that the $1 million it now receives annually from the impact fees that drilling companies pay does not go away.

Wolf ’s proposed severance tax would replace the impact fees, which are based on the number of wells a developer drills, and have generated about $22 million a year for local and state governments since they were implemented in 2012.

The PFBC uses impact fee revenues to review and process gas-related permits, and for a boots-on-the-ground

assessment of wild trout streams, which are among the waterways most vulnerable to drilling and pipeline operations.

Numerous wild trout waters have emerged from the survey, and businesses can now consider and plan around them earlier in the permitting process, according to PFBC Executive Director John A. Arway.

“Our goals are to make sure the impact fees stay in place, to secure another $1 million a year for permit enforcement and to get the funding as soon as possible,” said Arway. “It will take legislation, so we’re talking with lawmakers and the Governor’s office now.”

“The boom in natural gas production placed an enormous burden on PFBC, since it is tasked with reviewing developers’ plans as they apply for projects that may encroach upon aquatic stream and wetland habitats, cause potential impacts to threatened and endangered species and withdraw water from rivers and lakes for hydro-fracturing operations,” said Arway.

“The work is handled by a team of biologists and a seasonal employee, whose salaries are made possible by impact-fee funds. The team processes encroachment permits, performs species impact reviews, looks at water withdrawal permit applications and leads visits to headwater streams to assess their densities of wild trout,”

by Deborah Weisberg

The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission enforces water pollution laws with its network of locally based Waterways Conservation Officers (WCOs). An increasing number of issues related to erosion and sedimentation from pipeline construction and maintenance are currently the primary sources of many of the violations investigated by WCOs.

Commission Supports Inclusion in Natural Gas Severance Tax

photo-PFBC archives

PFBC website: www.fishandboat.com Pennsylvania Angler & Boater • May/June 2015 51

said PFBC Chief of the Natural Gas Section Heather Smiles. “As pipeline construction accelerates, the volume of work is expected to increase, and every project has major implications.”

“A gas transmission pipeline right-of-way can be anywhere from 60 to 120 feet wide and span a high number of streams as it traverses through 12 to 13 counties, so we’re talking about huge earth disturbances where erosion and sedimentation is a big concern,” said Smiles.

“Pipeline construction often involves deforestation, which can dislodge species such as rattlesnakes, and remove canopy from coldwater streams, exposing trout to elevated water temperatures,” said Smiles.

“Guiding natural gas companies in project design is one thing, but ensuring that they play by the rules is another, which makes securing a portion of the severance tax for expanded stream patrols a necessary part of the equation,” said Colonel Corey Britcher, Director of the Bureau of Law Enforcement.

“A hundred years ago, state legislators decided our agency should have policing powers over activities on streams. In today’s world, we don’t have enough staff to patrol pipelines and other infrastructure without neglecting our other duties,” said Britcher.

“Pipelines often are located in such isolated areas that problems, whether they occur accidentally or because a subcontractor has cut corners, aren’t discovered right away,” said Britcher. “By the time we get word, the damage has been done.”

“Even with a full complement of 100 officers, PFBC wouldn’t have enough personnel to patrol gas industry operations, and the agency doesn’t own all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), which are needed to access remote areas,” said Britcher. “Receiving severance tax revenues would enable us to establish a dedicated law enforcement detail and provide officers with the equipment they need, including ATVs.”

“It would provide for a more rapid response, and more than that, it would position PFBC to implement a preventive strategy,” said Britcher. “We need to have a proactive presence.”

Few people may know that PFBC is sustained mostly by revenues from fishing license sales and boating permits, and it gets nothing from the Commonwealth’s general fund to support its operations. Even proceeds from the excise tax on tackle that the federal government allocates to Pennsylvania and other states are based on the number of fishing licenses sold.

“We do not think it is fair to direct angler and boater dollars toward costs they did not create”, said Arway. “All Pennsylvanians, and not just fish, depend on clean water, and we think it is appropriate for the industry creating those costs to support PFBC’s extra workload with the resources we need to do our job.

Readers are encouraged to contact their local legislators and urge them to support PFBC’s inclusion in a severance tax bill. To find your local legislator, visit the website for the General Assembly at www.legis.state.pa.us. Scroll down the left column to “Find My Legislator.”

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Pipeline construction often involves deforestation, which can dislodge species such as rattlesnakes.