Susquehanna River Basin Commission Establishes Marcellus Shale Field Office in Northeast PA
To it’s credit, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) has established a field office in Northeastern PA specifically to monitor compliance with Marcellus drillers in the Susquehanna River watershed. Too bad the Delaware River Basin Commission is not as industrious and sensitive to landowners’ rights as the SRBC (no drilling allowed in the Delaware River watershed for the foreseeable future).
From the SRBC press release:
HARRISBURG, Pa. – Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) today announced the start-up of its first-ever field office aimed exclusively at enhancing compliance through increased on-site inspections, particularly of natural gas well development projects in the Marcellus and Utica shale regions. The field office is located on 1760 Elmira Street, Sayre, Bradford County, Pennsylvania.
This location strategically places SRBC’s compliance staff in and around the most active drilling areas in the upper basin region. It also allows staff to follow up more quickly on problems and concerns reported by basin citizens in Pennsylvania and New York.
Prior to the Sayre field office, staff drove from SRBC’s headquarters in Harrisburg to inspect natural gas well development sites and to meet with citizens and industry officials.
“Having our compliance staff closer to project areas to conduct inspections and to the citizens affected by the boom in natural gas drilling is intended to enhance our effectiveness and day-today efficiency,” said SRBC Executive Director Paul Swartz.
“For each and every water withdrawal or water use project the Commission approves, there are many subsequent and ongoing compliance requirements we impose on project sponsors such as monitoring and reporting. Because we take very seriously our obligations to verifying compliance, the Commission took the extraordinary and historic step of establishing the Sayre field office.”
To view this content, log into your member account. (Not a member? Join Today!)