Impacts of Drilling: A Before and After Visit to
Bodine Mountain in the Loyalsock State Forest By ANN PINCA
Two years ago in July 2011, I visited the Bodine Mountain area of the
Loyalsock State Forest. After driving up the mountain on a tree-shaded road, I discovered a recently cleared area and a locked gate to a mountain-top well pad. I was searching for a vista marked on the map and found it along another tree-shaded road to the left of the newly-cleared well pad road. The views of Kinney Ridge and Sugarcamp Mountain to the west were beautiful, but survey stakes in the area and seismic testing trails through the mountain laurel grove across the road did not bode well for the forest.
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A tree-shaded road on Bodine Mountain.
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A Bodine Mountain road with an adjacent pipeline right-of-way.
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The current debate over another area of the Loyalsock State Forest, the Clarence Moore lands, gave me reason
to revisit Bodine Mountain to see how drilling there was proceeding. I wanted to know what the impacts might look like should shale gas drilling take place in the Clarence Moore lands.
A press release posted by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) in regard to a July 2013 meeting to discuss the Clarence Moore lands with representatives from
environmental groups included the following priorities in protecting the Clarence Moore lands:
1. Minimizing surface disturbance to the greatest extent possible.
2. Limiting impacts on trail users on the 27-mile Old Logger's Path trail that circles the lands or relocate trail if necessary.
3. Reducing fragmentation from pipelines, right-of-ways and roads.
4. Avoiding or minimizing activity in wetland areas and important habitat for threatened or endangered species.
5. Avoiding or minimizing development in the headwaters of the Rock Run waterway.
6. Mitigating noise impacts from compressor stations.
With these priorities in mind, I returned to Bodine Mountain in the Loyalsock State Forest this past July.
Referred to as Tract 100, this state forest area is under development by Seneca Resources Corporation, headquartered in Houston, Texas.
I soon discovered that this trip would be much different. While I traveled at will on the last trip, a guard house greeted me shortly after I drove up Grays Run Road, though I was simply waved on as I turned up Bodine Mountain Road. It
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Bodine Mountain vista in July 2011.
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was the same tree-shaded road on the way up the mountain as two years ago, but the terrain at the top had definitely changed. Another guard house soon greeted me, where I asked if I could go to the vista. The guard allowed me to go on, but got on the radio to the next guard farther up the road.
Gone was the tree-shaded road of two years ago - in its place was now a sturdy road with a wide pipeline right-of-way (ROW) along side. The
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Bodine Mountain vista in July 2013. Note the level-cut tree stump that was the tree in the above picture.
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vista appeared to be gone, too. I followed the road until I reached the next guard
house that protected an unseen well pad and a nearby large configuration of pipeline infrastructure, plus another area in the process of being cleared.
Turning back, I finally found my vista of two years ago and realized why I missed it: it was now overgrown and its landmark tree had been cut down.
Gone, too, was the grove of mountain laurel across the road, cleared away for the pipeline ROW. The limited view I could see of the mountains to the west included a drilling rig and other cleared areas in the forest. The sound of a running compressor resounded across the mountains.
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View from Bodine Mountain vista in July 2011.
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View of well pad and rig from vista in July 2013.
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I left Bodine Mountain and continued on to look for the other marked vista to the west, located off Brown Road. Confused at first because the road patterns had changed, I soon found my way. Luckily, traffic was non-existent; the industry wasn't "doing anything today" said a guard - and there appeared to be no other visitors in this part of forest.
A temporary pipeline similar to other water lines I have seen ran along the road, secured to the trees by straps. After passing a newly seeded pipeline
ROW and three more guards, one at a compressor pump area and two at well pads, I was on my way to the vista.
All the guards were helpful and friendly, but I had to sign in at the last guard house because the vista turned out to be across from another well pad at this mountain top. This vista was also overgrown, hard to recognize and the view yielded more rigs on the neighboring mountains.
I exited the mountain top via a new road so heavily sprayed that the substance used on it had pooled and run off the side of the road. Just before turning back onto Upper Grays Run Road, I spotted a rattlesnake by the side of the road and stopped to admire it from the safety of my car. The joy of seeing that rattler soon faded when just down Upper Grays Road I found a less lucky rattlesnake, freshly killed and left in the middle of the road - with its head and rattle tail cut off and missing.
As I left the state forest, I waved to the first and now final guard at the initial check point, pondering if minimal impacts, reduced fragmentation, and mitigated noise impacts will look and sound the same in the Clarence Moore lands as they do in Bodine Mountain's Tract 100. While those terms may look good on paper, they sure didn't look or sound very good on Bodine Mountain.
See a photo essay of the July 2011 visit here
See a photo essay of the July 2013 visit here
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A Seneca Resources well pad at the mountain top near Brown's Road. All images by Ann Pinca
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