Environment, Energy, and Economy: Impacts of Natural Gas Pipelines in 9 Watersheds of North-Central Pennsylvania

TL;DRAbstract

While exploitation of the Marcellus Shale constitutes a major economic opportunity for leaseholders and the state of Pennsylvania, it also has brought persistent concerns over the environmental and economic impacts this may have on air and water quality, forest health, property values, and wildlife. This project examined 3 specific aspects of natural gas related activity in 9 watersheds of various drilling intensities in north-central Pennsylvania. The impacts of gathering pipeline in particular were examined, including their role in forest fragmentation, the energy return on investment (EROI) associated with their construction, and how this energy return was distributed over the well’s lifetime to date. The results revealed that gathering pipelines likely caused minimal losses in forest cover from 2005 to 2010 in 4 of the 6 sites featuring drilling activity. Losses could be attributed to pipelines even in high intensity sites that initially had less forest cover than the low intensity

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