Local Commentary

COMMENTARY

October 8

DEP reorganization will aid oversight of gas industry COMMENTARY James M. Seif

UNTIL RECENTLY, most people thought Pennsylvania’s biggest economic story was our long sad, slide into the Rust Bowl. We were left to cope with old strip mines, orphaned oil and gas wells, thousands of old factory sites and jobless people.

But the story has turned far more positive and faster moving – but even more challenging.

Timber, coal and oil now have an encore: Marcellus Shale natural gas promises to be the next big driver of Pennsylvania’s economy.

Our first three battles with the earth to extract and profit from its resources were nearly Pyrrhic victories – we injured our land, water, wildlife, air, communities and people. Then, nearly 50 years ago, Pennsylvania writer Rachel Carson warned us of a “Silent Spring,” and the nation woke up and began to learn how to advance goals in harmony.

We legislated, regulated, litigated and debated, and we’re still at it, except now we have formidable legal tools and a strong public environmental ethic that moves the discussion.

Gov. Ray Shafer formed the state Department of Environmental Resources in 1970. One of its first missions was to implement new laws on coal mining and mine restoration, for which a deputy-level office was established.

Recently, in recognition of the challenges of the Marcellus Shale, the Corbett administration has done the same. The new deputy-level Office of Oil and Gas Management will give the burgeoning gas industry both the responsiveness it needs to do its work, and the oversight the public wants to hold it accountable for its environmental impacts.

This was part of a recently announced reorganization of DEP, and it is a good first step in streamlining an agency that, in recent years, has lost its primary focus of consistently enforcing and helping our citizens comply with Pennsylvania’s environmental laws.

Issues of consistency have plagued the agency for years, and the new Office of Program Integration will take a bird’s-eye view of operations and make suggestions for streamlining operations and improving performance.

And I’m especially pleased to see DEP’s new Bureau of Environmental Cleanup and Brownfields bring together all of the agency’s cleanup and remediation programs under one roof. For the past 15 years, since these laws were enacted by the Ridge administration, Pennsylvania has maintained its reputation as the nation’s leader in brownfields redevelopment.

In this challenging economy, it’s more important than ever for this program to stay ahead of other states when competing for limited redevelopment dollars. Creating a comprehensive unit focused on environmental cleanup will give added attention to this important job-creating program.

Today, the Department of Environmental Protection wears more hats than perhaps any other public agency – enforcer, defender, protector, scientist, educator and communicator. I believe the agency’s new “back-to-basics” approach will enhance all of these roles and provide improved, more efficient service to Pennsylvania’s residents, business and environment.

The energy barons of the past would be puzzled by such a government agency.

Rachel Carson would welcome it.

And our real objective should be to make our children glad we made the effort.

James M. Seif, of Blue Bell, is the owner of 21st Century Energy Development Partners and served as the secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection from 1995-2001.

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