State's laws offer little shale drilling protection to archaeological sites

[Divernan]

Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Sunday, May 08, 2011
By David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An excavation at a Westmoreland County (PA) site once occupied by Monongahela Indians produced abundant evidence of two villages and allowed researchers to piece together the violent end of the later settlement at the hand of invaders who sacked it, massacred its inhabitants and burnt houses and food stores, said William C. Johnson, who served as an adviser to the project.

But when Mr. Johnson returned to the dig site last year he was stunned by what he found.
"There is a drill rig and catchment basin sitting on half the village," said Mr. Johnson, who received a doctoral degree from the University of Pittsburgh and served as senior prehistoric archaeologist for Michael Baker Jr. Engineering Inc. "You have something there -- which is better than you get with other villages -- that has been destroyed by drilling."

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the state agency that oversees historic sites including areas of archaeological value, has no power to compel investigation or preservation and no money to conduct field investigations of sites that state law mandates it pay for.

Mike Kotz, a Washington County vegetable grower with an interest in the artifacts he encountered in his agricultural work, has sought to protect sites of proven or potential value from destruction by natural gas operations. Many other types of construction and industrial activities can also damage cultural resources, but the rapid growth of Marcellus Shale drilling means a big increase in road building, drilling site work, construction of compressor stations, pipeline laying and other activities associated with work in the vast rock formation underlying much of Pennsylvania from which natural gas is extracted through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11128/1144994-178.stm#ixzz1LkvtNaDi

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This is probably the case in all the other states dealing with shale drilling/fracking. Pennsylvania law offers no protections to sites less than 10 acres - which exempts all the drilling pads - and no funding to the responsible state agency to fund inspectors, inspections or documentation to prove historical significance of sites OVER 10 acres.

Well, this fits in so nicely with GOP Governor Corbett's 50% cut to state university/college budgets - obviously any courses or majors dealing with archaeology are on the chopping block.

[midnight]

1. K&R Greed just swarms and destroys....

[Divernan]

2. "A bulldozer can destroy 9,000 years of history in 15 minutes,"

But even for sites over 10 acres, legislation passed in 1995 requires the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, rather than the company or permit applicant, to pay for archaeological surveys or field work under a tight 120-day deadline.

The Act 70 amendment gave the historical and museum commission new responsibilities with no additional funding. So the commission lacks sufficient resources to do any field operations, commission spokesman Howard Pollman said, noting its role nowadays involves issuing recommendations.

"We can't force anyone to do anything," he said. "We are only a consulting party. We only give opinions."

The Department of Environmental Protection alerts the historical and museum commission to do a site assessment for cultural resources if the site is 10 or more acres, but does not base its permitting decisions on the commission's findings. Other state agencies are not required to seek commission advice on projects or follow its recommendations.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11128/1144994-178-2.stm#ixzz1Ll7Pqvzl

[Divernan]

3. State's cultural heritage back to 7500 BC

More snippets from the OP link.

The half-acre site, now owned by the state Game Commission, produced up to 400 Native American points, often called arrowheads, along with hundreds of pounds of hammer, grinding and nutting stones and grinding surfaces and other artifacts. In a letter to Mr. Kotz, Mark A. McConaughy, a historical commission official at the Bushy Run Battlefield in the Harrison City section of Penn Township, identified the point types in Mr. Kotz's collection and probable ages for the artifacts.

The site now is listed on state archaeological survey maps (available only to archaeologists to prevent looting). But being on that list doesn't protect many properties from damage or destruction from gas-well operations active in the area.

Mark West built a compressor station in Blaine on a site designated as historic, but claimed the location of the archaeological resources wasn't clear and findings were deemed to be minimal, so the company went ahead with the project.

Sacred grounds, burial mounds and prehistoric villages are at risk along with archaeological evidence of how people made their livings, buried their dead, built homes, grew maize (corn) and hunted animals. French and Indian War sites and 18th-century domestic sites also could be jeopardized.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11128/1144994-178-4.stm#ixzz1Ll8AJbCj

[xchrom]

4. Recommend

[primavera]

5. Just saw Gasland...

... in which the film makers point out that the oil and gas industry, in order to escape even the minimal emissions restrictions that exist on larger facilities, is using lots of little rigs, placed at a density of about one per block. One resident interviewed could see a full two dozen wells from the porch of his home. With this carpet bombing approach, the oil and gas people won't miss much in their devastation.

[JJW]

6. PA politicans as corrupt as LA politicans

PA environment is as f'd up as Gulf BP disaster. Obama, the $ 1 billion candidate re-elect, has not even tried to roll back Cheney's energy act that exempts gas industry from clean water laws and EPA regulation.

[Shining Jack]

10. But but...

He killed Bin Laden so you don't have the right to criticize him!

[Divernan]

15. Curiously, the true believers stay away from the fracking issue.

[defendandprotect]

7. We are dealing with a suicidal monster in Capitalism which we have to stop --

or it will take us all with it -- !!

[bluedigger]

8. History Code?

The journalist keeps referring to a "history code". I don't know what that is, and I have been in historic preservation for a couple decades. They may be referring to the "Section 106 review process":

Section 106 Review Process

Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act mandates federal agencies undergo a review process for all federally-funded and permitted projects that will impact sites listed on, or eligible for listing on, the National Register of Historic Places. Specifically it requires the federal agency to "take into account" the effect a project may have on historic properties. It allows interested parties an opportunity to comment on the potential impact projects may have on significant archaeological or historic sites. The main purpose for the establishment of the Section 106 review process is to minimize potential harm and damage to historic properties.<26>
Enforced by the NHPA, any federal agency that may damage historic property, especially those listed on the National Register of Historic Places, must consider the effects on historic properties and "seek ways to avoid, minimize or mitigate" any adverse effects on historic properties. The typical Section 106 Review involves four primary steps: 1 - Initiation of the Section 106 Review; 2 - Identification of Historic Properties; 3 - Assessment of Adverse Effects; and 4 - Resolution of Adverse Effects. Further steps may be required if there is a disagreement among the consulting parties on adverse effects or the resolution of the effects.
The federal agency overseeing the project inventories the project area (or contracts with a qualified consultant) to determine the presence or absence of historic properties. They then submit to the SHPO a Determination of Effect/Finding of Effect (DOE/FOE) outlining to the SHPO the project, the efforts taken identify historic properties, and what effects, if any, the project may have on historic properties. If the project is believed to have no adverse effect on eligible historic resources and the SHPO and other consulting parties agree, then the Section 106 process is effectively closed and the project may proceed. Alternatively, if an adverse effect is expected, the agency is required to work with the local State Historic Preservation Office to ensure that all interested parties are given an opportunity to review the proposed work and provide comments. This step seeks ways for the project to avoid having an adverse effect on historic properties. Ideally, a Memorandum of Agreement is reached between all consulting parties outlining agreed to mitigation or avoidance of historic properties, but this is not always the case. Without this process historical properties would lose a significant protection. This process helps decide different approaches and solutions to the project, but does not prevent any site from demolition or alteration.<16>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Historic_Preservation_Act_of_1966

Pipelines are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and subject to the 106 process. I'm unclear why production sites would not be similarly regulated and subject to the process.:shrug:

[Divernan]

13. Drilling company re: designated historic site - we can drill anyway!

The language of Section 106 (any federal agency that may damage historic property, especially those listed on the National Register of Historic Places, must consider the effects on historic properties and "seek ways to avoid, minimize or mitigate" any adverse effects on historic property) seems to apply only to projects undertaken directly by a federal agency - NOT by private commercial entities.

Alternatively, Section 106, at least according to the quoted portion above, refers to federally funded or federally permitted projects. Fracking wells are never federally funded. As to permits, the hearings I've seen reported have all been under the aegis of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, not the federal EPA.

(From the OP link)
"Under the federal code, the company was required to notify Army Corps of Engineers officials if it encountered archaeological finds. To prevent such delays, Mr. McHale said, an archaeologist under company contract checks whether proposed pipeline routes and project plans might disrupt any historic sites. If so, the company alters the routes to avoid them.

"When artifacts were found at a Blaine Township site where Mark West had proposed to create a wetlands, the company was required to preserve those areas to comply with the federal History Code.

"Mr. McHale and state officials met with Mr. Kotz in August 2009 to discuss historic preservation, and everything was amicable, he said. But Mr. Kotz said his suggestions were ignored.

"Mark West built a compressor station in Blaine on a site designated as historic, but Mr. McHale said the location of the archaeological resources wasn't clear and findings were deemed to be minimal, so the company went ahead with the project.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11128/1144994-178-4.stm#ixzz1Lm0aatyZ
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It is too bad the reporter was not thorough enough to give a specific cite/link to whatever part of the federal code is referred to. However, the code is described as putting the burden on the developer/driller to determine archaeological significance. And there are several references to drilling companies hiring their own archaeological/hired gun/experts to make that decision, i.e, cover their butts. "Hey, our expert said "locations weren't clear, and our expert deemed any findings "minimal"."

Another business friendly regulation trusting the fox to guard the hen house.
Drill first, argue points of law later.

[bluedigger]

19. I think I get it.

The extraction sites themselves are permitted by state regulatory agency only, while pipelines cross state boundaries, and fall under federal permitting and oversight. They need the level of scrutiny that cell towers get, with each pad site cleared first, due to the FCC's involvement. A business friendly environment, indeed.

[jwirr]

9. Well, you know history is of no importance - just ask a freeper - all

you need to do is revise it! :sarcasm:

[MountainLaurel]

11. I don't know why we worry about terrorists sometimes

Because U.S. corporations are doing such a good job of poisoning the water, killing people, and destroying the country all by themselves, and the government just encourages them in doing so.

[primavera]

21. Hear, hear!

What terrorist organization - or hell, invading army, for that matter - could ever possibly do even a tiny fraction of the damage that our corporations do to us routinely? We'll shred our Constitution; completely disregard international law and invade innocent nations, killing hundreds of thousands of people; sanction kidnapping, indefinite detention without trial, torture, and murder; bankrupt our economy and bring about a global economic crisis; and make ourselves into an international pariah state, all for the sake of going after a handful of individuals. Yet the corporations that cause more harm in a week than al Qaeda was able to manage over their entire 40 year history, they get off scott free, with our blessing even. It simply boggles the mind.

[MsPithy]

12. The Taliban destroys the monumental Buddhas

because of a twisted religious fervor, we destroy our archaeological record because of a twisted religious belief in capitalism. I am hard pressed to say we are winning the "War on Terrorism."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0301-04.htm

[Divernan]

14. Yes, this destruction of history reminded me of those Buddhas

not to mention looting of ancient artifacts from Iraqi museums.

[liberal N proud]

16. Greed is the only authority in the United States today

GREED!

[Divernan]

17. New bumper sticker: Pennsylvania - History Stops Here!

[colsohlibgal]

18. Greed Blows

This just ties in with tearing down historical buildings for parking lots. History is lost every day.

[bbinacan]

20. I believe the cuts to

PHMC came under Rendell.

[Divernan]

22. Public Health Management Corporation?

Maybe you posted on the wrong thread? Or am I missing the acronym?

[bbinacan]

23. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

Guess you didn't read the article.

[Divernan]

24. Correct answer: I missed the acronym (wasn't used in article)

But more importantly, I think you're right that Rendell did cut budget for the PA.Historical & Museum Commission.
Back in 2009, the museums and historical sites took a big hit in the state budget.

[bbinacan]

25. No sweat

it was used in an article I read about the Rendell cuts.