Gas-drilling leases in W. Pa. cemeteries raising concern

Pennsylvania groups opposed to Marcellus Shale drilling have been spreading the word about a particular set of leases: those signed with cemeteries.

"The people who live around all of these places which have leases should be concerned," said Jet Miskis, a member of the Peters Township Marcellus Shale Awareness group, from the Washington County town south of Pittsburgh. "Because of the Oil and Gas Act, they are permitted by law to drill up to 200 feet from your home."

The Peters Township Council enacted regulations this month governing the gas-drilling industry.

Annabelle McGannon, executive director of the Catholic Cemeteries Association of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, said there were no immediate plans to drill for gas at any of the 11 cemeteries in Washington and Allegheny Counties under lease with Huntley & Huntley of Monroeville, Pa.

"Even if the drilling companies do eventually express interest," she said in a statement, "the association is in complete control over the location of any such activity, which would never be permitted within the developed sections of any cemetery."

In September 2008, the Catholic Cemeteries Association signed the five-year gas lease with Huntley & Huntley, a gas firm, for 1,254 acres, including 195-acre Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Peters, 200-acre Calvary Cemetery in Pittsburgh, and nine others in Allegheny County.

During the same time in 2008, another cemetery in Peters, Forest Lawn Gardens, signed a lease with Huntley & Huntley for its 70 acres.

A spokesman for Huntley & Huntley declined to comment.

In the months leading up to the Peters Council's Aug. 8 vote to approve drilling regulations, Miskis and other members of the Peters Township Marcellus Shale Awareness Group said they had worked hard to spread the word about local property and business owners who have signed gas leases in recent years.

The new ordinance calls for a minimum of 40 acres for gas wells. There are 14 such sites in the township - including the cemeteries - that would meet that requirement.

The news that Calvary Cemetery, the final resting place for Pittsburgh Mayors Richard Caliguiri, David L. Lawrence, and Bob O'Connor, was under lease contributed to the groundswell of opposition that led the City Council to ban drilling last year.

"It's a 200-acre gas field," Councilman Doug Shields said of Calvary. "It's the largest lease in the land."

As long as the cemetery remains under lease, Shields said, the threat of drilling within city limits is real even with the ban, which he fears could be rescinded by future council members.

Shields and several other council members tried unsuccessfully to get a question on the drilling ban on the fall ballot for approval by voters, which would make the ban part of the city's governing charter and more difficult to challenge.

Among the nine other municipalities in the Catholic cemeteries lease, five have no ordinances that would restrict gas drilling at cemeteries, though Robinson, Shaler, and Penn Hills are each developing a gas-drilling ordinance.

Other municipalities have some restrictions through zoning or specific requirements that might limit cemetery drilling.

According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, no permits have been issued for cemeteries in Washington County or Allegheny County. The affected municipalities also have not received any applications for drilling at the cemeteries.

Though the rush to drill has reached fever pitch in Washington, Greene, and other surrounding counties, only seven Marcellus Shale permits have been approved by the DEP in Allegheny County, with none drilled.

According to its website, Huntley & Huntley was founded in 1912 as a geological and engineering consulting firm. In 1995 it began developing its own oil and gas reserves.

The company operates more than 350 gas wells, and has more leases in Allegheny County than any other operator, with rights to 10,990 acres.

The U.S. Labor Department fined the company $70,000 for workplace safety violations that led to a July 2010 explosion that killed two workers at an Indiana Township oil well.

While some have expressed reservations about gas wells in urban areas, Huntley & Huntley has billed itself as Western Pennsylvania's "premier urban developer of natural gas."

"Huntley continues to be successful at developing reserves in an area that others had overlooked due to demographic challenges," its website says.

Along with environmental and safety concerns that go with drilling and hydraulic fracturing, others say they see a moral dilemma.

"Those are sacred grounds," said Allegheny County Council Vice President Charles Martoni, who said he was unaware of the gas leases with two Catholic cemeteries in his district, All Saints Cemetery in Braddock Hills and Good Shepherd Cemetery in Monroeville.

McGannon said her organization was sensitive to the concerns of people who owned plots in the cemeteries.

"The management of the Catholic Cemeteries Association is keenly aware of the unique nature of the cemetery properties and has a very strong track record of caring for these properties for almost 60 years," she said. "We would never allow any activity within the cemetery properties that compromises our mission or the sacred nature of the Catholic cemetery."