Governor greets protestors

PALMER -- About 30 protesters were on hand to greet Gov. Frank Murkowksi when he made an impromptu appearance at the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.

With signs that read "Frank, don't drill in my sandbox" and "property rights under siege," area residents concerned about shallow-gas drilling called out requests for more public input and asked Murkowski when they'd have a voice in decisions regarding sub-surface property rights. Murkowski shook hands with several and invited them inside the Palmer Moose Lodge for lunch.

Natural gas drilling wasn't the only topic the governor spoke on, but he devoted a significant portion of his speech to the topic. According to information from his staff, Murkowski said, a lot of land is up for lease.

"I'm told 30 leases have been issued, covering 127,000 acres. Thirty leases have been approved, covering 102,000 acres. Thirty lease applications are pending, covering 68,000 acres," Murkowski said.

On top of that, he said, 11 wells have been drilled as of Wednesday and four more are ready to be drilled.

"There has been no determination at this time whether there is any commercial viability," Murkowski said. The 11 wells currently held by Colorado-based Evergreen Resources have not yet gone into production.

Much of the leasing and drilling is taking place in the Mat-Su Borough, and property owners across the area have reacted with surprise to find out the subsurface mineral rights on the land they own has been leased -- often without their knowledge. Murkowski assured skeptics that the state carefully monitors development and despite the fact that the state constitution gives the state's sub-surface rights precedence over property rights, a process is in place to allow property owners input in what goes on when the drilling starts.

"Drilling and production operations are regulated by the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission," Murkowski said. "Any application has to provide a suitable bond in favor of the state."

That bond, he said, protects property owners in the event their property is damaged during the drilling process.

He added that property owners needn't worry about toxins from fluids used in the fracturing process. Although harsh chemicals such as hydrochloric acid are used in some places as a fracturing chemical, "the content of [Evergreen's] fracturing fluid is essentially the same things that occur, in all things in the manufacture of chewing gum … and it's all biodegradable," Murkowski said.

Murkowski said companies found to be using toxins will be confronted by the state. After the meeting, when AOGC Commissioner Randy Reudrich spoke to members of the press and two concerned property owners about the permitting process, he was asked to point out where, in the Department of Natural Resources' regulations, it stipulated what substances are acceptable for use in fracturing fluids. Reudrich, citing a meeting he was late for, left without answering the question. At a previous meeting in Sutton, Reudrich said there were no regulations restricting substances used in fracturing fluids.

Several written questions about drilling were passed forward from the audience to chamber president Stu Graham, who distilled them into one concern -- that not enough public input had been provided before leases were issued.

"It just seems that people aren't at all informed," one protester said outside the lodge. "What we want is for people to be informed."

"My understanding is that the process is continuing," Murkowski said. He deferred to Reudrich, who said new techniques are watched closely -- if a new technique or type of drilling is being done. New techniques automatically receive more review, a hearing and more checks, he said, and he reiterated that DNR does follow a comment period for leases.

When protester Robin McLean, after the meeting, suggested to Reudrich that progress on the leases stop and return to the public process, Reudrich said the permitting procedure has moved forward, and DNR followed its procedures pertaining to noticing the lease permits. Advertisements were placed in area papers and on the department's Web site, he said, and sent to community councils and other groups in the area. McLean challenged Reudrich's assertion that the public process had been followed, citing information from DNR staff that notices were never sent to several community councils in the area of the drilling leases. She suggested the leases be revoked and the process be taken back to the public comment phase, with notices sent to individual landowners in the affected areas.

"The public process is very important," Reudrich said, "but the public process moves forward to the next step."