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SECOND CHANCE:

The meeting will be rebroadcast at 9 a.m. today and at 3 p.m. Sunday.

PCN broadcasts on Channel 21, Comcast, Channel 38 in Eagles Mere, Channel 55 for Blue Ridge subscribers and Channel 42 for Williamson Road Cable TV subscribers.

The Marcellus Shale has the potential to pump millions of dollars into the local economy over the coming decades. But a town hall meeting held Tuesday at the Community Theater in Williamsport proved that not all concerns about gas exploration in the Marcellus Shale region are about economics.

There are major concerns about how natural gas exploration will impact our natural resources and quality of life.

The meeting, which was co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, Pennsylvania Cable Network, Williamsport Sun-Gazette and The Express of Lock Haven, was broadcast live on the Pennsylvania Cable Network.

It featured a panel of experts who spent almost two hours discussing their views about natural gas exploration and fielding questions about the issue.

Prior to a question and answer session, moderator Brian Lockman, president and CEO of PCN, asked each panelist to discuss their views about gas exploration.

About 14 gas wells have been drilled or are being drilled in Lycoming County "with expectations that there will be a lot more," Thomas Murphy, an educator with the Penn State Cooperative Extension at Lycoming County, said.

A significant feature of the shale formation is its location close to 50 to 60 percent of the U.S. population, which provides gas companies with a ready market for the gas, Murphy said.

According to Dr. Timothy Kelsey, professor of agricultural economics for the extension, the Marcellus Shale formation, which runs from the southern tier of New York through Pennsylvania and into West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland, has a huge potential to impact the area's economy.

The challenge, Kelsey said, is how to capitalize on the economic boost so that it improves the community long after the resource has been depleted.

Pennsylvania is not new to oil and gas drilling, according to Louis D. D'Amico, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of Pennsylvania. In fact, the state is third only to Texas and Colorado as the most active drilling state in the nation, he said.

Thomas Y. Au, conservation chair and water conservation committee co-chair of the state chapter of the Sierra Club, said the organization, which has 27,000 members statewide, is not opposed to natural gas exploration. The organization sees natural gas as a cleaner alternative to other fossil fuels that can be used while other clean, renewable fuels are developed, he said.

The organization is concerned with potential problems regarding the development of the state's gas resources, he said. Gas exploration may require the clearing of large tracts of woodland, which disrupts wildlife and attracts invasive species, he said.

Gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, which requires the use of large quantities of water, could adversely affect streams and ground water, he said.

There also are concerns about how waste water from hydrofracturing operations will be disposed of, he said= Hydrofracturing - often called "fracing" or "hydrofracing" - involves pumping a pressurized mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to pulverize the shale and release the gas trapped in it.

A typical fracing operation uses millions of gallons of water.

Au said he also was concerned about noise pollution from heavy truck traffic and the impact the trucks will have on municipal roads.

Ronald Gilius, director of the DEP's Bureau of Oil and Gas Management, said his office is involved in the permitting of oil and gas exploration activities in Pennsylvania. The agency cannot, he said, resolve disputes between landowners and gas companies over leases.

Landowner Ted Barbour, said his property is part of a unit that has been drilled, fraced and restored.

"We're waiting for the pipeline," he said. Barbour said he had no regrets about leasing his property for gas exploration.

During the question and answer segment of the meeting, Russell Cowles, president of the Lycoming Creek Watershed Association, expressed concern that a 2005 federal energy bill did away with many of the federal safeguards regarding gas and oil exploration.

Cowles said he could not understand why companies making huge amounts of money would need relief from compliance to federal regulations.

It would be cheaper to make sure pollution and resource degradation does not occur than to have to clean it up later, he said.

Gilius said state regulations fill the void left by the elimination of federal regulations.

Eldred Township Supervisor Steve Patt said he was concerned about how gas exploration could impact municipal roads.

D'Amico said that concern is "most critical" from an industry perspective.

"We all know township roads are not designed for heavy hauling," he said. 'They were designed for an occasional milk truck and school bus."

Other questions revolved around whether the area could supply the industry with a viable work force, methods by which municipalities can capitalize on gas exploration, and how local government has prepared for potential population increases.

Organizers called the meeting a success.

Robert Rolley, interim publisher of the Sun-Gazette interim publisher and publisher of The Express, said the event "was very much worth" the effort.

"There was some good stuff. One thing I came away with was that there is a real thirst for information about this issue," Rolley said.

"I thought there was a lot of practical information that people came away with," Lockman said.

"I think it went well," newspaper association executive director Lauren Lee said.

"I hope people left here with a little more knowledge," she said.

According to Lockman, the meeting will be rebroadcast at 9 a.m. today and at 3 p.m. Sunday.

PCN broadcasts on Channel 21, Comcast, Channel 38 in Eagles Mere, Channel 55 for Blue Ridge subscribers and Channel 42 for Williamson Road Cable TV subscribers.