The Marcellus Shale is proving to be beneficial to landowners and the environment, alike, according to Gantdaily.com.

The Commonwealth Financing Authority has begun accepting applications for programs established by Act 13 Marcellus Legacy Fund to support conservation and environmental projects.

Act 13 was signed into law Feb. 14, 2012. The law created an impact fee based on wells drilled in the state. The fee generated more than $204 million for the state last year.

The money is used for a variety of purposes.

Read it:

“The majority of the revenues are distributed to local governments where drilling is taking place, with the remainder of the money used for statewide programs or distributed to counties based on population.”

Requirements

Here’s the program eligibility requirements:

♦ Abandoned Mine Drainage Abatement and Treatment Program provides grants to restore and maintain stream reaches impaired by abandoned mine drainage and ultimately, to remove these streams from the Department of Environmental Resources Impaired Waters list.

♦ Baseline Water Quality Data Program provides grants to use the scientific principles and practices for water sample collection and analysis to document existing groundwater quality conditions on private water supplies. 

♦ Greenways, Trails, and Recreation Program provides grants for the planning, acquisition, development, rehabilitation and repair of greenways, recreational trails, open space, parks and beautification projects. 

♦ Orphan or Abandoned Well Plugging Program provides grants to provide mechanisms to plug abandoned and orphaned wells that have the potential to cause health, safety or environmental concerns. 

♦ Watershed Restoration and Protection Program provides grants to restore and maintain stream reaches impaired by the uncontrolled discharge of nonpoint source polluted runoff and ultimately to remove these streams from the Department of Environmental Protection’s Impaired Waters list.

» Via: Gant Daily › Marcellus Shale Impact Fee Makes More Than $14M Available for Conservation; Environmental Protection