What's the difference between "green" and "sustainable?"

There are two visions of heaven when it comes to the Marcellus shale gas deposit. For the drillers, heaven's landscape is a checkerboard of 640 square acres, each graced with a drilling rig. In  this heaven, the drillers have free access to all the water they want and can dispose of their wastewater in the nearest stream. The companies reap a 65 percent return on their costs and their shareholders and landowners who leased their gas rights are all millionaires. Pennsylvania's treasury is bursting with cash as the wealth percolates through the economy - no need for an inconvenient drilling tax.

For many people who have seen Gasland and concluded that all     of Pennsylvania's rivers will be on fire and all the water in Pennsylvania's aquifers will be contaminated by gas or frack water, heaven is a place where the drillers have been driven out by an Egyptian-style popular uprising. And it's still a place where there's plenty of electricity that is magically generated without coal, natural gas, nuclear power or nasty wind turbines. And all the cars and trucks run on air.

But here on earth, we must work in an imperfect political system to make choices that will dictate how drilling will be done in Pennsylvania and who will pay to protect our land, water, and public health from drilling pollution and demands on government services and infrastructure.

So how can mere mortals conduct a rational conversation that results in the real-world compromises that will protect the air and water as the drillers produce the gas? By setting this goal for the outcome of the conversation: Pennsylvania will set the highest environmental protection standards for gas drilling in the country, and adopt a drilling tax to ensure that all Commonwealth residents benefit from the development of a valuable natural resource.

We are already deep into this conversation but it keeps getting hijacked by hyperbole on the one hand, and Super Bowl-sized naked political influence on the other hand. It is also happening as if natural gas does not need to be considered in the context of the entire energy picture and the dire need to move away from the fuel that is killing and sickening tens of thousands of people-coal.

Despite those obstacles, much has actually been accomplished. In 2009, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) raised the fees drillers must pay to apply for a permit by at least 1000 percent and
generated more than $10 million to more than double permitting and enforcement staff in its Bureau of Oil and Gas. In 2010, DEP pushed through regulations that set the strictest limits in the country on disposal of wastewater into state rivers and streams, over the howls of the gas drillers.

Also in 2010, DEP increased the standards for well construction to bring its vintage 1980s oil and gas regulations into the 21st century. The biggest failures of 2010 were the inability of the General Assembly and the Rendell administration to pass a drilling tax, and the continued leasing of the state forest for gas drilling.

The new regulations were a significant accomplishment that got us on the road to setting the world-class drilling standards that Pennsylvanians deserve. But much more needs to be done. Instead of wishing for heaven, we need to get busy setting the highest standards for gas drilling and insisting that the drillers meet those standards.

Here's what Pennsylvania needs to establish world-class standards for
gas drillers:

• A drilling tax;
• A ban on further leasing of state forestland for drilling;
• Increased bonding to ensure proper restoration of gas well sites. The current $2500 is a joke;
• Setbacks from waterways, wetlands and drinking water supplies;
• Prohibition on locating gas wells in flood plains;
• Increased fines for violations of environmental laws and regulations to motivate compliance;
• Tracking water use from withdraw to disposal;
• Testing drilling wastes and wastewater for radiation; and
• Preservation of local government power to control drilling through existing zoning powers.

If these rules went into effect tomorrow, heaven would remain out of reach for both the drillers who want unfettered access to the gas and for the people who just want the drillers gone. But here on earth, we could benefit from the natural gas resource under our feet without sacrificing our water, land and future to maximize driller profits.

Outgoing Governor Ed Rendell recently announced 87 grant awards totaling $14.1 million to municipalities and organizations committed to improving water quality and restoring damaged lands. Three local agencies have reaped the rewards of Harrisburg's latest round of Growing Greener and federal EPA grants for environmental projects throughout Pennsylvania.

Local grant recipients are:

The Lancaster County Conservation District

The funds will go toward the third phase of the Mill Creek stream restoration project in Earl, Leacock and Upper Leacock townships. Work includes stabilizing eroding stream banks, and installing cattle-exclusion fencing and building riparian buffers along the waterway. Grant amount: $159,675.

Lancaster city

Funds will be used for the city's Green Streets program. A green street uses a combination of vegetated and engineering techniques to manage rain water and melting snow, helping water to infiltrate into the soil and recharge groundwater and surface water. The program is also aimed at reducing the amount of water that flows from the streets into the city's sewer system. Grant amount: $225,000.

Lancaster Farmland Trust

Money will go toward the coordinating the planning, conservation, management, utilization, development and control of the basin's water resources. Grant amount: $75,000. "These grants are about our future; they're supporting projects to correct the poor practices and neglect of the past," Rendell said.

The city and Farmland Trust are receiving funds from the state Growing Greener program. The Conservation District grant is provided through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

By AD CRABLE, Lancaster New Era Staff Writer

Large regional parks where hiking and nature are the focus don't grow on trees these days.

But nature lovers found one with the opening of the 569-acre Wolf's Hollow County Park along the Lancaster-Chester county line, a few miles south of Christiana and Atglen.

This splendid park — 25 acres larger than Lancaster County Central Park — features wooded hollows and ridges above and along the East Branch of Octoraro Creek, a state scenic river that forms the county line.

Walkers and hikers have 7 miles of wide, flat dirt trails to explore. About 70 percent of the property is wooded, but there are also some high-country fields and fenced pastures that give the property the feel of an estate, which it partly was.

The tract goes back to an original land grant from William Penn in 1681. There are some ruins of structures going back to the 1700s and faint traces of an iron forge that operated along the Octoraro.

More recently, the property became the estate of the family of Eugene Gagliardi, who came up with frozen Steak-umms and made a fortune. The handsome house that Gagliardi had built as a reproduction of an 18th-century manor house is still lived in.