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County to get $900,000 from gas drilling fees

HARRISBURG — Butler County will get $897,000 from the state impact fee from natural gas drilling.

That was announced today by state officials.

State agencies and local governments in places where drilling for natural gas is occurring learned how much money they will get out from a fund that has already collected more than $200 million in impact fees from drillers.

Gov. Tom Corbett held a news conference at which he and other state officials disclosed the breakdown for counties, townships and boroughs. Checks should be going out from the state treasury in the next 10 days, they said.

All 67 counties get a share of the money, as do the Fish and Boat Commission, the Transportation Department, the Department of Environmental Protection and other state agencies that have some role in regulating or dealing with the drilling industry.

But 60 percent of the $204.2 million fund will go to 35 counties and nearly 1,500 municipalities where drilling occurs.

The Marcellus Shale drilling boom has been concentrated in a swath of the state that runs from the northeast, across the northern part of Pennsylvania and into the southwest corner that borders West Virginia.

The impact fee, passed in February for the Marcellus Shale, requires drillers to pay $50,000 for each horizontally drilled well and $10,000 for each vertical well drilled through 2011. The money being distributed was linked to nearly 4,500 wells and covers drilling through 2011. Payments for 2012 are due July 1.

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