The state earned more than $1.3 million from natural gas drilling on the Hereford Manor Lake property near Zelienople, but none of that money will likely be used to repair the dams and refill the lakes there.

Both the upper and lower Hereford Manor lakes, spread out over 440 acres just across the Butler County line in Beaver County, were drained in 2012 after state officials deemed the dams there “structurally deficient.”

The state’s estimate to repair the property has ballooned from $12 million to $20 million, money that isn’t available in the state Fish and Boat Commission’s coffers.

John Ball, the president of the Hereford Manor Lake Conservancy and Watershed Group, traveled to Harrisburg on Wednesday to ask the Fish and Boat Commission to reconsider where it spends money.

In 2011 the commission mandated that all funds earned from oil and gas drilling on state-owned lake property be used to help repair nine structurally deficient dams across the state. But that doesn’t mean money earned from a specific site must be spent on that site, a caveat that Ball doesn’t agree with.

That’s why he went to the state capital to try to persuade the commission that “what happens at Hereford should stay at Hereford.”

According to Ball, the response he got wasn’t ideal. None of the commissioners asked him a question or made a comment on his remarks.

“I went there in a sincere fashion to ask for their understanding,” he said. “Their response speaks for itself.”

Ball insisted that he isn’t trying to be “inflammatory” about the situation, but that he will continue seeking funds for the project.

“Quite frankly I’m not trying to argue because they have to make difficult decisions under limited budgets, and I don’t know what the politics are behind that,” he said. “I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.”

What Ball does have a problem with is the ever-increasing estimated costs to repair the property.

Only four years ago, Ball said, the state put the costs to fix the dams at about $12 million. That number has jumped by more than 50 percent, and Ball said he’s gotten no answers on why.

“I don’t like what I’m hearing in private conversations, that (the state) has inflated the price for repairing the dam,” he said. “I think that is a red herring, to use a fishing term, in pointing to something absurd to justify why they’re not doing anything about it.”

Ball said his group several years ago spent thousands of dollars on a feasibility study to determine independently the cost to repair the dams, and that study concluded the final price tag would be about $12 million.

State Rep. Jaret Gibbons, D-10th, who has been a big advocate for the project in Harrisburg, said that he’s not even sure where the state came up with its revised cost estimates.

“They never informed us of that figure and I don’t know what they’re basing that on,” he said. “All of our studies suggested it would be around $12 million to $15 million. I don’t know where they’re getting those estimates.”

Gibbons called the lakes “vital to our community,” and said he’s still optimistic something can be done. But that doesn’t mean he expects the dam to be repaired soon.

“It’s going to take this or future (governor’s) administrations to step up and put money into the project,” he said. “The commission isn’t going to come up with this kind of money on its own.”

Gibbons never expected the project to be done in a timely manner, but rather thought it would take about a decade.

“I do think it’s coming back,” he said. “We just have to be patient.”

Eric Levis, a spokesman for the Fish and Boat Commission, didn’t immediately return calls for comment.