Susan LeGros, CSSD Exec. Dir.
Center for Sustainable Shale Development awarded grant, loses Heinz Endowments funding
From an Article in the Beaver County Times, PA, May 15, 2014
PITTSBURGH. The Center for Sustainable Shale Development announced this week it was awarded a two-year $150,000 grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, but officials also confirmed the center no longer receives funding from the Heinz Endowments, one of its founding members.
The Richard King Mellon grant money will be used to support CSSD’s certification program, community outreach and education, Susan LeGros, the center’s executive director, said Wednesday.
“The support we have received from the Richard King Mellon Foundation will be leveraged to help CSSD fulfill its mission to advance transparent and prudent shale development,” LeGros said. “We are honored and encouraged that one of the country’s leading philanthropic organizations with such a strong heritage in investing in this region has joined us in support of implementing our third-party certification program and our efforts to inform the public about ways to address risk.”
While LeGros did not say why Heinz Endowments was no longer an active contributor to the center, she did say CSSD’s “door was open” to the endowment. The Pittsburgh-based CSSD garnered criticism from both environmentalists and industry sources alike when it came to fruition last year.
The center formed a set of voluntary industry best practices for natural gas companies operating in the Appalachian Basin, standards that focus on the protection of air, climate, water and waste, setting up limitations for drilling flowback, flaring, diesel fuel usage on drilling sites, emissions, storage tanks for flowback, groundwater protection, well casing design, wastewater disposal and impoundment integrity, among others. It also offers a certification process once these standards are met.
LeGros took the helm of CSSD in January, replacing interim director Andrew Place, who is also the corporate director of energy and environmental policy at EQT Corp. Around the same time, CSSD officially opened up its application process for drillers.
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First Application Comes To Sustainable Shale Development Center
From PA Environment Digest, May 16, 2014
The Associated Press reported Thursday the Center for Sustainable Shale Development received its first application to be certified under the sustainability guidelines of the Center. Certification is based on the Center’s 15 initial performance standards that were developed to reflect leading industry practices. Companies can seek certifications in sustainable air, climate, water and waste guidelines.
Auditors will evaluate the applicant’s operations to the standards that are specific to the certification a company chooses. Evaluations are expected to take three to six months, with a summary of a completed audit report made accessible on CSSD’s website. The review of this initial application is scheduled for early June by the Center’s independent auditor Bureau Vertas, a French global testing and inspection firm.
CSSD’s founding participants include: Chevron; Clean Air Task Force; CONSOL Energy; Environmental Defense Fund; EQT Corporation; Group Against Smog and Pollution; Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future; Pennsylvania Environmental Council; and Shell.
Click Here to read the entire AP article. For more information, visit the Center for Sustainable Shale Development website.
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