Proposed rule on noise limits for oil, gas sites in PA pleases none
From an Article by Katelyn Ferral, Washington PA Observer-Reporter, May 3, 2015
Photo: Workers from Washington-based Steel Nation Inc. install mineral wool sound insulation in the walls of a building housing natural gas processing equipment.
Sound Off — The PA-DEP is accepting comments on a noise limit proposal and other changes to its draft of environmental rules until May 19. Comments can be emailed to RegComments @pa.gov or mailed to DEP Policy Office, P.O. Box 2063, 400 Market St., Harrisburg, PA 17105-2063.
Gas industry leaders and fracking critics in Pennsylvania have found common ground in their views on one aspect of proposed environmental regulations for drilling: A rule aimed at limiting noise from sites is too vague to be effective.
The PA Department of Environmental Protection is proposing noise regulations for oil and gas sites as part of its rewrite of surface rules around wells. They would require companies to record noise levels and formulate a plan to keep them down for neighbors. But the proposal introduced last month does not specify a decibel limit or how to monitor levels.
“Right now the regulation is unenforceable because there’s no objective standard,” said George Jugovic, general counsel for Penn Future, an environmental group that has lobbied for tougher regulations for the oil and gas industry in the state. “How do you determine that someone has minimized the noise?”
The PA-DEP did not include specific decibel limits or standards for how far noisy equipment must be from neighbors because they are too difficult to enforce, said Scott Perry, deputy secretary for the department’s Office of Oil and Gas Management. “All of the various situations that this issue could arise in make it a little too difficult to simply throw down a solid number, an objective standard,” he said.
The regulation would require companies to follow standards that the department is writing for noise around well pads and compressor stations, and will make them available to companies when the rules become final next spring. Violating the standards can result in the state’s revoking a permit. Enforcement will be largely complaint-driven, Perry said.
Many communities have noise limits for gas and oil sites, including Cecil, Elizabeth Township and Mt. Pleasant and Robinson in Washington County. They seek to cap noise from equipment at 50 to 60 decibels — about the equivalent of a running dishwasher — measured 100 to 200 feet from the closest building. Without silencers, oil and gas site volume can reach 100 to 110 decibels, about the equivalent of a chain saw. The state rules would not affect existing local ordinances, Perry said.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition said most companies use equipment to muffle noise. “What is being proposed by PA-DEP raises more questions than answers,” said Dave Spigelmyer, the North Fayette-based advocacy group and lobbyist’s president. “These duplicative regulations, including those related to noise, have the potential to create an enormous amount of operational disruption without providing any meaningful environmental benefits.”
Setting specific standards should be left to municipalities that can adjust for particular land uses and industries, said Elam Herr, assistant executive director for the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors. “For them to say that a certain decibel level is not allowed may create more problems,” he said. “You may allow a higher decibel rating in [an] agricultural site where there’s no real population around versus one where it’s more suburban.”
Larger gas companies have been dampening noise on sites for years, but smaller ones often don’t want to spend the extra money to keep it down, said Steve Morgan, executive vice president of Noise Solutions Inc., based in Alberta. The company, which has an office in Sharon, makes custom equipment to absorb sound on pump jacks, gas flare stacks, compressor stations and pipes. It has been selling in the Marcellus shale for four years. “Clients have really started to address noise in a really proactive manner,” Morgan said. “We were one of the last pieces of the puzzle to figure into the job site, and that’s not the case any longer.”
Colorado, Louisiana and Texas have statewide regulations that lay out decibel limits within a set perimeter around an oil or gas site.
Regulations on noise in Pennsylvania could help standardize what is now a mishmash of local regulations, Morgan said. But without specific guidance on what needs to be included in a noise-reduction plan, the proposal could add to confusion, Jugovic and others said.
Noise reduction technology has evolved along with the gas industry and includes specialized mufflers for equipment and engines, said Mark Caskey, owner of Steel Nation Inc., based in Washington. The company constructs buildings around compressor stations to block noise and installs sound blankets to absorb and reflect it away from other buildings. Caskey’s buildings absorb sound by sandwiching mineral wool, a thick fiber insulation, between sheets of perforated steel. They add several hundred thousand dollars to the cost of a compressor station, depending on its size.
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The Study of Noise in West Virginia
The following report was prepared for the WV Legislsture by Michael McCawley, PhD, West Virginia University, School of Public Health, Morgantown, on May 3, 2013: “Air, Noise, and Light Monitoring Results for Assessing Environmental Impacts of Horizontal Gas Well Drilling Operations (ETD‐10 Project),” as reported to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Air Quality.
The WV-DEP reinterpreted the above report topics as follows and as a result the WV Legislature did nothing about the problem: “Final Noise, Light, Dust and VOCs Report, WV-DEP, May 28, 2013″
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