PA-DEP releases final draft rules on Marcellus drilling
From an Article by Scott Beveridge, Washington PA Observer-Reporter, August 12, 2015
The PA Department of Environmental Protection removed rules for noise mitigation and oversight of centralized wastewater storage tanks in its latest and final draft of changes to its oil and natural gas drilling regulations.
Those decisions were reached because the PA-DEP determined noise mitigation needs to have a separate process for setting rules, and the tanks will continue to be monitored under its residual waste regulations, the department said Wednesday.
The plan to amend the regulations began in 2011 to better protect water resources and public health and safety, and to address landowner concerns at Marcellus Shale drilling operations, PA-DEP spokesman Neil Shrader stated in a news release.
The revisions also were drafted to improve data management of drilling operations in a more transparent manner. “These amendments reflect a balance between meeting the needs of the industry and the needs of public health and the environment, all while enabling drilling to proceed,” PA-DEP Secretary John Quigley said.
Previous amendments to the rules would ban the use of on-site wastewater pits, except for those used at conventional well sites, and restrict the use of typically larger, centralized impoundments or dams for storing drilling water. The new rules are expected to be in place in spring 2016.
Centralized impoundments hold millions of gallons of water and are used to supply more than one drilling pad in certain areas.
A PA-DEP file review performed by Observer-Reporter staff last year at the department’s Southwest Regional Office in Pittsburgh showed that all of Southpointe-based Range Resources’ nine centralized impoundments in Washington County experienced problems after they were put into operation. Some of the leaks resulted in Range being fined $4.5 million by the PA-DEP.
Patrick Grenter, executive director of the Citizens for Coalfield Justice environmental group in Washington, said he was glad to hear the PA-DEP planned to make its Marcellus Shale records more transparent to the public. Grenter said the new rules don’t go far enough, though, to protect the environment.
“Some of the open-air impoundments and pits are going to be better regulated,” Grenter said. The impoundments, however, are banned in other states, he said. “We’ve seen time and time again that even if they’re modern impoundments, they look better, but they still leak,” Grenter said.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition, a Green Tree industry trade group, complained that the new regulatory proposal will cost the industry $2 billion annually without creating “meaningful environmental benefits,” its managing director, Travis J. Windle, said in a new release.
He said Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed energy tax, coupled with low commodity prices, “severely discourages” investment in Pennsylvania. “Given these clear and widely reported facts, it’s alarming and out of touch with economic reality that (Gov.) Wolf stated just days ago that ‘the industry is showing no signs of slowing down,’” Windle said.
The Pennsylvania Sierra Club, meanwhile, issued a statement Wednesday thanking the PA-DEP for having a “meaningful public participation process” leading up the final draft rules, and it also said it was pleased that Wolf’s administration “took steps to limit fracking pits and impoundments.”
Under the new rules, existing centralized impoundments must be strengthened and repermitted within three years or they will be shut down.
“Waste impoundments are a significant pollution threat and create dangerous conditions for public health and the environment,” said Joanne Kilgour, director of the state Sierra Club chapter. The chapter said it was disappointed that the new rules wouldn’t do more to keep drilling activities more than 200 feet away from schools and playgrounds.
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NOTE by DGN: Weak regulations continue in West Virginia
When the WV legislature was controlled by Democrats, only weak regulations were developed. And, during the past legislative session the Republicans were in control and no new protections were put in place.
Delegate Woody Ireland, a Republican from Ritchie County, is Chairman of the House Energy Committee. He has stated a desire to require air quality monitoring near well pads but no specifics have been developed. He and most other legislators know that setback distances are too short, but have not been willing to do anything about it.
Delegate Ireland has been promoting a Bill to establish “forced pooling” for Marcellus shale wells. If 80% or more of the mineral acreage is already leased for drilling, the remaining mineral acreage could be forced to participate. (The horizontal coverage for a given well can extended over one mile of distance.) A similar Bill was defeated in a 49 to 49 tie vote in the last legislative session.
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http://triblive.com/business/headlines/8898880-74/rules-drilling-department#axzz3iqkLaLzu
More changes coming to Pa. environmental rules for gas, oil wells
By David Conti, Pittsburgh Triblive.com, August 12, 2015
Pennsylvania regulators backed off plans to write noise limits and requirements involving off-site wastewater storage tanks into new environmental rules for oil and gas wells.
The Department of Environmental Protection on Wednesday called those changes the most significant in the final draft of proposed rules that seek to protect water, air and land around drilling sites. DEP officials said to expect more changes and a separate batch of regulations the agency will begin writing this year.
“These amendments reflect a balance between meeting the needs of the industry and the needs of public health and the environment, all while enabling drilling to proceed,” department Secretary John Quigley said.
‘A big step forward’
The Marcellus Shale Coalition blasted the rules as being too burdensome and unnecessary, estimating they will add $2 billion in annual costs to an industry suffering from low gas prices “without providing meaningful environmental benefits.”
“We have worked in good faith to provide constructive comments on this proposed rule,” said David Spigelmyer, president of the North Fayette-based industry group. He complained that Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration, which is seeking to increase taxes on the industry, “chose to ignore comments made by the regulated community and disregarded legislative directives to do any real cost benefit analysis.”
Quigley said the department took into account 30,000 comments. “We’ve gone the extra mile in every way,” he said. “We have made changes. We have done this right.”
A 2013 analysis by DEP estimated the rules would cost shale drillers between $53 million and $79 million annually. Spokesman Neil Shader said additional analysis would be available when the department submits the rules for final review.
The environmental group PennFuture said it was still “digesting” the draft but was encouraged. “Finalizing these rules and getting them in place is a big step forward,” staff attorney Michael Helbing said.
The 4-year rewrite has grown divisive as it stretched between two administrations and sought to regulate conventional drilling and the growing exploration of deep shale. The department took testimony at a dozen public hearings before lawmakers ordered it to separate the new rules for conventional and shale drilling.
Wolf this year revamped the advisory boards that review the rules as the department had made enough changes to the draft that it required a second round of public comment. The boards provide input and non-binding recommendations. Quigley acknowledged that one of those boards, the newly formed Conventional Oil and Gas Advisory Committee, won’t give its blessing to the regulations covering shallow wells.
Noise limits too vague
Industry and environmental advocates complained that noise limits included in that draft were too vague to include in well permits. Deputy Secretary Scott Perry said the department would publish separate guidance on the issue.
Off-site tanks built to handle wastewater will be handled like earthen impoundments for which drillers will need to obtain separate residual waste permits to build or operate. Leaks from impoundments have been a problem for drillers and led to multimillion-dollar fines.
The new changes clarify unclear language in the previous draft. Drillers that pollute drinking water supplies will have to restore them to a higher standard. Playgrounds whose presence near a well would trigger extra requirements in a permit do not include those privately operated by a restaurant or day care center. One-year drilling permits can be renewed only once, for two years, before a company needs to start over on the application process.
“We are confident this will be approved,” Quigley said of the proposal that requires approvals from the Environmental Quality Board and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission next year.
Perry said he expects more changes to this draft as it goes before the two advisory boards, which will meet August 27th and September 2nd.
A separate process to write stronger public health rules for the industry is starting, Quigley said.