Staff and wire writers
Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger:
"Sewage treatment plants that discharge into rivers aren't equipped to remove the sulfates and chlorides in the brine enough to comply with the proposed rule.
"Drilling wastewater is incredibly nasty wastewater," state Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger said after the vote at the panel's public meeting. "If we allow this into our rivers and streams, all the businesses in Pennsylvania will suffer ... all those who drink water in Pennsylvania are going to be angry and they would have every reason to be, and all of those who fish and love the outdoors are going to say, 'What did you do to our fish and our outdoors?'"
The Rendell administration on Thursday was celebrating a key approval of its strategy for protecting Pennsylvania's rivers and household water from a rapid expansion of natural gas drilling.
A state regulatory board voted 4-1 in favor of proposed new standards to deal with polluted drilling wastewater.
The rule is designed to take effect Jan. 1, but that could be delayed by the Legislature.
State environmental officials say too much of the pollutants can kill fish and leave a salty taste in drinking water drawn from rivers.
Sewage treatment plants that discharge into rivers aren't equipped to remove the sulfates and chlorides in the brine enough to comply with the proposed rule.
"Drilling wastewater is incredibly nasty wastewater," state Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger said after the vote at the panel's public meeting. "If we allow this into our rivers and streams, all the businesses in Pennsylvania will suffer ... all those who drink water in Pennsylvania are going to be angry and they would have every reason to be, and all of those who fish and love the outdoors are going to say, 'What did you do to our fish and our outdoors?'"
The vote comes at the beginning of what is expected to be a gas drilling boom in Pennsylvania. Exploration companies, armed with new technology, are spending billions to get into position to exploit the rich Marcellus Shale gas reserve, which lies underneath much of the state.
The rule would put pressure on drillers to find alternative methods to treat and dispose of the wastewater.
Myron Arnowitt, who is Pennsylvania state director for Clean Water Action, an environmental group that has been critical of the state's regulation of wastewater from gas drillers, said Thursday he was pleased that the new rules will be put into effect.
"We've been pushing for the state to adopt these rules for quite some time," Arnowitt said. "We're really happy to see that they're making it so (drillers) won't be able to put untreated water into our rivers."
The drilling industry, as well as a range of business groups and owners, opposes the rule, calling it costly, confusing, arbitrary and rushed during more than three hours of testimony before the regulatory review commission.
Consol Energy spokesman Joe Cerenzia said his company didn't believe the new rules would be helpful in achieving clean water. Consol's CNX Gas subsidiary is a major driller of coalbed methane gas as well as drilling horizontal wells to extract gas from the Marcellus Shale strata.
"We're not opposed to clean water, but we believe that what the commonwealth is proposing today is not going to achieve that," he said.
According to the Marcellus Shale Coalition, based in Southpointe, the drilling industry is taking issue with a regulation that it said would mandate an "end of pipe," 500 milligrams-per-liter cap on the concentration of total dissolved solids in the disposal of produced water from natural gas production.
"There is not a single water treatment facility in Pennsylvania that could meet this unreasonable benchmark, which will not provide any additional environmental benefit," said Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director of the coalition, in a statement.
"There is a need for commonsense regulations that encourage the production of job-creating natural gas throughout the commonwealth and aim to keep our water clean," she said, noting that improving water management pactices remains a top priority for the drilling industry.
"Unfortunately, these rules will make responsible shale gas development more difficult, and the jobs and economic benefits created throughout this process less likely, without positively impacting Pennsylvania's water quality."
Arnowitt noted that some drilling companies have already applied for permits to build wastewater treatment plants, which he said would be regulated by the state Department of Environmental Protection. According to Arnowitt, companies could either discharge the treated water back into the rivers, or use it for other hydraulic fracturing of horizontal gas wells.
Range Resources has said that it is now recycling nearly all of the water it uses in the hydraulic fracturing of wells. A Range spokesman was not available for comment late Thursday afternoon.
Cerenzia acknowledged that one option that has been discussed is for drillers to build their own treatment plants. Consol Energy Chief Executive J. Brett Harvey told shareholders last month that his company is considering investing between $200 million and $300 million to construct water treatment plants capable of processing mine and gas water for its Marcellus Shale operations.
Once the rule takes effect, a treatment plant would have to get state approval to process additional amounts of drilling wastewater beyond what it already is allowed, or ensure that it was pretreated by a specialized method that removes sulfates and chlorides.
Hanger said no other industry will be affected and he has worked to incorporate the concerns of business groups that have had more than a year to scrutinize the administration's plans. The companies, he said, are making more than enough money to pay for alternative treatment methods.
"There's plenty of money to do this the right way," Hanger said. "But, of course, if you let an industry do it the wrong way, the low-cost way, they will run with it, they will take it. They're not going to be volunteers."
http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/localnews/06-18-2010-NEW-DRILLING-WASTEWATER-REQUIREMENTS
6 comments
: 6/18/2010
It's about time, but this may lead to more illegal dumping.
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Get out of Pennsylvania : 6/18/2010
If the drilling companies don't like the efforts to keep our water safe, then they can move to another state.
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Is this Legislation just Political Posturing ? : 6/18/2010
I'm a simple man. I thought that introducing any form of pollution into the waterways was already illegal. Heck, if I pee in the river I'm going to be arrested. So why is this legislation needed to keep the drillers from allowing thousands upon thousands of gallons of water laced with heavy metals and salts from getting into our waterways ?
Maybe BP can help us out
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: 6/18/2010
Consol Energy spokesman Joe Cerenzia said his company didn't believe the new rules would be helpful in achieving clean water. If this is the case, then the laws are not strong enough.
Fracing = Death
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Part of the problem : 6/18/2010
I once spoke with an experience plumber and he assured me that Pittsburgh’s infrastructure has a great deal of raw sewage pipes draining directly into our rivers.
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wastewater from gas drillers : 6/18/2010
It realy does't matter how much it cost to the company they will just pass it on to the leasee and take it from his roylties
84 pa
