Corbett refuses to budge on gas tax policy
Pennsylvania’s governor tells township supervisors he will protect the state’s water from dangers posed by drilling.
HERSHEY — Gov. Tom Corbett told a crowd of local-government officials Monday that he would oppose a new state tax on natural gas extraction even if the industry had not contributed nearly $1 million to his election campaign, and he vowed to protect the state’s water supplies from drilling-related degradation.
“I will not let them poison the water,” Corbett said, drawing applause from many of the more than 1,500 people who turned out to hear him speak at the annual conference of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors.
Gas drilling on the Marcellus Shale formation that stretches beneath much of western and northern Pennsylvania is proliferating rapidly, and the response to the governor’s speech underscored the importance of drilling to the local officials who deal with its benefits and dangers on a daily basis.
Of particular concern is the drilling wastewater, some of which is taken to treatment plants that discharge into waterways that are used as sources of drinking water. Locally, the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority is considering conducting a feasibility study on constructing a plant to treat the water mixed with chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process to extract natural gas.
Earlier this month, the Corbett administration said it was widening the scope of water tests to screen for radioactive pollutants and other contaminants from drilling and adding more water-quality testing stations on the state’s rivers.
“We need to protect the water,” said the governor, a Republican, “but we must do it based on science, not emotion.”
Corbett has come under fire for proposing deep cuts in state aid to higher education and public schools in his state budget plan for the year that starts July 1, while refusing to tax the natural gas that multinational energy companies and others are extracting from shale deep underneath land leased from public and private owners.
The former state attorney general, who was sworn in as governor in January, said a new tax would be detrimental to job creation at this early stage of the state’s gas industry.
“Everywhere I go in the Marcellus region, we’re starting to see development,” he said. “It’s the only industry that’s really growing in Pennsylvania.”
Pennsylvania is the only major state that produces natural gas but does not tax it. But Corbett warned the township officials that state-to-state comparisons are tricky because each state has a different tax mix. He cited Texas, where he went to law school, as an example.
“Texas doesn’t have a personal income tax. Texas doesn’t have a property tax. So when we’re talking about taxes, don’t you think we ought to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges?” he asked. Pennsylvania has a state income tax and local property taxes.
Corbett, who pledged in his campaign not to increase taxes or fees if elected, said the generous industry contributions he received were not a factor in his opposition to a tax.
“Had they not given me a dime, I would still be in this position, saying we need to grow jobs in Pennsylvania,” he said.
The governor said he remains open to a proposal that would allow counties or municipalities to impose local impact fees on drilling operations to help finance repairs to local roads damaged by heavy truck traffic and other consequences of the activity.
PETER JACKSON
April 19, 2011
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Corbett_refuses_to_budge_on_gas_tax_policy_04-18-2011.html
New Jersey Seeks to Limit Number of Fracking Sites
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/11/0417/2245/
State Department of Environmental Protection wants no more than 300 wells in Delaware River watershed once moratorium is lifted
New Jersey wants to limit the number of natural gas wells drilled in the Delaware River Basin when a moratorium is lifted on hydraulic fracturing, a drilling technique that involves injecting huge volumes of water to extract the fuel from shale.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection urged the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to limit the number of production wells to no more than 300 once it adopts regulations governing the drilling for natural gas in Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and New York.
The tough stance was welcomed by critics of the practice, dubbed “fracking,” because they fear widespread drilling might end up polluting the drinking water of 15 million people who rely on the Delaware River, including 3 million in New Jersey. But they questioned why the state did not demand that its 300-well limit be included in regulations being adopted by the commission.
Formal Comments
DEP Commissioner Bob Martin sent his formal comments to the interstate agency Friday, the day after the public comment period on DRBC regulations governing fracking closed. The timing frustrated environmentalists who want to retain the moratorium until more exhaustive studies assessing the impact of the technology are completed.
“If they vote to adopt the rules as proposed, these things will never happen,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “They need to repropose the rules with the recommended protections. Otherwise it is just a publicity stunt.”
“Any drilling in the Delaware River watershed is too much drilling,” said David Pringle, campaign director for the New Jersey Environmental Federation. Still, he said the call for limits on drilling was “moving in the right direction.”
Maya von Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, agreed. “The push for more science and more analysis is positive,” she said, but she questioned if the DRBC should move ahead with its regulations before lifting the moratorium. “We can get the science done without damaging our river and water quality.”
Carcinogenic Chemicals
Martin’s comments also came a day before an investigation by congressional Democrats found oil and gas companies had injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states over a four-year period.
In its proposal, New Jersey wants the DRBC to stage the approval of well sites, or pads. It should allow no more than 30 production well pads, not to exceed 300 production wells in total, in the two years immediately following adoption of its proposed regulations. The DRBC then should conduct an extensive study to assess the impact of the initial wells and the effectiveness of its regulations before any further drilling could occur.
The DRBC projects that between 15,000 and 18,000 natural gas wells will be drilled within the basin after the proposal expires.
New Jersey also would require proper management and disposal of the waste material derived from fracking, and conclusive evidence that diverting water from the basin does not adversely affect other water users and the environment. Critics of fracking have argued that wastewater treatment facilities in the region cannot adequately handle byproducts generated by the practice.
“Without these conditions in place, natural gas development activities in the Delaware River Basin will be unacceptable,” Martin wrote.
Asked why Martin had not insisted on incorporating the New Jersey changes into the proposed rules, Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the DEP, said the commissioner was seeking a “reasoned approach” to overseeing natural gas development. “It’s a sound and reasonable way to proceed,” he said.
Questioned what would happen if the DRBC ignores New Jersey’s proposed changes, Hajna replied, “We certainly hope that would not be the case.”
The five-member commission consists of representatives from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and the federal government, which could wind up having a deeply divided commission adopt the rules. Because of the economic boom caused by the discovery of deep deposits of natural gas, Pennsylvania favors lifting the moratorium, as does the federal government, said Pringle.
New Jersey could still block the rules if it is joined by New York and Delaware in not lifting the moratorium.
Gas issue is money, only money
http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Gas-issue-is-money-only-money-1340434.php
Fred LeBrun Commentary
Monday, April 18, 2011
Tapping into the King Midas riches embedded in New York’s share of the Marcellus Shale will be front and center in the political arena before long. I’m afraid there’s just too much money at stake for politicians to leave it alone.
At which time World War III will break out over whether we should say yes or no to using horizontal hydrofracking to drill for gas, and on what terms.
There is no middle ground. You’re either for it or against it, although my inclination is to try to find accommodation. The problem is, the issue is money, and only money. Lots of it.
It is not about saving the natural world with cleaner energy. Emerging research is refuting that notion. Nor is the argument about decreasing dependence on foreign oil. We easily could let other states that also sit on Marcellus Shale deposits extract enough for this nation for the next 50 years.
No, it’s about money, and making money, and who will benefit and who will not. It is about the costs, known and feared, associated with the benefit, because nothing’s for nothing. And the stickiest part of all is that it pits those few who stand to make a lot of money against the many who will bear the brunt of the cost. And what are the costs?
If I had to make a decision right now on this, the most important environmental and public policy issue facing this generation of New Yorkers, I’d do exactly what the state is doing. That is, nothing. I’d wait. Beyond the end of the state moratorium on drilling in June and into next year. Too much is at stake.
Last week, Bob Perciasepe, deputy administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, told U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s environment committee that initial results of an independent, peer-reviewed study “to understand the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water” should be publicly available by late 2012. That is guidance critical to establishing true costs.
Predictably, the gas extraction industry will claim that is just another needless delay. Well, frankly, the industry has brought this on itself, notably by what happened in Pennsylvania. Nor is the gas going anywhere in the meantime.
Boxer’s committee was explicitly looking into “Natural Gas Drilling: Public Health and Environment Impacts,” indicative of how ignorant we all our of the consequences. Boxer referenced an eyepopping series of stories that ran in The New York Times in February on how Pennsylvania has suffered from sloppy state and federal regulation of hydraulic hydrofracking and the state’s own greed. It seems the industry mantra that there are no documented cases anywhere of drinking water contamination because of hydraulic fracturing may be true only if you consider just the narrow physical process. The billions of gallons of highly contaminated water laced with chemicals needed for the process, and the briny, radioactive wastewater still laced with the chemicals that comes back up are a different matter.
While the industry may have made great strides in engineering to get at gas a mile or more below the surface, the technology lags considerably for confidently processing that wastewater. Sort of like the nuclear waste problem associated with another energy source.
Probably the most damning testimony before Boxer’s committee came from Conrad Volz of the University of Pittsburgh’s graduate school of public health. He said that much of this toxic wastewater in Pennsylvania was being processed in municipal sewage treatment plants not designed for it. When it comes out of those plants, the wastewater is still highly contaminated, he said, and winds up in streams and rivers that become water supplies. The long-term potential damage to the environment and human health is staggering.
No, I am not anti-drilling, just a cautious citizen. The industry can give us all sorts of assurances, but what’s happening one state away with the same industry players using the same technology in the same Marcellus Shale tells a different tale. Until those stories are the same, we should be skeptical and issue no permits.
We have more than a friend in Pennsylvania, we have a guinea pig. Let’s be taught by example.
So what is a reasonable expectation for New York? Ultimately, I do believe there can be accommodation. Some drilling, tightly controlled and limited. None whatsoever in the Catskill watershed and a wide buffer zone around it, for example, because there is too great a risk for New York City’s water supply. None on state lands, so that in the future people can glimpse the golden age, when the horizon wasn’t dotted with wells.
Conrad Volz testified that in his view, these highly industrialized drilling operations should not be sited in areas of high population density, or near schools or critical infrastructure. A catastrophic blowout, with ensuing explosions and fires, is a risk. Ah, yes, that old tussle between risk and benefit. It comes back to bite us again.
And before any well starts pumping, a wastewater treatment plant has to be up and running in New York, with sufficient numbers of inspectors in the field. No plant, no deal. That we’ve already learned, and I’m sure there’s more.
Contact Fred LeBrun at 454-5453 or flebrun@timesunion.com.
Contamination unique to NEPA
DALLAS, TEXAS – Issues of water contamination in Northeastern Pennsylvania are due to the region’s geology, and they have not been – and likely will not be – seen elsewhere, the CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp. told reporters and editors at a recent business journalism conference.
Aubrey McClendon, CEO of the Oklahoma City, Okla.-based company, said the natural gas drilling issue with Northeastern Pennsylvania’s “very unusual surface geology” has been solved and should hopefully mean there are no future incidents of water contamination, but did not elaborate on what contamination incidents to which he was referring.
There has been no “lasting environmental damage” from hydraulic fracturing drilling, he added.
Pennsylvania recently established stronger well casing and cementing standards meant to help prevent methane from migrating into water supplies.
In his keynote address, the CEO told business media that while there are stories worth writing on truck traffic, noise and even drilling company transparency, “fracking is not the story.”
McClendon also said an agency would soon announce a major step forward for gas drilling companies releasing chemicals used in drilling.
The Groundwater Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission will debut the new online registry of chemical additives used in hydraulic fracturing jobs at www.fracfocus.org. The well-by-well information is being supplied voluntarily by major natural gas operators. The data is culled from materials safety sheets, which critics have argued are vague and incomplete.
McClendon went on to say “there is no such thing as clean coal” and blasted efforts to produce clean coal as a “waste of money.”
The CEO said fracking has “fundamentally changed the price of gas.” The price ranges around $4 per 1,000 cubic feet now, compared to $8 per 1,000 cubic feet several years ago. But he said the national conversion from using oil as a fuel to natural gas is likely still two decades away.
In a separate panel discussion at the conference, David P. Poole, senior vice president and general counsel for Fort Worth, Texas-based Range Resources Corp., said “it is physically impossible for you to frack a Marcellus well … and have any impact on groundwater.”
Asked what the cause of groundwater contamination is if it is not fracking, he acknowledged that’s something the industry has to address.
“Unless we can prove we are innocent, we are not,” he said, adding that doing baseline testing of water wells before companies do drilling would show what the water quality is beforehand and would also show if there was already contamination.
By CHARLES SCHILLINGER (Staff Writer)
Published: April 17, 2011
http://standardspeaker.com/news/contamination-unique-to-nepa-1.1133535
Pa Democratic budget plan includes drilling severance TAX
HARRISBURG – A state budget plan offered by Democratic senators last week includes a tax on Marcellus Shale gas production, but the caucus is proposing other actions to head off deep cuts in state aid for education, health care and social services.
Outnumbered 30-20 in the Senate, Democratic senators said it is important that they offer alternatives to the $27.3 billion state budget for fiscal 2011-12 unveiled last month by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.
Mr. Corbett proposes to cut state aid to public schools and higher education by 50 percent, eliminate $35 million for the Human Services Development Fund, a conduit of state aid for county-run human services programs, and reduce some aid for hospitals. The governor wants to increase welfare spending by 7 percent.
The Democratic caucus plan would put together $1.1 billion in revenues to help balance the budget through cost-saving efforts and tax changes.
The senators say an estimated $750 million in savings can be achieved by finding alternatives to state prison for nonviolent offenders and weeding out ineligible individuals receiving welfare benefits.
Senators think the Liquor Control Board will be able to generate up to $100 million more from state store liquor sales if allowed more flexibility on pricing, hiring and purchasing practices.
They say nearly $300 million in revenue can be generated by extending a state tax on corporate stock values for another year, reversing new accelerated depreciation rules for businesses and collecting sales tax on Internet sales.
The senators would use this revenue to keep state aid to public schools and higher education at current levels and fund the human services development fund and homeowner mortgage-assistance programs. They want to tap the state tobacco settlement fund again to revive the adultBasic health coverage program for low-income adults.
“The (Corbett) cuts in education K-12 and higher education are much too severe,” said Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, Nanticoke.
Mr. Yudichak said the caucus wants a Marcellus Shale tax to be seriously considered during the budget floor debate later this spring.
He recently sponsored a severance bill to levy an initial rate of 2 percent on the gross value of gas production for the first three years of production, then hike the rate to 5 percent, reverting back to 2 percent after a well’s rate of production falls below set daily thresholds. But the Democratic caucus has yet to endorse a specific severance tax.
There is an emerging consensus among lawmakers that any Marcellus Shale revenue should not go to the state General Fund, but differences exist over which environmental or water-protection programs should be beneficiaries, said Mr. Yudichak, ranking Democrat on the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.
House and Senate Republican leaders are looking to restore proposed education cuts and make up the difference with cuts instead to public welfare programs.
The first budget bills out of the majority caucuses are expected early next month.
Mr. Corbett has reaffirmed his opposition to a severance tax and other state tax hikes in recent appearances. Senate GOP leaders are working on legislation to allow local governments to levy an impact fee on gas drillers to offset the municipal-related costs for roads and infrastructure repair.
Meanwhile, the Senate Democratic Policy Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday in Scranton on caucus proposals dealing with the budget and economic development. The hearing starts at 12:30 p.m. at the Nazareth Student Center at Marywood University. Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-18, Lower Saucon Twp., is chairwoman of that panel.
“This public hearing will be a great opportunity for legislators to not only discuss with our residents the pressing budget issues, but also a great opportunity for our community and business leaders to share their experience,” said Sen. John Blake, D-22, Archbald.
By Robert Swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: April 16, 2011
Contact the writer: rswift@timesshamrock.com
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/democratic-budget-plan-includes-drilling-severance-tax-1.1133427#axzz1Jb4OFfes
Education symposium held in Kidder Township
http://www.tnonline.com/node/189623
Reported on Thursday, April 14, 2011
By M. CRAIG MCDONALD TN Correspondent tneditor@tnonline.com
A Saturday morning educational symposium on Marcellus Shale was held in the Kidder Township Municipal Building hosted by the Environmental Council.
David T. Messersmith from Penn State Marcellus Education Team fielded questions from residents concerned about various reports conflicting about the safety of “Hydraulic Fracturing” or simply breaking apart Marcellus shale located sometimes more than 1,000 feet below the surface, Messersmith said. Fracturing is using tons of water, chemicals and sand and drilling vertically to a depth of about 1,000 feet or more and moving to a position horizontally drilling where the actual Marcellus is formed looking like a capital L reaching down into the earth.
The rotations of the drill and chemicals of “different” solutions depend on the soil and the area combined. For instance, at first determining if a site is worthy of drilling, studies determine the substance of the soil, sediment, seismic movement, fossil, etc… with millions of gallons of water are literally breaking away the shale and other hard rock moving it back up towards the land surface and into a holding area to be hauled away by what Messersmiths calls, “Trucks, Trucks, and more Trucks.” Impact studies determine what exactly will affect the the entire process, but nothing is entirely certain and outcomes vary greatly.
Back and forth from the drill site trucks must keep vigilance in removing contaminated water and returning with more water to keep the ongoing drilling process active.
The black colored shale is slightly radioactive naturally because it is a source rock for radon gas in addition to small possible radioactive decay of uranium, pyrite. The trace minerals and fears associated with certain compounds raise concerns with handling and moving, making proper training and emergency planning essential.
Someone in the audience said that everyone should be trained. “They should be training everybody in the state,” she said. Others agreed.
Messersmith said that drilling each Marcellus well requires 410 individuals, almost 150 different occupations, 11.5 fulltime direct jobs, he said. That is just drilling though.
While Marcellus Shale has always been in Pennsylvania, tapping the natural resource was not considered as a viable means for energy conversion due in part because of the depth in mining and costs associated in production. Methods used to tap the natural gas have not been productive and developing it has been arduous.
Hydraulic fracturing is seen as a boost to producing the natural gas effectively more than ever before and at a profit to oil and gas companies who before saw next to no profit or slow profit with the shale.
Prior to 2000, older wells tapping into Pennsylvania Marcellus did not produce much, and production rates decline over time up until hydraulic fracturing was introduced, according to the website, Geology.com, which Messersmiths referred to in his research, most gas wells decline over time, however with a second hydraulic fracturing treatment it possibly could be used to restimulate production from old wells.
This question was posed by an audience member who asked what will happen when a well dries up.
While the industry is in its infancy regarding Hydraulic Fracturing, and the danger of polluting water systems is relatively uncertain, the 2005 Energy Policy Act exempts Fracturing giving an appearance of credibility to the operation.
Additionally, Hydraulic Fracturing is currently exempt from EPA regulation. However New York State has taken a stand and currently has a moratorium in effect on Fracturing because of the direct proximity of the shale to its watershed.
The FRAC ACT of 2009 was introduced identically in both houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate and most recently was neglected when it was overshadowed by the budget earlier this year, the FRAC Act stands for, FRACTURING RESPONSIBILITY AND AWARENESS OF CHEMICALS ACT, and it was was supposed to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to allow the EPA to regulate Hydraulic Fracturing. Also, it was intended to do something else, it was supposed to regulate the Fracturing that was taking place in states which have not taken UIC Regulation which is Underground Injection Control, some states have not taken the UIC Regulation.The Bill would require the Energy Industry to reveal what chemicals are being used in the sand water mixture in Hydraulic Fracturing. The EPA states that it is unable to track migration of pollutants and chemicals in fracturing fluid. The Scientific Review Board has reviewed a STUDY plan to be completed by 2012, the EPA will have its report by 2014 titled, Hydraulic Fracturing Report.
Some States have voluntarily adopted the UIC. Sen. Bob Casey, D. Pa. and Chuck Schumer, D. NY introduced the Senate Version of the FRAC Act. It is not known if it will enter the arena this year for a vote, or if it has any chance of passing given the Country’s dependance on energy, job creation, and the Pa. Governors aggressive stance on making Pa. a Corporate friendly place to do business.
The Independent Petroleum Association of America who has a vested interest in the Pa. Marcellus Shale as small amounts of Petroleum can be welled in addition to the shale, believes it is an unnecessary expense to pass the Frac Act which could cost each tap an additional 100,000.00.. The Lobbying Group for the Oil and Gas Industry “Energy in Depth” believes progress would be stunted if the Act would pass. They also contend that the industry reports all chemicals used in all processes for public inspection on the OSHA website, in the Material Data Safety Sheets.
In the report by the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania Board of Comissioners, J. Peter Lesley surveyed the Marcellus Valley along Broadheads Creek dipping North more and more steeply until the formation at Weissport on the Lehigh River it plunges vertically under the Mon Mountain. Pg. 1254. The report identifies north eastern Pa. and New York as rich in Marcellus shale.
Some Chemicals in Fracturing fluid include kerosene, benzene, formaldehyde and many others chemicals depending upon the composite and reaction of the compounds in the project well site. For instance, as an example only, Hickory Run Forest has a well which may have high carbon content and geologists may determine a mixture suitable for the Hydraulic Fracturing content to break through without blowing out a methane pocket situated nearby.
Gas permits rubber stamped
Pennsylvania environmental regulators say they spend as little as 35 minutes reviewing each of the thousands of applications for natural gas well permits they get each year from drillers intent on tapping the state’s lucrative and vast Marcellus Shale reserves.
ALLENTOWN — Pennsylvania environmental regulators say they spend as little as 35 minutes reviewing each of the thousands of applications for natural gas well permits they get each year from drillers intent on tapping the state’s lucrative and vast Marcellus Shale reserves.
And the regulators say they do not give any additional scrutiny to requests to drill near high-quality streams and rivers even though the waterways are protected by state and federal law.
Staffers in the state Department of Environmental Protection testified behind closed doors last month as part of a lawsuit filed by residents and environmental groups over a permit that DEP issued for an exploratory gas well in Northeastern Pennsylvania, less than a half-mile from the Delaware River and about 300 feet from a pristine stream.
Their statements, obtained by The Associated Press, call into question whether regulators are overburdened and merely rubber-stamping permit applications during the unprecedented drilling boom that has turned Pennsylvania into a major player in the natural gas market, while also raising fears about polluted aquifers and air.
The agency has denied few requests to drill in the Marcellus Shale formation, the world’s second-largest gas field. Of the 7,019 applications that DEP has processed since 2005, only 31 have been rejected — less than one-half of 1 percent.
“Even those of us who are skeptics of the DEP, I think we all want to assume that they’re doing the basics. And they’re really just not,” said Jordan Yeager, a plaintiffs’ attorney who is challenging the drilling permit awarded to Newfield Appalachia PA LLC, a unit of Houston-based Newfield Exploration Co.
The agency declined to comment about any aspect of its permit review process, even to answer general questions.
But the depositions of four DEP staffers responsible for processing permits — taken in late March and filed with a regional water agency this week — reveal that:
• The agency doesn’t consider potential impacts on legally protected high-quality watersheds, beyond checking that wells meet minimum setbacks required of all gas wells in the state.
• Staffers don’t consider whether proposed gas wells comply with municipal or regional zoning and planning laws.
• They don’t consider the cumulative impact of wide-scale development of wells in a concentrated area.
• They appear to have a fuzzy understanding of laws that are supposed to govern their work. A supervisor was unable to define the requirements of a key anti-degradation regulation that says pristine waterways “shall be maintained and protected,” while a geologist said he didn’t know that streams and rivers legally designated as “high quality” or “exceptional value” are entitled to an extra layer of protection.
Asked by Yeager whether he had “any understanding of what it means to be an HQ watershed,” DEP geologist Joseph Lichtinger replied: “Only that it means high quality.”
“Any understanding what high quality means?” Yeager persisted.
“No.”
“Do you know what that means in terms of the level of protection that they have under the law?”
Lichtinger, who performed the substantive technical analysis of drilling permit applications, shook his head, then answered no.
Lichtinger and his supervisors also acknowledged they did not take into account that Newfield’s test well would be drilled within the federally protected wild and scenic Delaware River corridor.
The geologist testified he spent as little as a half-hour, and up to a full day, scrutinizing each individual application. His direct supervisor, Brian Babb, testified he took an average of two minutes per application to review Lichtinger’s work. Finally, Craig Lobins, a regional manager with the oil and gas program, told plaintiffs’ attorneys he typically spent another two minutes on each application before signing off on the permit.
“What these depositions reveal is that the state is doing next to nothing in approving permits, even in the Delaware River basin, even in high quality watersheds, even in the wild and scenic river corridor,” Yeager told The AP. “All together, they are spending less than 35 minutes in approving these $5 million industrial sites that have the ability to pollute the water that’s relied upon by (millions of) people. It is unconscionable.”
But Yeager said he didn’t fault the DEP rank-and-file.
“They’ve got limited time to do a massive job. What we have allowed DEP to do is to terribly understaff this permitting process,” he said. “If we’re getting it wrong in this case, we’re getting it wrong for every well site that’s being developed.”
State law generally requires DEP to process applications within 45 days. It’s DEP policy to give drilling companies their money back if they fail to consider permits in a timely fashion. Permit fees for Marcellus Shale wells — raised recently to pay for additional enforcement staff — cost between $900 and $3,000, depending on the depth of the well bore.
Citing the lawsuit, former DEP Secretary John Hanger declined comment on the specifics of the depositions, or on the sufficiency of the permit review process. But he pointed out that overall staffing in the oil and gas division increased from 88 in 2008 to 202 in 2010, and that some of those positions were in permit review.
“The staffing issues are ones the department needs to review constantly as this industry evolves and changes,” said Hanger, who left office in January when Republican Gov. Tom Corbett took office.
Hanger also repeated his call for modernization of Pennsylvania’s 25-year-old oil and gas law, though he said a new regulation that mandates 150-foot buffers from pristine waterways will help protect more than 25,000 miles of high-quality streams and rivers.
DEP awarded a drilling permit to Newfield last May. It was among a handful of exploratory wells grandfathered by the Delaware River Basin Commission, a federal-interstate agency that monitors water supplies for 15 million people, including half the population of New York City. DRBC has declared a moratorium on almost all Marcellus Shale drilling in the watershed while it drafts regulations.
The Newfield well was sunk about 300 feet from Hollister Creek, whose legal designation as high quality means it supports an abundance of fish and other wildlife. In November, DEP site inspectors found deficiencies in Newfield’s erosion and sedimentation control plan and required the company to make fixes.
The plaintiffs, which include the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, the Damascus Citizens for Sustainability and three nearby property owners, have appealed Newfield’s DEP permit to the state Environmental Hearing Board. They want the well decommissioned and the site restored to its original state. A hearing on the appeal is scheduled for late May.
April 14, 2011
MICHAEL RUBINKAM
http://www.timesleader.com/news/AP__Gas_permits__rubber_stamped_04-13-2011.html
Drilling wastewater partially treated and dumped into rivers and streams
State’s treatment of fracking water controversial
Hydraulic fracturing is a drilling process that blasts large amounts of water deep into the earth to fracture dense shale and allow natural gas to escape.
The water — from a few hundred thousand to several million gallons — is mixed with sand and chemicals — some of them toxic or potentially carcinogenic. Some of that fracking liquid then gushes back to the surface, often with natural underground brine, in a brew that is intensely salty and often contains barium, strontium and sometimes radium from the earth.
In Texas and other states, the liquids are disposed of in deep injection wells; Pennsylvania is the only major gas-producing state that routinely allows fracking wastewater to be partially treated and dumped into rivers and streams from which communities get their drinking water.
Researchers have been examining whether the discharges might be dangerous to humans or wildlife.
Industry officials, some scientists and Pennsylvania officials insist the practice is safe, if controlled properly, because the relatively small amounts of drilling wastewater discharged are diluted by the state’s rivers.
They also argue that many of the most common pollutants in the waste aren’t very dangerous, even when ingested, and that people would need to drink large amounts over a very long period to become ill.
Several studies are under way.
At least 269 million gallons of wastewater went to treatment plants in Pennsylvania for river discharge in the 18 months ending Dec. 31, according to an Associated Press review of reports filed with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. Millions more gallons of wastewater went unaccounted for because of weaknesses in the state’s tracking system.
DEP records also show some public water utilities downstream from plants treating wastewater have struggled with unacceptable levels of trihalomethanes, carcinogens sometimes linked to drilling waste.
Most of Pennsylvania’s largest drillers say their river discharges are safely diluted but are taking steps nonetheless to reuse the waste liquids and end the partial treatment and river discharges. Despite those recycling efforts, treatment plants that discharge into rivers were still accepting a large volume of drilling wastewater late last year.
The Environmental Protection Agency, citing the potential danger to human health and aquatic life, asked last month that Pennsylvania regulators begin water sampling for radium and other contaminants. The agency plans a major national study looking at how fracking in the Marcellus, Barnett and other shale regions may already have affected drinking water — and at potential impacts.
Pennsylvania announced recently that it will expand the scope of water tests to screen for radioactive pollutants and other contaminants, but state officials insisted they aren’t doing it because federal regulators prodded them.
The drilling industry insists that fracking water blasted deep underground cannot contaminate underground water aquifers that are separated by thousands of feet of rock. Drilling may have polluted several aquifers another way: by methane gas seeping through shoddy cement jobs in drilled wells in Pennsylvania, Texas, and other states, then migrating into drinking water wells.
In Pennsylvania alone, regulators issued 1,400 citations to drilling companies for regulatory violations between January 2008 and June 2010, according to The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, an environmental group. Two-thirds of the violations caused or had the potential to cause environmental damage, from chemical spills to improperly lined sludge pits, the group said.
Texas regulators do not separate gas drilling violations from those for oil drilling, making an accurate comparison with Pennsylvania impossible.
Fracking, along with horizontal drilling, allows recovery of natural gas from huge and lucrative shale reserves. In recent years, that has set off a gold rush of leasing and drilling activity, leaving regulators in Pennsylvania scrambling to keep up.
President Barack Obama, in a recent visit to Pennsylvania, said “science” must be done to ensure that natural gas is extracted safely.
“We’ve got to make sure that as we’re extracting it from the ground, that the chemicals that are being used don’t leach into the water,” he said. “Nobody is an environmentalist until you get sick.”
Associated Press writer Ramit Plushnick-Masti contributed to this report.
MICHAEL RUBINKAM and DAVID B. CARUSO
April 14, 2011
http://www.timesleader.com/news/State_rsquo_s_treatment_of_fracking_water_controversial_04-13-2011.html
Marcellus shale gas may head overseas
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_731595.html
By Lou Kilzer and Andrew Conte
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Drilling companies rapidly expanding their U.S. operations in places such as Pennsylvania’s vast Marcellus shale formation repeatedly tout they are providing American jobs and securing the nation’s energy future.
Yet, a Tribune-Review examination found foreign companies are buying significant shares of these drilling projects and making plans for facilities to liquify and ship more of that natural gas overseas.
A leading player in the natural gas grab is China, whose thirst for energy to fuel its industrial explosion is growing rapidly. Others include the governments of South Korea and India, and companies in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, Japan and Australia.
“They’re going to come in, extract all this stuff for next-to-nothing, and make global profits off it,” said Pittsburgh Councilman Doug Shields. “This is beads for Manhattan, in a global sense.”
Much of the salesmanship to promote gas exploration nationwide, and especially in Pennsylvania, pressed the point that the country must become less dependent upon foreign energy sources.
It avoided discussion about exporting that gas overseas.
“The implications are great,” said Paul Cicio, president of Industrial Energy Consumers of America, which represents large U.S. manufacturers. He believes exporting newfound natural gas is a strategic blunder that will cost American manufacturing jobs by hiking the price of gas here.
“This is not good for our country,” he said.
Read more
Critics say chemical registry doesn’t do enough
The release of a national online registry of hydraulic fracturing chemicals this week has received qualified praise but has not stemmed calls for more disclosure about the natural gas extraction process.
Fracfocus.org went live on Monday with 24 participating companies, including many natural gas operators active in Pennsylvania. The voluntary registry was developed by the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission and includes information on toxic chemicals gathered from materials safety sheets. It does not include proprietary or trade secret information.
As of Tuesday, the chemicals used to fracture 30 wells in Pennsylvania have been posted online by three companies: Chesapeake Energy, Seneca Resources and EQT Production.
Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group, said in a statement Tuesday that the new site “is a critical tool, and represents a positive step toward further heightening transparency,” one of the organization’s goals.
“This online database should also bring closure to the question of what and how many additives are used in the fracturing process,” she said.
But critics said the voluntary registry does not answer those questions.
Lesser-known chemicals are often not included on the materials safety sheets, whether or not they are toxic, and so will not be included in the registry.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who testified Tuesday about the risks and benefits of gas drilling during a Senate committee hearing, said in an interview that the new registry “is voluntary and there’s no oversight. Those are two basic problems there.”
“This isn’t enough, but any progress is welcome,” he said.
Casey recently reintroduced the FRAC Act, a bill that would require chemical disclosure from all drilling companies including a provision that companies release proprietary information to health professionals if it is needed for treatment.
The FRAC Act would similarly create an online registry of chemicals on a well-by-well basis, but it would also require drillers to disclose what they plan to use before they fracture a well, as well as a post-fracturing report.
“I think the legislation is consistent with what the people of our state expect and should have a right to expect: that we’re going to have not just full and fair disclosure, but also a regulatory structure which is consistent with the concerns we have about groundwater, drinking water, quality of life and the environment,” he said.
The hydraulic fracturing process, which the industry contends has never polluted drinking water, has been criticized because companies have been reluctant to reveal the exact composition of the chemicals they use – making it difficult to prove contamination is caused by gas drilling.
The national registry follows similar voluntary efforts by individual companies, including Range Resources, Chief Oil and Gas and Halliburton.
Pennsylvania began requiring disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing as part of a slate of regulations enacted in February. But, unlike Wyoming, which has adopted disclosure rules that mandate drillers reveal all the chemicals they use, Pennsylvania’s rules only require drillers to list the chemicals described on materials safety sheets.
The commonwealth has also not yet made the information available online.
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer llegere@timesshamrock.com)
Published: April 13, 2011
http://republicanherald.com/news/critics-say-chemical-registry-doesn-t-do-enough-1.1131945