Marcellus waste recycled mostly in-house
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_737062.html
By Andrew Conte
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 14, 2011
The largest explorers of Marcellus shale gas said on Friday in response to federal regulators that they have started recycling most of their wastewater and no longer send it to treatment plants.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week asked the six largest Marcellus exploration companies to explain how and where they dispose of the chemical-laced, salty water that flows back to the surface from drilling operations. The companies have until May 25 to respond.
“We will certainly provide the information,” said Jim Gipson, spokesman for Chesapeake Energy Corp. “However, we are currently recycling and reusing the vast majority of our produced water in Pennsylvania and have been for quite some time. We do not utilize wastewater treatment facilities.”
Water that cannot be reused, he said, gets sent out of state to underground injection wells.
Pennsylvania has three such active wells: two in Clearfield County and one in Erie County, according to state regulators.
Besides Chesapeake, EPA requested the disposal information from Atlas Resources; Talisman Energy USA; Range Resources — Appalachia; Cabot Oil and Gas Corp.; and Shell. Together, those companies do more than half of the Marcellus shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania.
A spokesman for Talisman said the company recycles 100 percent of its wastewater. Range Resources recycles about 90 percent of its flowback and has the rest either fully treated at facilities that clean it to distilled water standards or pumped into disposal wells, a spokesman said.
Shell said in a statement that its “waste management techniques aim to reduce volume and minimize environmental impacts through maximized reuse of residual water.”
Officials at the two other companies did not respond to the Trib’s request for information.
“We want to make sure that the drillers are handling their wastewater in an environmentally responsible manner,” said Shawn M. Garvin, EPA’s mid-Atlantic regional administrator.
Federal officials took aim at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which has primary responsibility for regulating drilling impacts. The state agency imposed a Thursday deadline for drillers to voluntarily stop sending flowback to wastewater treatment plants that are not designed to remove the chemicals and salts.
The EPA wants the state to provide closer oversight of how Marcellus shale wastewater might be affecting drinking water. The agency wants notice from Pennsylvania whenever a treatment plant accepts flowback water, and it called on the state to apply drinking water standards near discharges and to “consider more ‘representative’ ” sampling of drinking water facilities downstream from facilities that treat flowback.
“As the frontline regulatory agency of the natural-gas industry in Pennsylvania, we work with EPA and will continue to do so,” said Katy Gresh, DEP spokeswoman.
The shale industry is “aggressively and tightly regulated” by state officials, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a trade group that includes the six drillers, said in a statement. “EPA overstepping its regulatory authority and duplicating efforts underway at the state level” does not make common sense, it said.
“The state is aggressively taking action to protect our environment,” said Matt Pitzarella, a Range Resources spokesman.
“The DEP for us in Pennsylvania has much greater capability to provide the level of oversight to protect the public and ensure the industry is following the law,” said Dave Spigelmeyer, vice president of government relations for Chesapeake.
EPA directs six drillers to disclose waste plans
http://citizensvoice.com/news/drilling/epa-directs-six-drillers-to-disclose-waste-plans-1.1146014#axzz1M8vMLijF
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer)
Published: May 13, 2011
Federal environmental regulators have directed six of the most active natural gas drillers in Pennsylvania to disclose how and where they plan to treat or dispose of their wastewater once they comply with a state request to stop taking it to sewer plants next week.
In April, state environmental regulators gave Marcellus Shale drillers until May 19 to voluntarily stop bringing the salty, chemical-laden waste fluids to 15 treatment plants that cannot remove all of the contaminants before discharging it into state waterways.
On Thursday, Environmental Protection Agency mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin told the drillers – Atlas Resources, Talisman Energy USA, Range Resources, Cabot Oil and Gas, Shell and Chesapeake Energy – to submit detailed information on both current and anticipated wastewater handling practices by May 25 and again each quarter until June 30, 2012.
Some of those operators had already stopped taking some or all of the fluids to plants that discharge into state waterways by the end of 2010 as they increasingly recycled or reused the waste, according to state records. Other operators continued to rely heavily on surface discharges.
The EPA directive was the latest in a series of efforts by federal environmental regulators to exercise greater authority over gas drillers whose operations are traditionally regulated by the states. The action comes among growing public concern over the thoroughness of state oversight and the potential environmental and public health impacts of Marcellus Shale drilling in the commonwealth.
In a statement, Garvin emphasized that state and federal environmental agencies are working together to regulate the industry, even as he sent Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer a letter encouraging the state to increase its monitoring of the potential impacts of the toxic wastewater.
“We want to make sure that the drillers are handling their wastewater in an environmentally responsible manner,” Garvin said.
Garvin urged Krancer to require drillers to submit modified fluid disposal plans after the May 19 deadline to ensure their new wastewater practices are legally enforceable.
He also asked the DEP to alert federal regulators when wastewater facilities begin taking the fluids so EPA can reassess their permits; to apply drinking water standards at wastewater discharge sites rather than downstream at public water supply intakes; to conduct additional in-stream monitoring; and to consider developing or strengthening water quality standards for common constituents of Marcellus Shale wastewater, including chlorides, bromides and radionuclides.
A state coalition of gas drillers expressed frustration over the directive and emphasized that the industry is “aggressively and tightly regulated” by the commonwealth.
“EPA overstepping its regulatory authority and duplicating efforts underway at the state level ⦠does not represent common sense policy,” Marcellus Shale Coalition President Kathryn Klaber said.
legere@timesshamrock.com