Air Quality Also a Concern in Marcellus Gas Boom
Charleston Daily Mail
7 October 2010
By The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - Environmental concerns about the proliferation
of Marcellus shale gas drilling in West Virginia have largely focused
on water, but a lobbyist said Wednesday air quality issues must also be
addressed - and most likely by the federal government.
Dozens of vehicles and heavy equipment belching gases that contribute
to smog are on well sites for a month a more, essentially becoming
stationary sources of pollution that should be monitored by the
Environmental Protection Agency, said Don Garvin of the West Virginia
Environmental Council.
"When you get an array of 50 trucks on a job, from my standpoint,
that's a stationary source. It may be temporary, but it's putting out a
huge amount of pollution," Garvin told a crowd of several hundred
gathered for the West Virginia Water Conference.
"They're there for an intense period of three or four days at a time,
then maybe every week or every other week for a while," he added later.
"It's a big deal."
Gas companies are flocking to northern West Virginia as they tap the
rich reserves that also underlie Pennsylvania, New York and parts of
Ohio. To break the gas free 5,000 to 9,000 feet down, companies use
horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies that use a
lot of water and produce a lot of wastewater.
Corky DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural
Gas Association, said trucks have never been considered stationary
sources. However, both EPA and the state Department of Environmental
Protection are looking at the issue now, he said, "and I don't know
what the final outcome will be."
The industry already reports emissions from stationary sources such as
compressor stations to EPA.
Garvin said the state lacks the authority to do much about vehicles,
"so it will be up to EPA to clarify or address the issue."
The water conference features a panel discussion Thursday on both the
economic opportunities and the water quality threats presented by
Marcellus drilling.
The DEP has appointed a nine-member working group to help it determine
how to better regulate a boom the agency has acknowledged it was
unprepared for. Secretary Randy Huffman ordered his staff to undertake
a comprehensive review of oil and gas regulations so he can offer
rules, regulations and legislation to the Legislature in January.
Last month, Huffman appointed Garvin, public-interest lawyer Dave
McMahon, six gas company representatives and a coal industry lawyer to
the working group.
Garvin said the group met last week and was given 10 topics to
research. Another 20 topics were already decided, Garvin said, but the
DEP would not say what it planned to do with them.
Huffman told The Associated Press he's not withholding anything or
keeping secrets. He said all the issues are essentially brainstorming
topics.
"I can pretty much assure you that not all 30 of those issues will make
the final legislation," he said.
"At the end of the day, I'm looking for a platform from which we can
regulate horizontal drilling activity," he said. "I'm not looking for a
Christmas tree here. We're just looking for a basic platform."
The three key issues to address are "cradle to grave" water management,
problems with sedimentation and erosion from the massive construction
sites, and funding for the additional staff Huffman says he needs.
Lawmakers tried last year to regulate some water issues, but a bill
that passed overwhelmingly in the House of Delegates died in the Senate
on the session's final night, said Delegate Tim Manchin, D-Marion.
It would have required companies to report where they withdraw water,
how much they inject and take back out, and where they plan to dispose
of it afterward. It also would have required companies to inform the
state when they plan to withdraw from streams so aquatic life would be
protected.
"Seemed reasonable to me," Manchin said.
While DeMarco's organization supported the bill, the Independent Oil
& Gas Association "did everything they could to kill that bill,"
Manchin said, "and ultimately it got killed."
He's hoping for more success next year. He urged the industry to follow
the lead of companies like Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp., which he said
was among the first to pledge it would operate responsibly in West
Virginia.
"The people who are willing to do right should want the other people to
have to follow the same rules," Manchin said. "Why should they be able
to have a competitive advantage by being able to cheat?"