You might think that pollution from oil and gas drilling would be regulated under our general water protection acts, but our Congress and the Federal administration have granted the industry significant exemptions. Earthworks has prepared a summary of the legal situation as "The Oil and Gas Industry's Exclusions and Exemptions to Major Environmental Statutes" Click on http://www.earthworksaction.org/pubs/PetroleumExemptions1c.pdf to read or print it.
On 23 December 2009 the New York City (NYC)
Department of Environmental Protection called for complete prohibition
on gas and oil drilling in the New York City Watershed. NYC is a
"special case" in that the City is supplied with unfiltered water
through a hundred mile tunnel network underlain by the Marcellus Shale.
The 90 page report Impact Assessment of Natural
Gas Production in the New York City Water Supply Watershed by Hazen
and Sawyer, Environmental
Engineers & Scientists, on which their
action was based includes a lot of information on potential leakages as
well as information on the Marcellus Play. Click here to access the
report as a 9.1 Meg .PDF file
The Venture Engineering - Blog http://www.ventureengr.com/blog has some detailed information on brine treatment in a post entitled "Marcellus Shale Play – Water Treatment Options Worth Considering"
Drill for Natural Gas, Pollute Water - Scientific American - 17 November 2008
OGAP Report on the Marcellus Shale - Scranton Times Tribune Reader Blog - 25 June 2008
Preliminary Report
on Stray Natural Gas Migration Associated with Oil
and Gas Wells - Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
Bureau of Oil and Gas Management - October (?) 2009
During the 150-year span since the first commercial oil well was
drilled
in 1859, hundreds of thousands of gas and oil wells have been drilled
in Pennsylvania. The potential exists for natural gas to migrate from
the well bore (via either improperly constructed or old,
deteriorated wells) and adversely affect water supplies, as well
as accumulate within or adjacent to structures such as residences
and businesses. Collectively, this may represent a threat to public
health, safety and welfare, and is a potential threat of a fire or
explosion. This 15 page document
(a 440 Kbyte .PDF format file) summarizes over 60 cases, most since
2000.
West Virginia has
no water quality regulations specifically devoted to the Marcellus
play. In fact, there is only one permit governing water used in any gas
well drilling. This is Permit Number: GP-WV-1-07, the General Permit
for the Land Application of Water Produced from Coalbed Methane Wells.
This set of regulations was just renewed in December 2009.
We have four .PDF files of material related to the renewal.
We note that during the renewal process portions of the regulations were strengthened in response to public comments.