State DEP Amends Gas Well Permits
Morgantown Dominion Post
20 May 2011
By Tracy Eddy
The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) amended permits
for two Marcellus shale gas wells in the Morgantown Industrial Park on
Thursday to include safety measures the drilling company agreed to with
the Morgantown Utility Board (MUB).
The safety measures include additional spill containment measures,
extra pressure testing of pipes and appropriately disposing of all
waste off-site.
MUB General Manager Tim Ball said the area’s water supply will be
better protected once those provisions are in place.
The Dominion Post obtained a copy of the DEP’s permit modification
approval documents, which include a request from Northeast Natural
Energy to modify the permits to allow a closed-loop drilling process,
as well as a letter the drilling company sent to MUB.
Brett Loflin, Northeast Natural Energy’s vice president of regulatory
affairs, said the letter the drilling company sent MUB outlined the
company’s current best practices — things they were going to do at the
site anyway — and three additional safeguards MUB requested.
“We take our responsibility to protect the environment very seriously,”
he said.
Ball said MUB and the drilling company spent most of the past two weeks
negotiating the terms in the letter.
DEP Secretary Randy Huffman said the department issued Northeast
Natural Energy permits within the state’s oil and gas regulations.
“It was a good permit to begin with,” Huffman said. “The conversations
between the two entities made an even better permit.”
Northeast Natural Energy — a Charleston-based company — will use a
closed loop drilling process at its two sites at the Morgantown
Industrial Park. Loflin said the process means the returns from
drilling fluids that are pumped into the well — which could include the
fluid and rock cuttings — go into steel tanks.
He said without the closedloop system, the returns would go into an
open pit.
Loflin said the drilling company will recycle its drilling fluid
returns so they can be used again.
Any waste from the operation will be disposed of offsite, Loflin said.
State regulations allow drilling companies to treat the water and then
apply it to the land. But Loflin said Northeast Natural Energy will not
be doing that.
The drilling company will dispose of its waste in a landfill or
injection well, Loflin said. It is unknown exactly where the waste for
the two wells at the Morgantown Industrial Park will be disposed of, he
said, but the company will have to notify the DEP of the location.
Additional safeguards will be in place in case of a spill. Loflin said
the well pad will be surrounded by a 2.5-foot berm covered with a
synthetic, impermeable liner. There also will be a reserve pit that
will have the same liner — so if there is any kind of spill, it would
be collected, he said.
There will be vacuum pumps on site, Loflin said, allowing any spills to
be vacuumed up and pumped into tanks.
“No fluids should ever contact the earth,” he said.
Loflin said the drilling company will add a second automated valve so
operations could be controlled remotely, at MUB’s request.
Casing pipes in the wells will be pressure-tested to ensure there are
no leaks and the pipes are sound, he said — again at MUB’s request.
Production pipes will also be pressure-tested after the hydraulic
fracturing, or fracking, starts. Loflin said it is always done
beforehand, but the drilling company has agreed to do it afterwards as
well.
Huffman said the DEP will enforce the amended permits and make sure the
drilling company keeps up its end of the agreement.
The department will not be able to issue citations for any violations
of the agreement, he said, because it can only issue citations for
things outlined in state regulations.
Ball said the utility board intends to visit the well site to make sure
the safety measures have been implemented.
Huffman said the DEP forbade Northeast Natural Energy from drilling at
the Morgantown Industrial Park sites until negotiations between the
company and MUB were resolved.
Drilling was expected to begin Wednesday, but did not. Loflin said
drilling started Thursday. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, won’t
start for at least a few months.
Ball said he couldn’t say there were no risks to the water now, because
there are risks in everything — even walking across the street. “I can
tell you, in our opinion, there are appropriate safeguards in place to
properly manage those risks.”