Marcellus Operation Near City Passes EPA Testing

Initial air tests done at Skyview Elementary approved by agency

Morgantown Dominion Post
19 October 2011
By David Beard

Northeast Natural Energy’s Morgantown Marcellus operation got a clean bill of health in initial air tests performed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

EPA Region 3 spokesman Roy Seneca shared the test results with The Dominion Post on Tuesday afternoon.

The EPA performed three sets of air quality tests at Skyview Elementary, Seneca said — two before and one during fracking.

The pre-fracking tests were performed Aug. 11 and 12 and Sept. 19 and 20 to obtain baseline data for comparison, he said. Those tests “did not show any levels of concern.”

The EPA returned during fracking and performed “realtime testing” on Oct. 6 and 7. “The basic results did not identify any levels of concern or air problems,” he said.

Air samples from the third set of tests were also placed in canisters and sent to a laboratory for additional testing, he said. The EPA is awaiting those results and will share them with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the school and the Monongalia County Board of Education, Seneca said.

He did not know when those results might be ready.

The DEP asked the EPA to perform the tests in response to citizen concerns expressed at public meetings and in writing. Residents were especially concerned about the schools surrounding the Morgantown Industrial Park operation and students’ potential exposure to hazardous airborne pollutants.

WV/PA Monongahela Area Watersheds Compact co-chair Barry Pallay was among those instrumental in persuading the DEP to request the testing, and was pleased both agencies responded.

He said the results have their limitations, stemming from wind direction and precipitation.

“What we can say is under those conditions during that particular time, that’s what they measured,” he said. “We’re pleased there were no exposures in the school at those times.”

Tests under different wind and weather conditions might yield different results, he said. He would like to see continuous monitoring established at the well pad, so the community could be alerted to possible hazards.

Northeast President Michael John responded simply, “We are not surprised by the good results.”

The Legislature’s Joint Select Committee on Marcellus Shale has included air quality in its list of issues covered in its draft regulatory bill. A bill amendment calls for air quality issues to be regulated, and when appropriate, permitted by the DEP’s Office of Air Quality.

The amendment also calls for the DEP to take the cumulative effects of all operations associated with a particular well into account as part of an air quality permit or other regulation.

Another amendment calls for the DEP secretary to “report to the Legislature on the need for further regulation of air pollution occurring from well sites, including the possible health impacts, the need for air quality inspections during drilling, the need for inspections of compressors, pits and impoundments, and any other potential air quality impacts that could be generated from this type of drilling activity and are potentialy harmful to human health or the environment.”

The report would be complete by July 1, 2012, and any needed permitting conditions would be formulated in new legislative rules.