Mon River Group: Action Needed on Gas Drilling
Renews call for a special session on Marcellus regulation
Morgantown Dominion Post
29 April 2011
By David Beard
A Monongahela River watershed group renewed its call for a special
legislative session on Marcellus gas drilling regulations, and
criticized the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for
failing to develop a strategy for gas well permitting.
The group also approved a resolution calling for limits of bromides — a
type of salt in fracking fluids — in waterways that combine with other
chemicals to form carcinogens in drinking water.
Barry Pallay, co-chair of the WV/PA Monongahela Area Watersheds
Compact, said he first called on the DEP in December 2008 to develop
and present a permitting strategy.
As of Thursday, more than two years later, the DEP still has nothing,
Pallay said.
He said the DEP turned down an invitation to come to the compact’s
Thursday meeting at the Morgantown airport, and asked Delegate Mike
Manypenny to explain the DEP’s answer.
Manypenny, D-Taylor, and one of three delegates who attended, said he
sent a letter to James Martin, chief of the DEP’s Office of Oil and
Gas, who sent a “nice refusal letter.”
Manypenny related that Martin said no one was available to come because
they “were involved in more important issues.”
Manypenny and Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, who
also attended, have called for a special session and drafted a letter
to the state — signed by 21 other delegates — calling for a moratorium
on Mar- cellus permits until regulation is in place.
Compact members have also previously called for a special session call
and voted Thursday to renew that call.
Compact members come from a variety of area watershed groups.
Representatives of a number of state agencies also attended, as did a
number or landowners interested in and sometimes worried about
Marcellus wells coming to their communities.
“My whole life is what I have out there, and they could make it worth
nothing,” said landowner Sonny Penrod.
Bromide levels
Lewis Baker, source water protection specialist for the West Virginia
Rural Water Association, said studies are showing bromide levels can be
linked to the disposal of briney frack waters. The problem is more
apparent on the Pennsylvania side of the Mon River, where drillers were
allowed, until recently, to take their waste water to sewage treatment
plants.
Bromides are a constituent of trihalomethane (THM), a carcinogen, Baker
said. While there are no federal, West Virginia or Pennsylvania
standards for bromide or THM, some experts lean toward bromide limits
of 50 to 100 parts per billion.
The resolution calls for the two states and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to adopt a standard in that range.
Environmental hazards
While there were no DEP regulators at the meeting, John King, with the
DEP Office of Environmental Advocate Transportation, was. He gave an
overview of the environmental hazards of Marcellus drilling.
They include dust and diesel fumes and air quality. He showed a picture
of gas venting off a well’s condensate tank that caused a nearby track
hoe to catch fire and blow up.
Water hazards include pipelines crossing streams, pollution caused by
spills or badly constructed casings on well bores, and “conditions not
allowable.” A pair of pictures showed the reality of that bureaucratic
term: A rushing stream and waterfall wiped out by fill dirt and gravel
from a well pad.
Delegates speak
Delegate Charlene Marshall, D-Monongalia, decided to listen as
Manypenny and Fleischauer — who played key roles in drafting the
legislation that ultimately failed in March — talked about their work.
“It’s like squeezing Jello,” Fleischauer said. “The more we study, the
more issues pop up.” She’s optimistic that after the dust settles from
the gubernatorial primary, acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin will heed the
public calls for a special session.
Pennsylvania has about 150 inspectors, she said, and considers that too
few. How can West Virignia’s 12 inspectors do the job, she asked.
Manypenny said he is compiling the environmental amendments he and
Fleischauer added to the failed bill into an Oil and Gas Drilling
Accountability Act. It will include buffer zones from streams.
He also wants to repeal existing oil and gas industry exemptions on
stream degradation, and study drilling effects on surface owners:
Decreased property values, bank reluctance to finance mortgages and
homeowner insurance obstacles.