Marcellus Shale Drilling: A Response That Lacks Oversight

Morgantown Dominion Post
1 May 2011
By
Larry Harris

As an appointed member of the Governor’s Public Advisory Council, I was interested in the letters from the natural gas industry, recently, including one from Michael McCown (DP-April 10), of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia. The various letters contained the message that all is well with hydrofracking of the Marcellus shale to obtain natural gas, and cite the willingness of industry to accept reasonable regulations and fee increases. However, if they disapprove of the regulations, they threaten to take their rigs and jobs elsewhere.

Where will they go? The Marcellus shale exists under most of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and a bit of Ohio and Maryland. Pennsylvania is already being drilled and articles in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and in The Dominion Post have highlighted the problems they have encountered. New York has put a moratorium on drilling to protect the drinking water in New York City. Maryland has not begun drilling.

Last year, seeing the need for regulations, the state Department of Environmental Protection met with industry, environmentalists and landowners groups to help them produce reasonable regulations. The DEP bill that was produced was professionally done, yet, the bill was gutted and defeated in the Legislature. This left the DEP with only 15 inspectors and no regulations specific to Marcellus shale drilling. Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has promised some money to help the DEP with inspectors, but how will they act without a set of rules?

From the environmental perspective, hydro-fracking is not the same process used in the past to obtain natural gas. Drilling requires large rigs and fleets of trucks to haul water and disposal fluids. The process uses huge amounts of water and adds toxic substances to the drilling water.

When the gas emerges after fracking, water contaminated with brine, radioactivity and the toxic materials is also produced. In addition, the gas goes into a delivery system that includes pipelines and compressor stations. In Wetzel County, and elsewhere, venting of gases occurs at these sites and results in harmful air pollution. This is not being addressed at all by regulation, and needs to be. When the industry declares that burning natural gas is a clean energy alternative, they are not including all aspects of the gas extraction process.

In conclusion, the benefits of natural gas are important to West Virginia, so we are not talking about banning drilling in the Marcellus shale. However, citizens see the dangers and know that more oversight is needed. We need regulations that protect our streams from excessive dewatering, protect our drinking water from the pollution from drilling fluids and protect the air we breathe. The natural gas industry should support regulations, and take the responsibility to assure that all aspects of Marcellus Shale drilling are done in an environmentally responsible manner. Just saying that gas burns cleaner than coal does not get it done.



Larry Harris is an environmental appointee to the state Department of Protection’s Advisory Council. He lives in Morgantown. This commentary should be considered another point of view and not necessarily the opinion or editorial policy of The Dominion Post.