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.