Posts Tagged ‘natural gas drilling’

Beaver County lawmaker opposes bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Casey to close “Halliburton loophole.”

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Concern over environmental damage from natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region has increased enough to attract federal attention, but at least one state representative believes regulation should be left to the states.

The state Department of Environmental Protection is strengthening its regulations for well construction, and Gov. Ed Rendell responded to the concern last week by announcing a plan to begin hiring 68 more DEP workers for inspections and compliance of gas drilling.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week an “Eyes on Drilling” tip line for citizens to report – anonymously, if preferred – anything that “appears to be illegal disposal of wastes or other suspicious activity,” according to an EPA news release.

Also, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Scranton, has introduced the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, which would close the so-called “Halliburton loophole.”

In the Energy Policy Act of 2005, hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” was exempted from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, creating the loophole. Fracking forces water, sand and chemicals into rock formations underground such as the shale to crack the rock and release natural gas.

In a resolution introduced in the state House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee last week, Rep. Jim Christiana, R-Beaver, called for lawmakers to urge the U.S. Congress to not pass Casey’s proposal.

Noting that fracking itself has not caused any known groundwater contamination at more than 1.1 million wells in which it’s been used, Christiana’s resolution supports continued state regulation of the process. The resolution refers to the 2005 energy act, indicating that Congress specifically meant to exclude fracking.

It also states that a federal Environmental Protection Agency report from 2004 found that hydraulic fracturing in coal bed methane wells “poses minimal threat” to drinking water sources.

State Rep. Jim Wansacz, D-Old Forge, wasn’t sure whether he supported the resolution, but felt confident that it doesn’t really matter either way. Congress members “don’t pay much attention to that,” he said. “Resolutions don’t mean a whole lot.”

He said a federal regulation might help by keeping all states at an equal minimum, but he said treading on states’ rights would “bother” him.

Wansacz said he doubted the bill by Casey would overrule states’ authority, but he was sensitive to the issue.

“Once the feds come in, they take over … so we’ve got to be careful what we ask for.”

State Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, isn’t so sure the resolution is focused on states’ rights. “This resolution is obviously industry driven” she noted in an e-mail.

“The industry somehow got hydraulic fracking exempted from the (drinking-water act) and now Senator Casey has a bill to eliminate this exemption. I support the Casey bill. … It would protect drinking water and the public health from the risks imposed by hydraulic fracturing.”

Separately, the EPA is offering citizens a way to report drilling problems. The announcement comes in the wake of several controversies over whether companies are reporting all spills.

The state Department of Environmental Protection fined a Towanda company earlier this month for spilling seven tons of drilling wastewater last year. The incident was reported only after a nearby Pennsylvania Department of Transportation crew witnessed it.

In October, a complaint was filed with DEP to investigate a suspicion that trees were damaged at a Wayne County site from an unreported drilling-fluid spill.

According to the release, “public concern about the environmental impacts of oil and natural gas drilling has increased in recent months, particularly regarding development of the Marcellus Shale formation where a significant amount of activity is occurring. … The agency is also very concerned about the proper disposal of waste products, and protecting air and water resources.”

The EPA doesn’t grant drilling permits, but its regulations may apply to storing petroleum products and drilling fluids, the release noted. The EPA wants to have “a better understanding of what people are experiencing and observing as a result of these drilling activities,” the release noted, because “information collected may also be useful in investigating industry practices.

The new DEP employees will be paid for through well-permitting fees that were increased last year. There will also likely be more of them: Rendell said the industry expects to apply for 5,200 permits this year, three times as many as last year.

The new DEP regulations they’ll have to obey include increased responsibility to repair or replace affected water supplies, procedures to correct gas migration issues without waiting for DEP’s direction and re-inspection of existing wells.

The draft regulations were opened for public comment on Friday.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

The Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority is looking to join the ranks of regional sewer authorities profiting from natural gas drilling.

Following Williamsport and Sunbury, where authorities are already treating drilling wastewater, the WVSA is requesting proposals to build a closed-loop pretreatment plant on its land in Hanover Township.

The plant would accept wastewater only within certain pollution parameters, and the treated water would need to be reused for other gas drilling.

Proposals are due by March 29, and the authority hopes to have the plant built within a year, pending necessary permitting.

“I think this thing can get built in seven, eight, nine months or quicker, so again, when will it be permitted?” said John Minora, president of PA NE Aqua Resources, which is consulting on the project.

The plant would be able to treat 800 gallons a minute with a daily flow of 1 million gallons, plus storage and a filling station. The system could utilize any of several techniques that could include separation and disposal of waste in a landfill, evaporation and land application of the minerals or treatment and dilution, Minora said.

Dilution would require the same amount of water, plus about 10 percent more, he said, which would come from the plant’s treated sewage water.

Removing the solids and chemicals is easy, he said, but extracting the dissolved salts is not, which is why dilution might be the most economical option.

“Honestly, we’re open,” he said. “We’ll consider any system that does that job.”

Unlike at Williamsport or Sunbury, however, the resulting Hanover Township water won’t be sent to the existing treatment facility and would need to be purchased by gas companies for use in drilling.

“We want a system that isn’t going to discharge (into a waterway, such as the Susquehanna River), whether or not there’s a byproduct we have to dispose of in another fashion,” he said.

There is an old rail spur at the site that could be reconditioned. Rail is the preferred transportation method, he said, because it’s faster and less disturbing to the community. However, a trucking route is being considered utilizing a second entrance that passes only a few homes, he said.

That route requires the rebuilding of a washed-out bridge.

“We’ve looked at some alternatives, where really the impact on the neighborhood is minimal,” he said.

All proposals require a bid bond of 10 percent of the total bid. Minora declined to offer an estimated cost.

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Paul had worked for a Texas-based natural gas drilling company out of Texas for a number of years. The company started to develop drilling sites in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and Paul was put up at a hotel close to the drilling site. Paul had never had an accident in the ten previous years he had worked, despite doing very physical types of activities while working with the various drills on the sites.

Paul’s good fortune ran out though, and he jammed his hand on one of the drill bits, seriously injuring the hand. Paul’s employer was insistent that since Paul was employed out of Texas and the employer was based out of Texas, that he would have to file his comp claim under Texas law.

Issue: Is Paul’s employer correct?

Answer: No. In Pennsylvania, regardless of where an employer is principally located and/or where a contract for hire was entered into, if an injury occurs in Pennsylvania, then Pennsylvania has jurisdiction and Paul will be entitled to benefits under Pennsylvania law. Pennsylvania’s workers’ compensation benefits are, for the most part, far more generous, and the injured worker is provided far more protection than in other states, especially states in the South and Midwest.

Disclaimer: The above article is for instructive purposes only and each case is fact sensitive. Consultation with an attorney should be obtained instead of reliance upon the legal issues discussed in this column.

At issue is tapping into Marcellus Shale in Fairmount and Lake townships.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

WILKES-BARRE – After more than two hours of testimony on Tuesday night that mostly didn’t address the issues before the board, the Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board unanimously approved temporary permits and special exception uses to develop natural-gas drilling sites in Fairmount and Lake townships, among the first in the county.

The board, however, placed several caveats on the approvals, including bonding for all roads used, sound and light control measures, and a prohibition on controlling dust on roads with water contaminated from the drilling process.

The two sites are located in municipalities that don’t have zoning boards, which is why the county board was involved.

In Lake, the site is on two properties on Zosh Road owned by Edward Farrell and Daniel Chorba. In Fairmount, the property just off state Route 118 east of Mossville Road and behind the Ricketts Glen Hotel is owned by Edward Buda.

The 12-month temporary permits will allow the well drilling and the storage of water used therein. The special exceptions allow the permanent existence of the well pad at the sites.

At least 50 people attended the hearing, speaking fervently both for and against the expansion of Marcellus Shale gas drilling into Luzerne County. However, board solicitor Stephen Menn warned throughout that most of those issues weren’t before the board.

“This board has very limited rights about what it can do with regards to gas and oil drilling,” he prefaced. “Your concerns are misdirected to us. They should be directed to your legislators.”

Board member Tony Palischak, who is involved with conservation groups, voiced concerns about drilling. “We’re a little skeptical because of all the hair-raising things,” he said, that have been reported in other drilling areas, including Dimock Township in Susquehanna County. A driller there has been fined and cited repeatedly for environmental abuses.

However, he approved the uses. “We have no alternative,” he said afterward. “It’s up to (the state Department of Environmental Protection) and (the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources) to take it from here.”

Still, objectors from as far as Bethlehem noted water and air pollution concerns, along with damage to roads and congestion.

Others welcomed the economic opportunities, and at least one, Charles Kohl, was swayed when the Denver-based companies, WhitMar Exploration Co. and EnCana Oil and Gas (USA) Inc., announced their interest in leasing all properties in those townships.

The companies are also proposing a site in Lehman Township, which has its own zoning board.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader

Community partnership members worry about road deterioration, water supplies.

By Rebecca Briarbria@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

DALLAS TWP. – Lehman Township Supervisor Doug Ide informed members of the Back Mountain Community Partnership Thursday afternoon at Misericordia University about the latest natural gas drilling news in the area.

The BMCP is an inter-municipal group composed of Dallas, Franklin, Jackson, Kingston and Lehman townships and Dallas Borough.

Ide attended a public information session by EnCana Oil and Gas Tuesday at Lake-Lehman Junior/Senior High School. He and the other Lehman Township supervisors have also met with EnCana representatives.

Ide says he learned WhitMar Exploration Company has leased 24,000 acres of property in the northwestern part of Luzerne County, mainly on the north side of Route 118 in Fairmount, Ross, Lake and Lehman townships.

“The gas drilling is going to be here in the Back Mountain,” said Al Fox, BMCP president. “I thought it was quite alarming to hear the other day that 800 people signed up.”

According to Ide, EnCana, which will do the drilling, hopes to form two exploration wells in the county – one in Fairmount Township and one in Lehman Township – if they receive the required permits. The wells will prove whether there is natural gas in the area.

Ide says EnCana is willing to bond any road the township requests. Road deterioration and traffic from heavy trucks and machinery has been a common concern among the BMCP.

“We’re going to set some conditions on some roads we do not want traveled, specifically Old Route 115, Hillside Road,” Ide said.

BMCP officials decided to invite representatives from EnCana to speak at the group’s January meeting.

In February, the BMCP will invite back Brian Oram, a geologist and Wilkes University professor, to discuss what the municipalities should do to safeguard their drinking water and other issues related to drilling.

Oram spoke at the BMCP’s September meeting and briefly touched on water’s involvement in natural gas drilling.

In other news, the BMCP approved each member municipality to contribute $300 each to the group’s proposed 2010 operating budget. The budget is to cover general government administration costs.

Copyright: Times Leader

State wastewater regulations for natural gas drilling may change to reduce pollution threat.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Anyone concerned with pollution threats from increased natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania has likely encountered the phrase, “total dissolved solids” and recognizes its potential to be a problem.

However, fewer no doubt know how it can become a problem or that – because of issues emerging from the increased drilling – the state Department of Environmental Protection is considering changes to wastewater discharge standards for TDS that would become effective Jan. 1, 2011.

DEP is seeking public comment on the proposals, and citizens have until Feb. 5 to make them. Earlier this month, Penn State University released a document to help people understand the issues and participate in the process.

Rather than a specific chemical, TDS is a measurement of all dissolved matter – such as minerals, salts and metals – in a given water sample and can be naturally occurring. The federal safe drinking-water standard has a recommended level of 500 milligrams per liter for TDS, but no specific regulation. However, concentrations above that can damage treatment equipment and be toxic to aquatic life and people who drink it.

DEP is proposing the changes, which would limit the TDS levels in wastewater discharges, because it determined that some state waterways, including the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, don’t have the ability to absorb increased levels of TDS.

According to the Penn State report, most of the water used to prepare gas wells – often called “frack water” – is between 800 milligrams per liter and 300,000 milligrams per liter.

The industry estimates the amount of such high-TDS wastewater needing disposal in Pennsylvania will increase from about 9 million gallons per day in 2009 to nearly 20 million gallons per day by 2011, the report said.

DEP’s proposal would change two parts of state code.

First, it would require high-TDS discharges to be diluted to at least 500 milligrams per liter, plus lower thresholds for sulfates and chlorides and, for the oil and gas industry, limits of 10 milligrams per liter for strontium and barium.

Second, it would change water-quality standards for the actual waterway, which would, in turn, affect what could be discharged into it. That regulation change hasn’t yet been officially proposed.

To comment on the proposed rules, the Penn State report recommends several approaches: be specific in citing documents or the target of the comment, stick to comments on the proposed rule rather than water-quality in general, include personal experiences and note where the proposed rules are written unclearly.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader

Authority soliciting proposals now to raise money for upgraded pollution controls.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

The Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority is investigating the feasibility of treating wastewater created from natural-gas drilling.

It hopes to offset some cost increases the authority will soon incur to make pollution-reducing renovations.

The authority published a request for proposals earlier this week, seeking bidders who could supply at least 500,000 gallons of wastewater daily for at least three years and pay at least 5.5 cents per gallon. Using both minimums, that would create daily revenue of $27,500.

Drilling for gas in the Marcellus Shale creates millions of gallons of wastewater that must be treated.

“The good part of that is that, instead of paying for fresh water from the Susquehanna (River), we would pre-treat this and they would reuse that to fracture new wells,” said Fred DeSanto, the authority’s executive director. “We know drilling’s going on; we are a wastewater treatment facility. That’s our business to treat it. We just don’t want time to go by as there’s water to treat.”

That means that, for now, the plant is seeking a permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection to treat up to 150,000 gallons per day in its sewage stream. The company, however, is reserving the right to inspect for pollutants in incoming drilling wastewater.

It requires pre-testing for “total dissolved solids” and “suspended solids” – generally a measure of the amount of minerals and chemicals in the water – and reserves the right to deny it.

DeSanto said that protects the authority’s equipment, which would “probably” be damaged by heavy loads of solids.

All testing and transportation costs would be paid by the drilling company, which also must carry $2 million in liability insurance, indemnify the authority from all risks associated with hauling the waste and provide a “blanket statement” that it isn’t “hazardous waste.”

The long-term goal is to build a million-gallon-per-day, closed-loop facility to “pre-treat” the water enough that it could be reused in industrial capacities and resell it to the companies that brought it in.In its bid request, the authority is looking to get at least half a cent per gallon for that water. That water would never touch the sewer operation or be discharged into the river.

“It’s the preferred method of disposal by DEP,” said John Minora, the president PA NE Aqua Resources, which is consulting on the project. “We’re left with a sludge cake that gets either landfilled or incinerated. … The water that’s left, it looks a little milky because it’s high in salt.”

That waste could then be mixed with effluent from the plant’s sewer operation to reduce solids levels, thus preventing more discharges to the river, he said. As pollution discharge credits, which would set a limit for how much facilities can discharge, become a reality, the reduced discharges could provide more revenue.

“I think the people who are environmental should be very happy about that,” Minora said. “Recycle and reuse, I don’t think it has to be an us-against-them” situation.

The revenue would go toward the millions the authority will have to spend to upgrade its system for upcoming requirements to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay and to fix stormwater overflows that currently spill untreated sewage into the river whenever it rains heavily.

Potential revenues are “unknown right now because we don’t exactly what the treatment cost is going to be,” DeSanto said. “We feel that there’s enough there that we could make a profit to help our operating budget in the future, help our ratepayers.”

Bids are due by Nov. 16.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

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Economist from M&T Bank predicts gas drilling will give area “a huge shot in the arm” in next decade.

By Ron Bartizekrbartizek@timesleader.com
Business & Consumer / City Editor

WILKES-BARRE – The Marcellus Shale gas play will be “a game changer” for Northeastern Pennsylvania, bringing a “huge economic injection” and making life here very different a decade from now, an economist said Wednesday.

James E. Thorne, Ph.D., chief investment officer of equities for M&T Bank, told members of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry during a luncheon talk at the Westmoreland Club that the region will get “a huge shot in the arm” from natural gas drilling. “The economic forecast is very bright.”

Gas drilling has boomed in the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania since horizontal drilling technologies using pressurized liquids have made it financially feasible for companies to drill into the Marcellus Shale, a layer of gas-laden rock that runs about a mile underground from New York into Virginia.

Many landowners in Luzerne County have entered into leases with drillers, but no wells are yet operating in the county.

Thorne said the future direction of the national economy is less clear while emphasizing that the United States has a history of adapting to changing times. He cited the push into science and technology in the late 1950s after the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite as an example.

As at that time, “there’s got to be a new industry created” that the U.S. can lead the world in, Thorne said, suggesting “green” technology may be the logical successor to space exploration and the Internet. The current economic problems, he said, were made worse by a diversion of resources to consumption and housing, which do not increase productivity.

Export-led, resources and infrastructure industries need to be the immediate focus, Thorne said, adding that additional government spending to rebuild and repair aging domestic

The present weakness of the dollar is necessary, Thorne said, to give American exporters the opportunity to expand their markets. But in the long run “the solution is to create inflation.

“The dollar is a reflection of economic growth; we benefit from a weak dollar.”

“We’re going to enter an adjustment period,” Thorne said, that could be several years long. But he said there’s reason to be optimistic about the outcome.

“We’ve done this before. I’m hugely bullish on the American economy,” he said.

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Authorities allowed the company to resume work after corrective actions.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

The state Department of Environmental Protection announced on Thursday that it has fined Cabot Oil and Gas $56,000 for three polluting spills at one of its natural gas drilling sites in Susquehanna County.

The fine comes a little more than a month after the spills, which all occurred within a week of each other at the Heitsman well in Dimock Township and totaled about 8,400 gallons of fluids. Some of the liquid, which was a mix of mostly water and a gel that facilitates the drilling process, drained into an adjacent wetlands and Stevens Creek.

“The department presented a number to us and we thought under the circumstances that it was appropriate and not something that we wanted to fight about,” said Ken Komoroski, Cabot spokesman. “We’re just going to move forward.”

Within a few days of the spill, DEP ordered Cabot to halt hydraulic fracturing – the process that caused the spills – and submit an engineering analysis about what went wrong and how it will be avoided in the future.

Cabot’s report said the failure was caused by pressure surges and that significant elevation differences between where the liquid was stored and where it was being pumped to contributed to the problem.

The report includes a list of corrective actions that Cabot has agreed to take, among them providing better containment and pressure-regulating valves for sites where elevation is a factor.

DEP approved the report on Oct. 16 and allowed Cabot to resume “fracking.” The process forces water, sand and a mix of chemicals into the rock layer that contains the gas, causing fractures that release the gas up the well.

Gas drilling has boomed in the Northern Tier since fracking and horizontal drilling technologies have made it financially feasible for companies to drill into the Marcellus Shale, a layer of gas-laden rock that runs about a mile underground from New York into Virginia.

Copyright: Times Leader

Law will restrict gas wells to specific areas

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

There’s no natural-gas drilling in Dallas, but that’s not stopping the borough from deciding where it will allow drilling.

As part of the revision of its zoning ordinance, Dallas is adding provisions that would restrict sitting gas wells to areas zoned industrial, highway or business. It would also designate distance setbacks from residences, waterways, streets and wetlands.

The proactive stance is putting Dallas at the forefront of what could become a major issue as drilling in the Marcellus Shale increases.

“You’re talking about a very fundamental conflict between the municipal regulation of land use and the ability of landowner to access land rights,” said Stephen Rhoads, the president of the Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Association. “You could think of this in terms of taking.”

“Taking” is illegally blocking someone’s access to the point of essentially denying their rights. Eventually, it will find its way to court, Rhoads said, though he wouldn’t speculate on who would win.

At its meeting on Thursday, the borough’s planning commission recommended the borough council vote on the revisions.

“The main point is that we were already going through a revision … so we thought it would be proactive to include something that reflects what’s going on in the Back Mountain these days,” Borough Manager Tracey Carr said.

The ordinance would also require drillers to identify roads they plan to use, pay for an engineer to document the roads’ conditions and be responsible for maintenance and repair.

With a flurry of lease signings lately, gas drilling has become a hot topic in the county. Drillers are flocking to the area to tap the Marcellus Shale, a layer of gas-laden rock about a mile underground that stretches from New York to Virginia. Its huge size – and economic potential – has been known for years, but technology only recently caught up to access it.

Despite industry innovations such as horizontal drilling that allow wells to access gas pockets up to a mile away, Rhoads said having versatility in well sites makes “a difference because it depends how much surface area is put off limits. You can’t just put a well site on the edge of town and drill from one well site and get every possible molecule of gas.”

Carr said the provisions aren’t meant to keep drilling out of any areas, “just where would be most appropriate if it was to take place.”

Rhoads said such actions can harm landowners. “The geology will dictate where the well (should be) located – not zoning – and if there’s a conflict between zoning and geology, the geology loses,” he said. “You’re effectively telling me that my oil and gas property is worthless if you zone my surface property in such a way that I can’t gain access to it.”

On the scale of issues facing the industry – including access to water for gas extraction, disposal options for waste and a proposed state severance tax – Rhoads called zoning “a major issue.”

But for Carr and the borough she manages, it’s just being efficient and responsible. “This is actually a very small part of what we’re doing,” she said, noting that the borough’s consultant on the revision suggested adding the drilling provisions.

The proposed ordinance must go through a public hearing and likely won’t be addressed by the council until November or December, she said. There have been no complaints so far, she said, “but we haven’t had the public hearing yet, either.”

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

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