Officials concerned about gas drilling

 

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, July 20, 2008

A surge in natural gas leases in Pennsylvania and elsewhere has officials talking about how they can hurry up and put more regulations in place.

Technological advances in horizontal natural gas drilling, coupled with a rush of homeowners across Pennsylvania who are signing with gas companies, have sent officials scrambling to regulate the process.

Engineers William Muszynski and Gregory Cavallo told the Delaware River Basin Commission this week that more needs to be done to catch up with gas companies.

The governors of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware and representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers make up the board. The commission oversees the Delaware River, which borders the four states. In Bucks County alone, hundreds of Nockamixon residents have signed leases with Michigan-based gas drilling company Arbor Resources.

Muszynski and Cavallo are concerned about the side effects of hydraulic fracturing, commonly called “fracing,” an advanced drilling method used to extract gas from underground rock.

In the process, a large amount of water is needed. In some parts of Pennsylvania and New York, where gas drilling is occurring, it can take 2 million to 9 million gallons of water to release trapped gas.

The engineers predict gas companies will most likely want to draw that water out of the Delaware River or its tributaries, which could affect the waterway's ecology.

“We are clearly concerned where they are actually getting the water to do fracing,” Muszynski said.

The process also uses chemicals, which are mixed with the water and can be injected as much as 7,000 feet underground and are flushed out again. Engineers told the board they need to monitor how that water concoction would affect ground water and how it would ultimately be disposed.

Cathy Curran-Myers, who represented Gov. Ed Rendell at the commission meeting on Wednesday, said Pennsylvania has already sent out letters to wastewater treatment plants in each municipality warning them to not automatically accept the drilling water.

Curran-Myers, deputy secretary for water management at the state Department of Environmental Protection, said most local treatment plants can't process that large an amount of chemically treated wastewater and it could damage some of the older facilities.

In the push for alternative energy nationwide, the gas drilling companies have become exempt from all federal standards enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to river advocates. They urged the DRBC to push for a state-funded environmental impact study.

Richard McNutt, president of the Delaware River Greenway Partnership, says the effects on Nockamixon groundwater could be disastrous.

“The pure threat is that there is no control over this operation,” said McNutt. “People are rushing into this and land men are scaring people into signing these leases. It's a frightening situation up there.”

McNutt said if the groundwater becomes saturated with chemicals and is undrinkable, Nockamixon would be comparable to the Superfund sites.

Last week, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Nockamixon Township and other organizations filed a legal brief in the state Supreme Court supporting two Western Pennsylvania towns in their ongoing battle to have some say over gas drilling within their jurisdictions.

The DRBC says any gas company whose activities would impact the Delaware River or its tributaries must file an application with the commission. Commission members are working to finalize and streamline the application process, coordinate the four states' requirements and nail down regulations for drilling activities.

Muszynski said he's already met with several gas companies and recommends they first approach the commission. “We don't want them to assume anything. We want them to come and sit down and talk with us,” said Muszynski. “But the companies we have met with didn't seem to have a lot of details to provide us with.”

Gas companies must also consider that the board only meets five times each year. Companies need to submit their application accordingly. Fees might range from $500 to as high as a percentage of the drilling project.

In the push for alternative energy, commission members and scientists know they are treading new territory. But with all the new technology of horizontal gas drilling, companies are still hashing out the logistics.

“We obviously expect applications to be filed. It's up to them where and when, but the how will be up to us,” he said.

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