Delegate Amendment Calls for Study of ‘Actual Effects’ of
Drilling Activity
The State Journal
16 December 2011
By Taylor Kuykendall, Reporter
In the process of crafting regulations for drilling in the state's
recently discovered Marcellus shale reserves, one member of the
House of Delegates added a provision for studying setback
distances that could revolutionize how drilling operations are
sited.
Del. Woody Ireland, R-Ritchie, successfully proposed an amendment
to the governor's bill regulating horizontal drilling during the
special session. The amendment called for a study on utilizing
actual impact measurements over "arbitrary" measurements such as
distance. Ireland calls for the study of use of noise, light, dust
and volatile organic compound exposure in determining setback
distances for wells.
"My intention here is to set limits on those things that are truly
important to people," Ireland told House Judiciary members when he
proposed the amendment. "Whether a well is a thousand feet away or
25 feet away doesn't really make much difference if the noise
levels are too high or volatile chemical levels are too high.
Those are the things that really affect people's lives."
The bill asks the Department of Environmental Protection to study
and possibly propose rules for setting requirements on residents
near drilling operations in regard to noise, light, dust and
volatile organic compounds.
Ireland's scientific approach to measuring the effects of drilling
reflects his background. The delegate was a chemical engineer with
more than 30 years experience at Dupont.
"The things that industry is generally concerned about is not
distances, but actual pollution levels," Ireland said.
Ireland said the amendment was initially a difficult sell to
lawmakers who easily identified with measurements of distance, but
found lumens, decibels and total suspended solids measurements
more daunting.
"It's sometimes difficult to get people to say, ‘yeah, maybe that
does make sense,'" Ireland said. "The key, I think, to getting
that accepted is that we didn't try to set hard and fast limits,
we said, ‘Okay DEP, study this thing and then come back with some
proposals that we can then try to set hard and fast limits.'"
Ireland said it was premature to set the limits in the rushed
special session, but a study would be appropriate.
He said there were several "intense" discussions involving the
amendment prior to the bill, but ultimately, he said it was
supported "across the aisles," and "across the halls."
Noise
One of the elements of the study provided by Ireland's amendment is
a measure of noise experienced by those in proximity of the well.
Instead of an "arbitrary" measure of distance, limits on the noise
produced by an operation would be restricted.
"If I was concerned about noise, if you were to put a well fairly
close and then you put in or use sound deadening technology … then
why should I care if it was 100 feet or 1,000 feet away?" Ireland
said.
Surface owners frequently complain about the noise generated by the
large horizontal drilling operations, which can take months to
complete.
According to a Colorado study of noise at natural gas operations,
even hundreds of feet away some activities of natural gas drilling
operation, can be as loud 62 to 68 dBA, a measure of decibels
adjusted to human hearing called "A-weighted sound level."
According to the Powder River Basin Resource Council, "Depending on
the wind direction, the roar of a field compressor can be heard
three to four miles from the site. Near the compressor stations,
people need to shout to make themselves heard over the sound of the
engines."
Average conversation at a distance of three to five feet typically
registers at about 60 to 70 decibels. The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration limits eight-hour sustained exposures of over
90 decibels.
According to Earthworks Action, many residential and rural
neighborhoods have environmental sounds of less than 35 decibels, so
a noise restriction of 45 decibels would still mean a roughly double
the perception of noise levels.
For roughly every increase of 10 decibels, loudness doubles.
A study by World Bank found that depending on existing environmental
noise conditions, a limit of about 45 dBA is recommended.
Effects of excess of noise levels have been linked to variety of
health issues ranging from sleeplessness to hearing loss.
Light
Light pollution is another concern with the booming gas
industry, a movement some have called the "industrialization of
West Virginia." In rural areas accustomed to the dark, the
brightly lit operations can present new problems for an area that
has historically remained incredibly dark after sundown. Workers
at night need the light to safely operate, but nearby residents
are not as accustomed to having to shut their blinds and face the
additional lights typically associated with urban settings.
In addition to human activity, light pollution can affect wildlife
and livestock whose natural day and night rhythms may be
interrupted by nighttime operation of Marcellus shale drilling in
West Virginia.
"Lights are required for safety on the rig and at the operation
during construction and, to some extent, at the finished well,
disturbing natural light and causing glare into the night sky,"
states a fact sheet from the Delaware Riverkeeper on natural gas
drilling. "Light pollution can confuse wildlife, including
migrating birds, and has human health impacts by disturbing
sleep."
Light intensity is measured in lumens. The Lighting Research
Center of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York says
light pollution is a blanket term for things such as "sky glow,"
"light trespass" and glare.
"Sky glow is a brightening of the sky caused by both natural and
human-made factors," the group's website explains. "The key factor
of sky glow that contributes to light pollution is outdoor
lighting."
Light trespass is light that is cast where it is not needed and
glare is "objectionable brightness."
"The sudden bright light can be uncomfortable and make it
difficult to see. Discomfort and even disability glare can also be
caused by streetlights, parking lot lights, floodlights, signs,
sports field lighting, and decorative and landscape lights."
Dust
Dust pollution, caused by the earth-moving activity of natural
gas well operations is another factor to be considered by the DEP
in the study commissioned by Ireland's amendment.
"Dust can cause or aggravate nuisances such as hay fever and
allergies; stunt the growth of vegetation; and lead to decreased
visibility," the Earthworks website states. Leveling land,
transportation vehicles and other elements of horizontal well
construction can kick up dust, polluting the surrounding air.
Several studies have linked health problems related to dust
exposed to the air due to road traffic, an environmental concern
affected by industrial and residential traffic, farming and other
sources.
Various measures for suppressing dust pollution are available.
Volatile organic compounds
Ireland's amendment to the governor's horizontal drilling
legislation also calls for the DEP to look at the possibility of
needing rules establishing limits on volatile organic compound
exposure.
"In the chemistry industry we were always concerned about volatile
organic chemicals and suspended solids in the air, basically
dust," he said. "It's not new to me or new to the industry,
really."
VOCs are carbon-containing substances that easily evaporate into
the atmosphere.
"They can combine with nitrogen oxides to form ground-level ozone,
which can cause respiratory ailments such as asthma, and decreased
lung function," Earthjustice writes. "Examples of VOCs are benzene
and toluene."
According to a website operated by Chesapeake Energy, VOC emission
from well completions can be reduced with cautionary methods.
"Chesapeake utilizes a voluntary procedure called reduced
emissions completions, or "green completions," to control or
reduce VOC emissions. A reduced emission completion can eliminate
most of the VOC emissions and recover valuable natural gas during
flowback and well testing."
Chesapeake further explains that not every well is equipped for
reduced emission completion because of the special equipment and
other special precautions required.
"VOCs may be emitted from storage tanks that vent to the
atmosphere," the Chesapeake website explains. "Each state has
rules that determine allowable VOC emissions, permitting
requirements and emissions thresholds at which equipment, such as
a flare or other emissions control device like a vapor recovery
unit (VRU), must be used. When technically and economically
feasible, Chesapeake prefers to control VOC emissions with a VRU
in order to reduce emissions and recover valuable natural gas."
Win-win?
Ireland said both surface owners and industry would benefit
from the alternative metrics for determining setback distances.
"It makes sense from a public standpoint to address the kinds of
things they are concerned about," Ireland said.
"It also makes sense from an industry standpoint because it then
gives them the flexibility to manage those things based on their
situation."
Ireland said, for example, in populated areas where setbacks would
"sanitize" a considerable amount of acres for drilling, that
flexibility would allow drills to be located closer with the use
of pollution-mitigating technologies.
While implementation faces numerous hurdles, including complex
modeling requirements and levels of pollution that frequently
vary, Ireland said he foresees many of those complexities being
resolved by the study.
"I don't think it's a stretch to say that kind of technology,
modeling technology will be available," Ireland said. " … I'm
confident that the DEP can take a look at the sort of thing and
set reasonable limits that would protect the public and give
industry the flexibility they needed to do what they need to do."