DEP Sets Drilling Rules for Water Protection

Washington PA Observer Reporter
26 August 2010
By Scott Beveridge, Staff writer
sbeveridge@observer-reporter.com

Pennsylvania has implemented new regulations on the natural gas drilling industry ahead of schedule to protect drinking water supplies and aquatic life from wastewater leaving drilling sites.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has imposed new wastewater treatment standards to reduce what are known as total dissolved solids and the amount of chlorides in water released from sites where companies are drilling into the Marcellus Shale field.

The new rules also prohibit such drilling within a 150-foot buffer zone around a high-quality stream, making this the strongest legal protection of water in the state's history, according to a DEP news release.

"The DEP's proposal of these new limits (had) already driven industry investment in new technologies to treat this wastewater, which is high in TDS," DEP Secretary John Hanger stated in a Wednesday news release. "We are proving that if we hold the environmental bar high, the industry can and will rise to meet Pennsylvania's expectations."

Public water suppliers in the region that draw water from the Monongahela River began to receive complaints about smelly water after a boom in the Marcellus Shale industry that began in 2007. Streams already receive these particles from stormwater or abandoned coal mines, and such utilities are not equipped to treat the contaminants.

The new wastewater regulations initially were set to take effect in January, but the DEP advertised them now to further protect water supplies, said Helen Humphreys, director of DEP communications.

The industry has largely responded by recycling the water it uses to drill into the shale, Humphreys said, before investing in the technology that exists to treat such water.

The companies do not have to treat water that is not discharged, she said.

The new permitted limit for discharges of wastewater from gas drilling is 500 milligrams per liter of the solids and 250 milligrams per liter for chlorides. All new and expanding facilities which treat gas well wastewater must now meet these discharge limits or face enforcement actions.