Water Quality Groups Back Proposed DEP Regulations in Morgantown

The group passed a resolution Tuesday.

WBOY
26 October 2010
By Stacy Moniot

MORGANTOWN -- The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection wants to regulate water withdrawals in the natural gas drilling industry. That came up at a water quality meeting in Morgantown Tuesday with members from West Virginia and Pennsylvania watershed associations.

“One of the areas that particularly important is the drinking water supplies for 1.2 million West Virginians and 1 million Pennsylvanians,” said Barry Pallay, the board’s co-chair.

More than half of West Virginians get their drinking supplies from surface water and the DEP wants to create a 500 parts per million minimum standard for Total Dissolved Solids, the amount of chemical components in water.

Pallay said he heard one political candidate talk about a much less strict standard, at 1500 parts per million.

“1500 parts per million is very unpleasant to the taste, its very salty, it's not even really considered fresh water,” Pallay said. “The point is, we want elected officials to come to these meeting to look at the facts, look at the data, acquaint themselves with this.”

TDS levels rise when something is dumped into water, or water levels get too low and the concentration of TDS rises.

Tygart Valley Watershed officials are still trying to pinpoint the cause of this month's sharp spike in TDS.

“We're monitoring the river very closely and keeping the state and federal officials informed,” said member Leroy Stanley.

Many point fingers at the Marcellus Shale drilling industry for illegally dumping the "frac" water.

The water is combined with sand and other materials to break open the shale seams and keep them open to free the natural cal. The remaining water is pumped back to the surface, with a much higher concentration of materials than when it was pumped down.

“They cannot get a permit to discharge Marcellus frac water or any oil and gas frac water to surface water,” said Scott Mandirola, the director of the WV DEP’s Division of Water and Waste Management.

There are not enough inspectors to constantly monitor every drilling site. The DEP is instead proposing a way to control where, and how much water drillers can take out of the streams.

The group voted to support that piece of legislation Tuesday as "a good start."

“So that we can continue moving forward,” Pallay said. “We can continue this dialogue, we can continue to address the serious issues and areas that we have of concern.”

This is the third time water quality groups have tried for a minimum TDS standard in West Virginia.