New Standards Urged for Drilling Wastewater
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
17 June 2010
By Evan Trowbridge, Special to the Post-Gazette
HARRISBURG -- Some legislators, a top state official and environmental
groups are calling upon a state regulatory agency to set new standards
for wastewater resulting from natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania.
The Independent Regulatory Review Commission, a five-member body, meets
today to consider proposed rules on "total dissolved solids" in
wastewater created during underground drilling in areas of Marcellus
Shale in the state.
"If the IRRC rejects these regulations, water supplies in the state
will be endangered," said John Hanger, secretary of the Department of
Environmental Protection. "Rivers and streams will be polluted. It's
only a question of when."
Some lawmakers are critical of current regulations, saying millions of
gallons of wastewater laced with chemicals like arsenic, aluminum and
cadmium are now passing through sewage treatment plants and back out
into waterways. The water is the byproduct of hydraulic fracturing, or
"hydrofracking," which pumps water with chemicals deep underground to
crack rock formations and release natural gas.
"We've got to protect these waters from those pollutants," said Rep.
David Kessler, D-Berks. "If we don't have clean water ... we might as
well forget about talking about anything else, and there is no future
for my granddaughter and our other children."
Rep. David Levdansky, D-Forward, said the proposed regulations are
necessary to give natural gas producers the incentive to use new
technology to help reduce the level of dissolved solids in the
wastewater.
"Hydrofracking has never been conducted on such a scale and with such
volumes of water in our state before," said Mr. Levdansky. "It is
critical that we implement a strong discharge standard for wastewater
that does make it into our water supply."
Currently, the fracturing fluid often just goes through sewage
treatment plants and is diluted in waterways, as long as it doesn't
exceed 1 percent of the water being treated, said Myron Arnowitt,
director of Clean Water Action.
Environmentalists also pressed the IRRC to set regulations for 150-foot
buffers between streams and wells to prevent storm water from putting
waste runoff from the wells into the streams. Buffers would protect 25
percent of the state's streams -- those rated as "exceptional quality"
and "high quality."
Mr. Arnowitt said that more than 8,000 Pennsylvanians have supported
the regulations through letters and e-mails to the state. Also, 21
Democratic House members signed a letter to the IRRC in support of the
new rules, which have already been approved by the DEP and the
Environmental Quality Board.
A state Senate environmental panel wants two weeks to examine the rules
if the IRRC approves them. Sen. Mary Jo White, R-Venango, panel
chairwoman, opposes the rules as now written, saying they conflict with
federal law, said her aide, Patrick Henderson.
Evan Trowbridge is an intern with the Pennsylvania Legislative
Correspondents Association.