State Board Recommends New Gas Drilling Regulations
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
17 May 2010
By Tom Barnes
HARRISBURG -- The state's Environmental Quality Board today approved
two measures aimed at protecting the cleanliness and quality of state
streams and drinking water from potential damage caused by efforts to
get natural gas from areas of Marcellus shale.
One measure would set standards on how much pollution, known as Total
Dissolved Solids, can be allowed in the water from "fracking"
operations, where millions of gallons of water are pumped into the
shale to free up the gas. Water with more than a certain amount of
pollutants would have to be treated before it could be released back
into streams or other bodies of water.
The other measure would set up "buffer zones" -- at least 150 feet wide
-- to separate new developments from high-quality streams, said the
Pennsylvania Campaign for Clean Water, a coalition of 150 environmental
and conservation groups.
The new rules now go for further action to the state House and Senate
environmental committees and to the Independent Regulatory Review
Commission. Pro-environmental and pro-gas industry officials will have
a further chance to comment on them or change them.
Drilling deep into the ground to extract resources "entails risks and
costs," said Rep. Bud George, D-Clearfield. "The regulations approved
today address those risks, especially the total dissolved fluids that
are allowed into our watersheds and stream buffers. (We need) to
protect our exceptional and high-quality streams."
Bureau Chief Tom Barnes: tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 717-787-4254.