Rules to Drink By: State approval can help protect everyone's water

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
15 June 2010

After mishaps occurred this month at two Marcellus Shale gas wells -- in Clearfield County and in Moundsville, W.Va. -- assorted calls have been heard around Pennsylvania for a moratorium on deep drilling for natural gas.

Those calls are premature. What's needed is tough regulatory oversight from the state Department of Environmental Protection and approval from the Legislature for a Marcellus Shale tax that will support a fund to address ill effects of such activity.

DEP has added personnel statewide to keep a close eye on the booming industry and is conducting on-site safety reviews in response to the Moundsville explosion, which burned seven workers. It is investigating the cause of the "blowout" in Clearfield, after ordering the company at the site to suspend new well drilling and well completion operations at 50 sites in Pennsylvania.

DEP must continue to be a vigorous regulator in this area, balancing the interests of water consumers, business, property owners and the state's natural environment. That's how the agency is approaching the need for effective new rules on water that will see action this week in Harrisburg.

An obscure rule-making body will have the chance to protect Pennsylvania's rivers and streams and help preserve them as a source of drinking water and a healthy environment for fish and other wildlife. DEP has written two rules that would prevent fouling of the water supply, and the state's Environmental Quality Board already has approved them. The five-member Independent Regulatory Review Commission, which has the job of making sure proposed regulations are in the public's best interest, will consider them on Thursday.

The most significant of the two regulations would put limits on the discharge into waterways of "total dissolved solids" -- elements collected in water including sulfates, sodium, calcium and chlorides. While TDS can be traced to a variety of industries, including coal mining, the expansion of underground drilling for natural gas from the Marcellus Shale makes this proactive move essential.

Millions of gallons of water are used in each well that extracts natural gas from the rich deposits deep beneath the ground and it becomes contaminated with dissolved solids, at levels that are 600 times what is safe for drinking. The volume of water involved in deep shale drilling increases the hazard. Even though the discharges are added to existing bodies of water, the concentration of pollutants can go up significantly. Because water treatment plants generally are not able to remove TDS during the filtration process, the only recourse when safe limits are exceeded is to stop drinking the water.

If Pennsylvania doesn't manage to keep the level of dissolved solids in its waterways under limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, tighter federal controls will would be imposed, further restricting business operations and other uses. That's why this measure is good for people, good for fish and good for business.

The second regulation ripe for action this week is the so-called buffer rule. This would set aside strips of land on the banks of Pennsylvania's most pristine rivers and streams so they could not be developed. The rule would cover 25 percent of the state's waterways and would prevent building within 150 feet of the water, but it provides an exception for developers who get their applications completed and filed within 90 days of when the rule would take effect.

DEP has carefully structured both rules in recognition of the needs of businesses as well as the greater mission of preserving the state's life-giving waters for the future. That's why IRRC, in considering the interests of all stakeholders, should have no problem approving them.