Team 4: No Marcellus Shale Drilling Water Reports On File With Pa.
Range Resources Says Drillers Keeping Track, Reports Are Available
WTAE-TV - Pittsburgh
16 December 2009
The economic boom from Marcellus Shale gas drilling has arrived. Just
ask anyone in Washington County.
"Pretty soon, I think Pittsburgh is going to be a suburb of Canonsburg
is what's going to happen," state Rep. Tim Solobay said, laughing.
Allegheny County could get its first well soon, as North Fayette
Township officials have given preliminary approval to two local wells.
But Team 4 investigator Jim Parsons reported that there's a flip side.
Investigators suspect waste water from Marcellus Shale gas drilling
played a role in a massive fish kill on Dunkard Creek in Greene County,
and a Team 4 investigation in November 2008 exposed two streams sucked
dry by drillers in the pursuit of millions of gallons of water needed
to fracture each well.
It takes millions of gallons of water to drill into the Marcellus Shale
beneath western Pennsylvania, and there's a lot of contaminated water
to get rid of after the drilling, but Team 4 has discovered that the
state Department of Environmental Protection is not collecting reports
from drillers about where they're getting water to fracture the
Marcellus Shale or where they're disposing contaminated water after
drilling.
Water withdrawal reports are supposed to be filed with DEP quarterly,
while disposal reports are supposed to be filed every two years.
"Have any been filed yet?" Parsons asked DEP spokeswoman Helen
Humphreys.
"Well, they haven't been using it for two years yet, so the answer is
no," Humphreys said.
"So, Helen, the DEP has really no idea what's really happening on the
ground, real time?" Parsons asked.
"I don't think that's true at all," Humphreys said.
"How would you, if you aren't getting these reports?" Parsons asked.
"Well, because we have a good idea what's in the water," Humphreys
said. "Again, this information is available to the department any time
we ask for it."
Myron Arnowitt, of Clean Water Action, said "there's no public
oversight over what's going on" and and the DEP doesn't know what
drillers are really up to.
"There's lots of suspicions that there's illegal dumping going on. DEP
couldn't possibly prove it if they have no records, so that's a huge
problem," Arnowitt said.
Humphreys said the DEP hasn't been collecting water withdrawal reports
from drillers because of a computer problem at the state agency.
A spokesman for western Pennsylvania's largest driller, Range Resources
Corp., said all of those records are being kept by the drilling
companies and are available to the DEP.
Range Resources Corp. said Wednesday that it's producing 100 million
cubic feet of natural gas each day -- enough for about a half-million
homes -- from its wells in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Company spokesman Matt Pitzarella said Range has paid out more than $20
million in landowner royalties on its Marcellus Shale wells.
Geologists say the Appalachian gas field could become the nation's most
prolific. By some estimates, it holds enough natural gas to supply the
United States for up to two decades.