WV to Monitor Mon River for Drilling Wastewater
Charleston Gazette
14 April 2009
By the Associated Press
Morgantown, WV - West Virginia plans to install at least four
real-time monitors along the Monongahela River to detect salty
wastewater from gas well drilling.
The wastewater is produced as drillers break apart rock to reach gas
deposits locked in deep Marcellus shale formations. Companies must
dispose of it, but last fall, Pennsylvania treatment plants couldn't
clean it properly, and thousands of residents ended up with smelly
water.
Patrick Campbell, of the West Virginia Department of Environmental
Protection, said the state will monitor total dissolved solids, which
are not currently regulated in West Virginia, and discuss possible
standards later this spring.
The U.S. Geologic Survey and the Army Corps of Engineers will help
install the monitors in West Virginia, Campbell said Monday at a
conference in Morgantown. Another 15 monitors will likely be installed
elsewhere along the main stem of the river and some of its major
tributaries.
The Division of Natural Resources is also interested in the potential
wastewater problem and will begin a fish monitoring program on the
river next month.
Barry Pallay, vice president of the Upper Mon River Association, said
his organization supports a limit on total dissolved solids, which
Pennsylvania already regulates.
The DEP is also currently taking comments on proposed guidelines for
Marcellus shale drilling that would require operators to report where
they plan to draw water and how they will dispose of it. Regulating
such withdrawals would require legislative approval, Campbell said.
Now, drillers submit reports on water use after the fact, and only if
their withdrawal is above a certain limit. The Water Resources
Protection Act requires water users to report when they withdraw more
than 750,000 gallons of water in any given month.
Cindy Rank of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy wants the state
to go further with its regulations and prevent problems.
"The guidance that's out there now is so preliminary that it's really
not going to do anything," she said.
The 128-mile-long Monongahela River is formed by the Tygart and West
Fork rivers near Fairmont. It flows northward to Pittsburgh, where it
joins with the Allegheny to form the Ohio.