Water Key Focus of W.Va. DEP Proposed Gas Law
Charleston Gazette
14 November 2010
By The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - The Department of Environmental Protection
wants natural gas companies to submit comprehensive water management
plans, including lists of chemicals to be used, when applying for
future permits to drill horizontal wells in the Marcellus shale field.
A 100-page draft of proposed legislation provided to The Associated
Press late Friday shows the DEP wants companies to identify not only
when, where and how much water they withdraw for drilling operations.
The department also wants to know what chemicals companies use in
hydraulic fracturing, how much wastewater they produce, and when and
where they would dispose of the waste.
The Marcellus field is a vast, mile-deep natural gas reserve underlying
most of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and portions of Ohio,
Maryland and Virginia. It is believed to hold trillions of cubic feet
of gas, but breaking it free from the rock requires horizontal drilling
and water-intensive hydraulic fracturing technologies.
The proposed legislation, which DEP Secretary Randy Huffman calls
"rough and raw," also would require companies to replace water they
contaminate. Companies would have to provide emergency supplies within
24 hours, a temporary supply within 72 hours and a permanent supply
within two years.
Companies would need permission from the secretary and professionally
engineered designs before building open pits that hold more than
210,000 gallons of water. Those pits may have to be lined to prevent
chemicals from leaching out, and the DEP could revoke or change permits
for any pit deemed a public hazard.
Huffman cautioned that the legislation, which contains seven new
sections of code, is a working document that will likely change.
"It's very rare that we release proposed legislation in such a rough
and raw format, but we didn't want there to be an appearance of secrecy
or lack of access," Huffman told the AP, which had requested the
documents.
Nor is the legislation all-inclusive, he said. Still to be addressed
are issues such as the spacing of wells, noise control, road protection
and bonding requirements.
Huffman's team also must tackle the complex issue of mineral rights and
whether holdout property owners can be forced to give them up, or how
much to charge for Marcellus permits. The DEP needs more revenue to
expand its inspection staff.
New fees for Marcellus drilling permits would be "significantly higher"
than the fees for conventional shallow wells, Huffman said, but the
amounts will be determined later.
"This is the foundation," Huffman said. "This is just to get the
process started."
Both DEP staff and a nine-member task force Huffman appointed are now
reviewing the legislation. Huffman said the document is mainly the
result of public comments and private meetings with stakeholders held
over the summer.
Industry officials have said they expected the state to modify West
Virginia's drilling laws, and to increase fees to compensate the agency
for permitting and monitoring marcellus operations.
The legislation contains a new section of "environmental protection
performance standards," which would require companies to notify
landowners of blasting plans, replant disturbed areas, case and seal
wells to prevent groundwater contamination, and protect offsite areas
from damage.
Companies would not only have to inform the DEP of their water
withdrawal locations but post signs identifying them to the public,
along with the operator's permit and telephone numbers.
Huffman said the DEP wants to ensure Marcellus wells are properly
planned to address the large-scale disturbance of earth and problems
with slippage and sediment runoff, among other things.
"Right now, you can almost hand-draw a well site on a piece of paper
and fill out a form and get a permit," he said.
The legislation also has extensive record-keeping and reporting
requirements for water, including how much is being transported, by
whom, and when and where.
All the required records would have to be kept for three years.
"Right now we're doing nothing," said DEP general counsel Kristin
Boggs. "The fact that we're going to make them do something is a
departure from what they're used to."
Huffman said he hopes to have a more polished draft of the legislation
by mid-December.