Mon River Group: Action Needed on Gas Drilling

Renews call for a special session on Marcellus regulation

Morgantown Dominion Post
29 April 2011
By David Beard

A Monongahela River watershed group renewed its call for a special legislative session on Marcellus gas drilling regulations, and criticized the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for failing to develop a strategy for gas well permitting.

The group also approved a resolution calling for limits of bromides — a type of salt in fracking fluids — in waterways that combine with other chemicals to form carcinogens in drinking water.

Barry Pallay, co-chair of the WV/PA Monongahela Area Watersheds Compact, said he first called on the DEP in December 2008 to develop and present a permitting strategy.

As of Thursday, more than two years later, the DEP still has nothing, Pallay said.

He said the DEP turned down an invitation to come to the compact’s Thursday meeting at the Morgantown airport, and asked Delegate Mike Manypenny to explain the DEP’s answer.

Manypenny, D-Taylor, and one of three delegates who attended, said he sent a letter to James Martin, chief of the DEP’s Office of Oil and Gas, who sent a “nice refusal letter.”

Manypenny related that Martin said no one was available to come because they “were involved in more important issues.”

Manypenny and Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, who also attended, have called for a special session and drafted a letter to the state — signed by 21 other delegates — calling for a moratorium on Mar- cellus permits until regulation is in place.

Compact members have also previously called for a special session call and voted Thursday to renew that call.

Compact members come from a variety of area watershed groups. Representatives of a number of state agencies also attended, as did a number or landowners interested in and sometimes worried about Marcellus wells coming to their communities.

“My whole life is what I have out there, and they could make it worth nothing,” said landowner Sonny Penrod.
   

Bromide levels


Lewis Baker, source water protection specialist for the West Virginia Rural Water Association, said studies are showing bromide levels can be linked to the disposal of briney frack waters. The problem is more apparent on the Pennsylvania side of the Mon River, where drillers were allowed, until recently, to take their waste water to sewage treatment plants.

Bromides are a constituent of trihalomethane (THM), a carcinogen, Baker said. While there are no federal, West Virginia or Pennsylvania standards for bromide or THM, some experts lean toward bromide limits of 50 to 100 parts per billion.

The resolution calls for the two states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to adopt a standard in that range.

Environmental hazards


While there were no DEP regulators at the meeting, John King, with the DEP Office of Environmental Advocate Transportation, was. He gave an overview of the environmental hazards of Marcellus drilling.

They include dust and diesel fumes and air quality. He showed a picture of gas venting off a well’s condensate tank that caused a nearby track hoe to catch fire and blow up.

Water hazards include pipelines crossing streams, pollution caused by spills or badly constructed casings on well bores, and “conditions not allowable.” A pair of pictures showed the reality of that bureaucratic term: A rushing stream and waterfall wiped out by fill dirt and gravel from a well pad.

Delegates speak


Delegate Charlene Marshall, D-Monongalia, decided to listen as Manypenny and Fleischauer — who played key roles in drafting the legislation that ultimately failed in March — talked about their work.

“It’s like squeezing Jello,” Fleischauer said. “The more we study, the more issues pop up.” She’s optimistic that after the dust settles from the gubernatorial primary, acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin will heed the public calls for a special session.

Pennsylvania has about 150 inspectors, she said, and considers that too few. How can West Virignia’s 12 inspectors do the job, she asked.

Manypenny said he is compiling the environmental amendments he and Fleischauer added to the failed bill into an Oil and Gas Drilling Accountability Act. It will include buffer zones from streams.

He also wants to repeal existing oil and gas industry exemptions on stream degradation, and study drilling effects on surface owners: Decreased property values, bank reluctance to finance mortgages and homeowner insurance obstacles.