Mon River Groups Brainstorm Quality Issues
UMRA meeting tackles gas, oil well drilling
Morgantown Dominion Post
18 August 2010
By Alex Lang
In an effort to regulate gas and oil drilling and to have a stronger
voice, 19 watershed groups came to a consensus Monday on four
resolutions to present to local leaders.
The Upper Monongahela River Association (UMRA) held a gathering with
the goal of discussing different issues facing the Monongahela River
basin.
Among the groups with representatives in attendance were Friends of the
Cheat, the Greene County Conservation District and the Dunkard Creek
Watershed Association.
Each group talked about its biggest concerns — most of which dealt with
access for recreation, acid mine drainage, removal of water and
drilling discharge being put back into streams.
Four resolutions were passed regarding the regulation of waterways. One
called for both West Virginia’s and Pennsylvania’s departments of
Environmental Protection to create enforceable rules and punishment for
all aspects of oil and gas well drilling.
Another called for the departments to hire an adequate number of
inspectors to monitor and enforce regulations.
UMRA Vice President Barry Pallay said there are minimal regulations
involving drilling — including in the Marcellus shale — in place. While
the resolutions were broad, Pallay said they needed to get started.
“It’s the wild, wild west here,” Pallay said. “You got to start
somewhere.”
By working together on these resolutions, he said, the groups could go
to legislators and show that there is strength behind the proposed
ideas. The resolutions also have more weight.
District 1 fisheries biologist for the Division of Natural Resources
Frank Jernejcic said the groups must inform legislators about what is
happening if they want to see change.
Jernejcic gave a presentation and talked about the Dunkard Creek fish
kill and Marcellus shale drilling in the area. Marcellus shale drilling
uses large amounts of chemically treated water to fracture stone below
the ground to release natural gas.
There is concern about removing water from local streams for this
process. Another concern is what happens to the chemically treated
water once it is no longer in use.
Nobody knows how much water is used in Marcellus shale gas drilling,
but it’s in the millions of gallons, Jernejcic said. To put it in
context, Jernejcic said it would take 220 traditional watercarrying
trucks to gather 1 million gallons of water.
A few groups said they didn’t want to eliminate gas and oil drilling in
the state — they just want the water to be used wisely.
Jim Kotcon, of the West Virginia Sierra Club, said regulations would be
the “best friend” of local landowners.
“We have to have that industry here,” he said. “But, we have to do it
right.”