Aug 12, 2015 3 min read

The state Department of Environmental Protection removed rules for noise mitigation and oversight of centralized wastewater storage tanks in its latest and final draft of changes to its oil and natural gas drilling regulations.

Those decisions were reached because the DEP determined noise mitigation needs to have a separate process for setting rules, and the tanks will continue to be monitored under its residual waste regulations, the department said Wednesday.

The plan to amend the regulations began in 2011 to better protect water resources and public health and safety, and to address landowner concerns at Marcellus Shale drilling operations, DEP spokesman Neil Shrader stated in a news release.

The revisions also were drafted to improve data management of drilling operations in a more transparent manner.

“These amendments reflect a balance between meeting the needs of the industry and the needs of public health and the environment, all while enabling drilling to proceed,” DEP Secretary John Quigley said.

Previous amendments to the rules would ban the use of on-site wastewater pits, except for those used at conventional well sites, and restrict the use of typically larger, centralized impoundments or dams for storing drilling water.

The new rules are expected to be in place in spring 2016.

Centralized impoundments hold millions of gallons of water and are used to supply more than one drilling pad in certain areas.

A DEP file review performed by Observer-Reporter staff last year at the department’s Southwest Regional Office in Pittsburgh showed that all of Southpointe-based Range Resources’ nine centralized impoundments in Washington County experienced problems after they were put into operation. Some of the leaks resulted in Range being fined $4.5 million by the DEP.

Patrick Grenter, executive director of the Center for Coalfield Justice environmental group in Washington, said he was glad to hear the DEP planned to make its Marcellus Shale records more transparent to the public.

Grenter said the new rules don’t go far enough, though, to protect the environment.

“Some of the open-air impoundments and pits are going to be better regulated,” Grenter said.

The impoundments, however, are banned in other states, he said.

“We’ve seen time and time again that even if they’re modern impoundments, they look better, but they still leak,” Grenter said.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, a Robinson Township industry trade group, complained that the new regulatory proposal will cost the industry $2 billion annually without creating “meaningful environmental benefits,” its president, David Spigelmyer, said in a new release.

He said Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed energy tax, coupled with low commodity prices, “severely discourages” investment in Pennsylvania.

“Given these clear and widely reported facts, it’s alarming and out of touch with economic reality that (Gov.) Wolf stated just days ago that ‘the industry is showing no signs of slowing down,'” Spigelmyer said.

The Pennsylvania Sierra Club, meanwhile, issued a statement Wednesday thanking the DEP for having a “meaningful public participation process” leading up the final draft rules, and it also said it was pleased that Wolf’s administration “took steps to limit fracking pits and impoundments.”

Under the new rules, existing centralized impoundments must be strengthened and repermitted within three years or they will be shut down.

“Waste impoundments are a significant pollution threat and create dangerous conditions for public health and the environment,” said Joanne Kilgour, director of the state Sierra Club chapter.

The chapter said it was disappointed that the new rules wouldn’t do more to keep drilling activities more than 200 feet away from schools and playgrounds.