Republican Herald Editorial: Implement Reforms For Natural Gas Drilling, Fracking

This editorial first appeared in the Republican Herald on April 30, 2023--

Lawmakers were so eager to accommodate the natural gas industry nearly two decades ago that they opened the rich Marcellus Shale gas field without an adequate regulatory regime.

Now, the state continues to play catch-up. It still does not require drillers to disclose all of the chemicals that they use to drill and hydraulically fracture gas wells, for example.

Now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has raised the question of long-term fracking-waste disposal, three years after a statewide grand jury identified major regulatory failures and recommended significant reforms to better inform and protect the public.       

That grand jury was convened by Attorney General Josh Shapiro. It followed up its findings of criminal wrongdoing against two drillers with a report on which the governor — the very same Josh Shapiro — and the Legislature now should act.

According to the EPA, the industry nationally produces about 1 trillion gallons of contaminated wastewater each year, about 2.6 billion gallons of which comes from deep wells in Pennsylvania.

To the industry’s credit, it reuses most of the wastewater. But according to the state Department of Environmental Protection, the industry still permanently disposed about 234 million gallons of the wastewater in deep injection wells in 2022. The industry also holds about 90 million gallons above ground at any given time, pending its reuse.

Because Pennsylvania has just 12 deep disposal wells, drillers ship most of the contaminated water by truck to Ohio, which has more than 200 such wells.Those wells themselves are controversial, partly because earthquakes have been attributed to them, including in Ohio.

A consultant for a DEP advisory board recently told the agency that the state would need between 17 and 34 more injection wells to handle the current wastewater volume.

Democratic state Sen. Katie Muth of Montgomery County has introduced a bill to implement the grand jury’s recommendations, including full disclosure of fracking chemicals individually and in combination and labeling fracking waste as what it is rather than “residual waste” for transport purposes.

Because of its massive environmental and potential health impacts, all aspects of drilling and fracking should be an open book. Shapiro should push for reforms and the Legislature should adopt them.

NewsClip:

-- Republican Herald Editorial: Implement Reforms For Natural Gas Drilling, Fracking 

Related Article - Drilling Reforms:

-- Inside Climate News: Gov. Shapiro Provides Fresh Support To Key Changes Recommended In 2020 Grand Jury Report To Tighten Regulation Of The Natural Gas Drilling Industry To Better Protect Public Health, Environment  [PaEN]  

-- House Bill Would Expand Safety Zones Around Oil/Gas Wells, Infrastructure To Reduce Adverse Health, Environmental Impacts As Recommended By AG Shapiro’s Grand Jury Report  [PaEN]  

PA Oil & Gas Public Notice Dashboards:

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - April 22 - 28; Conventional Wells Venting Gas; Shale Gas Well Pad Spills  [PaEN] 

-- Citizen Complaint Results In Finding 2 Abandoned Conventional Wells Owned By Prosperity Oil Co. Continuing To Vent Natural Gas In Washington County  [PaEN]  

-- Chesapeake Appalachia: DEP Inspections Find Violations For Spills, Releases, Continuing Defective Casing/Cementing At Shale Gas Well Pads In Bradford, Susquehanna Counties  [PaEN] 

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment - April 29  [PaEN]  

-- DEP Posts 61 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In April 29 PA Bulletin  [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Compliance Reports

-- Feature: 60 Years Of Fracking, 20 Years Of Shale Gas: Pennsylvania’s Oil & Gas Industrial Infrastructure Is Hiding In Plain Sight [PaEN]

-- Conventional Oil & Gas Well Owners Failed To File Annual Production/Waste Generation Reports For 61,655 Wells; Attorney General Continues Investigation Of Road Dumping Wastewater  [PaEN]

-- DEP Issued 754 Notices Of Violation For Defective Oil & Gas Well Casing, Cementing, The Fundamental Protection Needed To Prevent Gas Migration, Groundwater & Air Contamination, Explosions  [PaEN]

-- DEP Report Finds: Conventional Oil & Gas Drillers Routinely Abandon Wells; Fail To Report How Millions Of Gallons Of Waste Is Disposed; And Non-Compliance Is An ‘Acceptable Norm’  [PaEN]

-- DEP 2021 Oil & Gas Program Annual Report Shows Conventional Oil & Gas Operators Received A Record 610 Notices Of Violation For Abandoning Wells Without Plugging Them  [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industry Has Record Year: Cost, Criminal Convictions Up; $3.1 Million In Penalties Collected; Record Number Of Violations Issued; Major Compliance Issues Uncovered; Evidence Of Health Impacts Mounts  [PaEN] 

Related Articles This Week:

-- House Committee Meets May 2 On Bill To Restore Authority To Review Conventional Oil/Gas Well Plugging Bonding Amounts; Help Prevent Routine Abandonment Of An Average Of 561 Wells A Year  [PaEN]

-- House Environmental Committee Sets May 1 Hearing On Cryptocurrency And Climate Change; Background Brief  [PaEN]

-- EDF: Pennsylvania Has 55,000 Oil/Gas Wells At High Risk Of Being Abandoned; 51,000 Wells At Risk Of Being Transferred To Low Solvency Owners; Current Conventional Well Owners Abandon 561 Wells A Year, On Average  [PaEN] 

-- House Hearing: Let’s Work Together To Make Conventional Oil & Gas Industry Practices Cleaner, Respect Property Rights, Protect Taxpayers And Prevent New Abandoned Wells  [PaEN]

-- Guest Essay: Conventional vs Unconventional Oil & Gas Wells - Not As Different As You Might Think - By Laurie Barr, Save Our Streams PA  [PaEN]

-- DEP Tentatively Sets May 18 Online Public Conference On Proposed Roulette Oil & Gas Waste Injection Well In Clara Twp., Potter County; Opponents Again Call For Robust Public Participation Process  [PaEN]

-- Delaware River Basin Commission Clarifies New Regulations On Oil/Gas Fracking Wastewater Ban Road Spreading, Disposal From Conventional Wells  [PaEN] 

-- NRDC: U.S. Dept. Of Transportation Denies Special Permit For Shipping LNG Natural Gas By Rail From A Proposed Bradford County LNG Plant; Shipping By Truck Still Allowed  [PaEN]

-- Eyes On Shell Reports Shell Petrochemical Plant Fenceline Monitors Found Benzene Emissions Above Toxic Substances Limits; No Timeline For Restarting Plant; DEP Issued Another NOV For Air Violations  [PaEN]

-- Senate Environmental Committee Holds May 1 Hearing On Electric Grid Reliability Looking At Natural Gas, Other Generation Failures During Winter Storm Elliot In December [PaEN] 

[Posted: April 30, 2023]  PA Environment Digest