These numbers alone tell a lot about the challenges faced by DEP’s Oil and Gas Program in the coming year, but they aren’t all of them.
As the state prepares from another budget season, here are some of the major policy challenges DEP’s largest program has in regulating an industry with such a significant impact on Pennsylvania’s landscape, communities and the daily lives of our citizens--
-- Steadily Expanding Workload: The number of permitted shale gas wells have increased from 18,060 in December 2016 to 24,451 as of January 1-- a 35.3% increase
-- Freeze On Enforcement Staff: DEP enforcement staff has been frozen at nearly the same levels as December 2016, according to DEP’s budget materials last March, while workload keeps expanding dramatically.
Kurt Klapkowski, DEP’s former Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management, told the PA Grade Crude Development Advisory Council December 4-- “There's been a pretty significant hiring freeze in place given the chaos at the federal level with the budget, and then the state budget impasse this year. Our human resources department has basically locked down any hiring. So, we’ve got significant vacancies.”
“This isn't where I wanted us to be, honestly, today.”
-- Funding Oil & Gas Industry Inadequate To Support Program: Funding for the Oil & Gas Program is based on fees charged for shale gas well permit applications, however, the volume of permit applications received by DEP has dropped dramatically. DEP estimated it would take revenue from 2,000 applications a year to fully fund its enforcement program [Read more here]. In 2025, DEP received just over 628 applications.
The conventional oil and gas industry permit application fees rarely generate more than $46,000 a year to support a program that costs taxpayers $10.6 million to ensure conventional well compliance with state environmental laws and regulations.
The FY 2025-26 state budget includes $15 million in General Fund monies to support the program. The FY 2024-2025 budget included a $5 million was transferred to the program.
-- Cuts In Federal Funding To Plug Conventional Wells Abandoned By Their Owners: On January 9, Laura Legere of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported the US House of Representatives Thursday passed a budget bill that cut $785 million from programs to restore abandoned coal mine lands and plug abandoned oil and gas wells saying it was “a blow to Pennsylvania efforts to clean up those scars.”
Almost no changes are made by the US Senate, and as a result Pennsylvania could see a cut of $169 million in abandoned mine reclamation funds and a reduction of at least $24 million in funds for plugging conventional oil and gas wells abandoned by their owners. Read more here.
-- Shale Gas Regulations Not Updated In Nearly A Decade: DEP regulations covering shale gas operations have not been updated since 2016, nearly a decade, and have not kept up with drilling technology or the kinds of environmental protection problems being experienced today.
-- Conventional Oil & Gas Regulations Not Updated In Nearly 39 Years: DEP regulations covering conventional oil and gas wells were last adopted in 1987. An attempt to update them failed in 2016, when the General Assembly/Gov. Wolf killed the package to allow the shale gas regulations to move forward. The 2016 conventional regulations update represented a significant improvement in environmental protections, but still had gaps.
-- Updated Setback Distances For Shale Gas Operations: One of the things learned through health studies and practical experience since the last state Oil and Gas Act was passed in 2012 is the minimum setback of 500 feet from shale gas well pads is completely inadequate to protect public health.
Most recently, a House hearing in November resulted in extensive testimony on the issue, including first-hand accounts of the inadequacies of the existing 500 foot setback. Read more here.
In December, the Environmental Quality Board voted to accept a citizens rulemaking petition for study that would increase the basic setbacks from 500 to 3,281 feet to better protect the public. Read more here.
The petitioners extensively documented the shortcomings of the existing setback distances. Read more here.
At the same December EQB meeting, the Board accepted three oil and gas industry rulemaking petitions for study. Read more here.
There is no timetable for how long DEP’s review of the petitions will take.
-- Conventional Well Owners Continue To Abandon Wells: While DEP has made significant progress in plugging abandoned conventional wells thanks to federal funding, DEP issued more than 685 violations to conventional well owners in 2025 for abandoning wells and 860 violations in 2024. DEP has stepped up enforcement activities with its limited staff, but it has not put a dent in those numbers.
-- “Widespread Non-Compliance” In Conventional Industry The Norm: Last June, DEP said it continues to see “widespread non-compliance with laws and regulations in the conventional oil and gas industry, particularly regarding improper abandonment of oil and gas wells, but also not reporting hydrocarbon and waste production [and disposal] and conducting mechanical integrity assessments.” Read more here.
As DEP noted, well owners fail to comply with the most basic requirements: 85% failed to submit annual production and waste generation/disposal reports and 87% failed to submit annual well integrity reports for 2024. Read more here.
A December 2022 a first-ever report by DEP on conventional industry compliance said until the industry’s “culture of non-compliance” changes, there will be no meaningful improvement in compliance. Read more here.
-- Millions Of Gallons Of Conventional Oil & Gas Wastewater Unaccounted For: Today, no one knows how much wastewater conventional well owners generate because of widespread non-reporting. Conventional well owners reported generating 93.4 million gallons of wastewater in 2017. A white paper by the PA Independent Oil and Gas Association in 2017 estimated the average conventional oil and gas well produced 2,146 gallons of wastewater a year. With an estimated 86,125 active conventional well permits, the math says the industry generates about 184.8 million gallons a year. Where did the wastewater go?
-- Conventional Well Owners Push To Legalize Road Dumping Wastewater: The illegal disposal of conventional oil and gas wastewater by dumping it on paved and dirt and gravel roads continues unabated in Pennsylvania as are efforts to legalize the practice. Read more here.
The industry itself reported 3.5 million gallons of wastewater were indiscriminately and illegally dumped on roads between 2018 and 2023, according to DEP records, but the real amount is much, much more due to limited self-reporting.
Conventional well owners continue to push for legalizing road dumping for disposing of their wastewater through changes in law, regulations and policy from DEP. Read more here.
DEP has supported legislation to clearly ban the practice of road dumping conventional wastewater as its own regulations did for shale gas operations since 2016. Read more here.
Multiple studies by Penn State University and many others have documented the public health and environmental impacts of road dumping and of wastewater from conventional and shale gas wells. Read more here.
-- Systemic Problems Continue In Tracking Oil & Gas Waste “Cradle To Grave:” In late December, Inside Climate News published three articles by reporters Kiley Bense and Peter Aldhous on tracking the generation, recycling, treatment and disposal of waste and wastewater from Pennsylvania’s shale gas and conventional oil and gas industries. Read more here.
Lack of easy connections between data bases and reporting requirements and the failure in particular of conventional oil and gas well owners to report the waste they generate have hampered efforts to know the answers to basic questions like how much waste is produced and where does it go?
The lack of staff to do audits of the reporting is also reducing confidence in the numbers that are being reported.
The articles also pointed to the need to update safeguards surrounding the handling of radioactive shale gas and conventional waste. Read more here.
Visit DEP’s Office of Oil and Gas Management webpage to learn more about this program.
Report Violations
To report oil and gas violations or any environmental emergency or complaint, visit DEP’s Environmental Complaint webpage.
Text photos and the location of abandoned wells to 717-788-8990.
Check These Resources
Visit DEP’s Compliance Reporting Database and Inspection Reports Viewer webpages to search their compliance records by date and owner.
Sign up for DEP’s eNOTICE service which sends you information on oil and gas and other permits submitted to DEP for review in your community.
Use DEP’s Oil and Gas Mapping Tool to find if there are oil and gas wells near or on your property and to find wells using latitude and longitude on well inspection reports.
Related Articles This Week:
-- Highlights Of Shale Gas, Conventional Oil & Gas Compliance Actions Taken By DEP During 2025 [PaEN]
-- Major Challenges Faced By DEP’s Oil And Gas Enforcement Program In 2026 [PaEN]
-- DEP: Day 455 And Counting: Seneca Resources Continues To Release Wastewater, Frack New Shale Gas Wells At Taft Well Pad In Middlebury Twp., Tioga County [PaEN]
-- DEP: Owner Of At Least 43 Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Wells Issued Violations For 6 More On State Game Lands In Venango County; Efforts To Locate The Owner Have Been Unsuccessful [PaEN]
-- DEP: Eureka Resources Has Until Jan. 31 To Remove All Wastewater From Its 3 Closed Oil & Gas Wastewater Treatment Plants; About 1.5 Million Gallons Of Wastewater Remains In Bradford County Facility [PaEN]
-- DEP Eliminates Longstanding Permitting Backlog In 2025, Launches New Bureau of Permitting Coordination [PaEN]
NewsClips:
-- Williamsport Sun: DEP Conducts Follow-Up Inspection Of Closed Eureka Resources Oil & Gas Wastewater Facility In Williamsport [PDF of Article]
-- Post-Gazette Guest Essay: Pennsylvania Can’t Accept Oil And Gas Companies’ Self-Reporting - By Chris DiGiulio, Physicians For Social Responsibility-PA
-- Reuters: New PJM Rules Favor On-Site Natural Gas Power Plants Over Renewables For A.I. Data Centers
-- Reuters Commentary: When The US Freezes, LNG Natural Gas Market Prices Spike Over 70%
-- Reuters: US Energy Sector Reels After Winter Storm Knocks Out 2 Million BPD Of Crude Output
-- Reuters: Oil Prices Rise As Harsh Winter Disrupts US Output
-- The Allegheny Front: Fracking Produces A Lot Of Wastewater, Millions Of Gallons Are Stored Under Eastern Ohio Thru Injection Wells
[Posted: January 28, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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