Environmental Quality Board Meets March 10 On Final Stream Redesignations Package; Report Due On DEP Review Of The Petition To Increase Setbacks From Shale Gas Wells, 4 Other Petitions

The Environmental Quality Board is scheduled to meet March 10 to consider adoption of a final regulation making changes to stream designations and to hear a status report on DEP’s review of the rulemaking petition to increase setbacks from shale gas wells and three other oil and gas-related petitions it accepted for review in December. 

The EQB petition policy states-- “The Department will prepare a report evaluating the petition within 60 days. If the report cannot be completed within the 60-day period, at the next EQB meeting the Department will state how much additional time is necessary to complete the report.”

The petitions accepted in December for study include--

-- Increase Setback Safety Zones Around Shale Gas Wells:  The Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project submitted a rulemaking petition to increase setbacks from shale gas wells from 500 feet to a minimum of 3,281 feet from buildings and drinking water wells, 5,280 feet from schools, daycares and hospitals and 750 feet from any surface water. Read more here.

-- Processing Oil & Gas Wastewater: The Marcellus Shale Coalition submitted a rulemaking petition to the Department to change DEP’s Chapter 78a.58(a) regulations to “allow fluids from various oil and gas operations to be processed and stored at the site at which they are produced, at the well site where they are used or at a well site from which they are distributed to other wells sites for use in stimulating wells at those other sites.”

If the change was adopted, the regulation would allow the driller to set up oil and gas wastewater and mine influenced water processing and storage facilities at any well site taking wastewater from any other well site to be processed and/or stored and then taken to any other well site for reuse.

-- Oil & Gas Well Plugging Attainable Bottom: The Department received a rulemaking petition submitted by the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association requesting the Board promulgate a rulemaking to “clarify how attainable bottom is determined and how plugging [of wells] should proceed from that point.”

Discussion of “attainable bottom” has been going on for years with the conventional oil and gas industry which has disagreed with DEP’s definition that uses a set of criteria for determining when a well owner has cleaned out enough of a well being plugged to assure it can be successfully plugged to stop the flow of fluids and gas.

-- Electronic Shale Gas Pad Emergency Plans: The Department received a rulemaking petition submitted by the Marcellus Shale Coalition that requests the Board promulgate a rulemaking to allow for well operators to maintain Preparedness, Prevention and Contingency (PPC) plans electronically to provide for “frequent updates and easier access and utilization of records in electronic format on site.

-- Shades Creek Watershed: The Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Natural Lands, and North Pocono Citizens Alert Regarding the Environment submitted a petition for rulemaking to the the Department requesting to change the designation of the entire Shades Creek Watershed from the headwaters to the mouth and including all tributaries in Bear Creek and Buck Townships, Luzerne County from High Quality (HQ) to Exceptional Value (EV).

Petition To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

On February 5, 2026, environmental and public interest groups submitted a  495-page “demand for action” on the rulemaking petition filed by 192 petitioners in November 2018 asking the Environmental Quality Board to adopt a regulation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 14 different industries in Pennsylvania.  Read more here.

The Board accepted the petition for study in April 2019, but took no further action, and DEP made no recommendation to the Board on the petition.

This is the first meeting of the Board since the February 5 letter was received.

Join The Meeting

The meeting will be held March 10 in Room 105 of the Rachel Carson Building in Harrisburg starting at 9:00 a.m.

Click Here to join the meeting online or by telephone + 1 267-332-8737 Phone Conference ID: 323 889 93#.

For available handouts and other background information, visit the Environmental Quality Board webpage. 

Questions should be directed to Laura Griffin, Regulatory Coordinator, Environmental Quality Board, P.O. Box 8477, Harrisburg, PA, 17105-8477, laurgriffi@pa.gov,  (717) 772-3277. 

[Posted: March 5, 2026]  PA Environment Digest