PA Environment Digest Blog: Conventional Oil & Gas Industry: DEP Decision To Approve Unrestricted Use Of Contaminated Water From Oil & Gas ‘Mineral Brine’ Wells Clears The Way For Uncontrolled, Free Disposal Of Contaminated Water At Public Expense And Risk

On August 20, the conventional oil and gas industry laid out a plan to use a recent DEP decision to allow unrestricted use of contaminated water from a newly permitted “mineral brine” well as justification for the uncontrolled, free disposal of contaminated water from thousands of oil and gas wells at public expense and risk.

The comments were made during a meeting of DCED’s PA Grade Crude [Oil] Development Advisory Council meeting.

Takeaways From The Meeting

The key takeaways from this discussion are--

-- Mineral Brine Permit: DEP issued a new type of ‘mineral brine’ conventional oil and gas well permit to authorize the production of contaminated water [brine] from oil and gas geologic formations as a product. It does not deal with the end use of the contaminated water. There is no testing required or any restrictions on use or treatment of the water required. Read more here.

-- Burden On Water User Not Well Owner: DEP said the burden is on the contaminated water user-- not the conventional well owner-- to prevent pollution and comply with the state Clean Streams Law. [DEP has not produced any guidance on how that should be accomplished.]

-- It’s The Same Water: The conventional oil and gas industry pointed out the contaminated water coming out of a “mineral brine” well and a conventional oil and gas production well are “essentially the same thing” and they did not understand why DEP would not allow them to do whatever they wanted with production well contaminated water.

-- Converting Existing Conventional Wells: The industry proposed converting existing conventional oil and gas wells to “mineral brine” wells to allow the use of contaminated water as a product would make these wells more economically viable for the owners. [The industry would also avoid the cost of plugging “non-producing” wells.]

-- Yes, There’s A Process For Converting: DEP confirmed there is a process now for repermitting an existing conventional well and change its use, although they have not faced a request for conversion and would like to take a look at the issue.

-- Demand For Using Contaminated Water: The industry believes there is a “demand” for using the contaminated water as a product from townships. DEP questioned if the “demand” was strong enough to support the conversion of “thousands” of wells. [Note: “Demand” is the wrong word. The industry has actively marketed contaminated water for essentially free to townships to avoid the cost of paying for disposal through injection wells or for treatment.]

-- Selling “Unintentionally” Produced Oil/Gas: The existing co-product determination process in the Residual Waste Regulations can be used to get approval to sell “unintentionally” produced oil and/or gas from a conventional mineral brine well, but DEP noted those regulations are undergoing review for possible changes.

-- No Public Notice, Review: There was no public notice or review of this new kind of mineral brine permit that creates an exemption from waste regulations for contaminated water and an artificial difference between “mineral brine” and “production brine” even though they are the same contaminated water.

Taken together, this represents a strategy by the conventional oil and gas well owners to dispose of tens of millions of gallons of contaminated water without restrictions, testing or treatment at public expense, unless DEP chooses to change its permits, guidance and regulations and practices to prevent it.

As Dr. William Burgos, a Penn State Professor who has studied contaminated water from conventional oil and gas wells for years, said-- “There is no public benefit to road spreading O&G PWs [oil and gas wastewater]…. It is all risk, no reward. The only beneficiaries are the O&G [oil and gas] operators who choose this disposal option.” Read more here.

What’s In Conventional Oil & Gas Well “Brine”

A 2022 Penn State study funded by DEP found the contaminated groundwater discharged by conventional wells contains at least 25 chemicals that exceed environmental and health standards and radioactive radium levels that exceed industrial waste discharge standards. Read more here.

The study also found contaminated groundwater from conventional wells contain two-and-a-half times the amount of salt in ordinary seawater [Read more here - page 39].

Penn State study author Dr. William Burgos said during a state Senate hearing-- “There’s no more research that needs to be done” to justify adopting a state ban on the road dumping of contaminated water from conventional oil and gas wells. Read more here.

A 2023 Penn State study of intentionally produced contaminated groundwater-- “brines”-- like would from the BCD Properties Danylko 6 well-- found they are chemically and physically the same as contaminated groundwater produced by other conventional wells, which makes sense because the water comes from the similar geologic formations.

DEP banned the road spreading of unconventional shale gas wastewater in regulations adopted in 2016. [Chapter 78a.70 & 78a.70a]

A 2020 Penn State study concluded there were not a lot of differences in the chemical and physical make-up of conventional contaminated groundwater and unconventional wastewater. Read more here.

A study of waste disposal records reported by conventional oil and gas owners found from 1991 to 2017 conventional well owners disposed of 240.4 million gallons of contaminated water by road dumping-- an average of 9.2 million gallons a year. Read more here.

These numbers are artificially low because 85% of conventional oil and gas well owners don’t submit annual waste generation reports and DEP has never done an audit of the reports submitted. Read more here.

Road dumping contaminated water from conventional oil and gas wells continues today illegally on paved, dirt and gravel roads. Read more here.

DEP acknowledged the concerns at the meeting saying-- “DEP broadly has heard concerns about both applications [brine and rehydrated solid forms]. There’s no action being taken, but we’ve heard concerns chloride levels and emissions across the state in the waters that are very, very high.

“It’s very detrimental to the ecology of these waters. So it is something we’ve heard a lot of concern about. So we’re at least having conversations about why those things are happening.”

New ‘Mineral Brine’ Well

At the August 20 CDAC meeting, Seth Pelepko, DEP Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management, briefed the Council on a new type of conventional “mineral brine” well permit issued in May to BCD Properties. Read more here.

The permit authorized drilling a conventional well whose primary purpose was the production of contaminated water [brine] to be used as a product and not for the production of oil and/or natural gas.

Pelepko said-- “this is a permit to drill the well. It doesn't speak to end use at all. And certainly any end uses still have to comply with the Clean Streams Law and any of the relevant environmental protection standards.”

He further explained-- “There's an obligation on any party that purchases brine [contaminated water] to adhere to the Clean Streams Law, protect water, that's where chemistry is implicated or application rates and things of that nature are implicated.

“It doesn't necessarily fall on the responsibilities of the brine well operator.

[In point-of-fact, DEP has issued no guidance or restrictions on how the contaminated water from the mineral brine well could be used and required no testing or treatment like they would from contaminated water coming out of conventional oil and gas production wells.

[The permit effectively provides an exemption from Residual Waste Regulations for the contaminated water. Read more here.]

Pelepko added-- “The DEP does believe it has authority under the Oil and Gas Act to issue such a permit” and noted it was issued with conditions.

[One of the conditions was treating any “unintentionally” produced oil and gas from the mineral brine well to be handled as a waste under the Solid Waste Management act. Read more here.

[The permit issued to BCD Properties in McKean Township, Erie County was for a new well-- Danylko 6-- that happens to be 515 feet away and drilled into similar oil and gas geologic formations as another conventional oil and gas well-- Danylko 4-- that DEP said the company was illegally using the contaminated water from for dust suppressants on roads. Read more here.

[The decision to issue the mineral brine permit was part of a legal settlement of an appeal from BCD Properties on the denial of contaminated water use from the Danylko 4 well. Read more here.]

Pelepko noted the FracTracker Alliance has appealed the issuance of the mineral brine well permit and the legal action limited what he could say on the issue. Read more here.

It’s The Same Water

David Hill, from Hill Drilling, made the obvious observation-- “Well, I guess what doesn't make sense to me is you're going to drill a brine [contaminated water] well and down the road 10 miles you have a production [conventional oil and gas well] that's producing brine [contaminated water], which is essentially the same thing.

“But the water from the [mineral] brine well can be used for other applications, whereas the water from the production of the oil and gas wells can't.

“It doesn't make sense.”

[Note: Hill is correct. DEP is making an artificial distinction between “mineral brine” and “production brine” when they are the same thing-- contaminated water-- that should be handled as the waste it is.]

How Do We Convert Wells?

Arthur Stewart, Cameron Energy, noted Seneca Minerals in Erie County was able to get DEP approval for converting a played-out conventional gas well into a mineral brine well in 2007. Read more here.

He asked-- “What could we do to make economically viable an [existing conventional] well that might have originally been drilled as an oil and gas well or was originally drilled that way. But simply by virtue of the passage of time and the change in the in-ground status, it now yields more brine [contaminated] water than oil and gas.

“Which is essentially what happened with Seneca Minerals back at the time when they made their application to take their original wells and have them become mineral [brine] wells.”

Stewart noted there is “significant demand” for using brine [contaminated water] from conventional oil and gas on roads by townships [for dust suppression and deicing], adding “the townships are paying an extraordinary dollar amount” [for other things].

DEP questioned whether there would be enough demand for disposing of contaminated water from “thousands” of producing conventional oil and gas wells “converted” to conventional mineral brine wells.

[Note: “Demand” is the wrong word. Conventional oil and gas well owners actively marketed their contaminated water to townships and others for free or essentially free because they avoided the cost of having to send it to an injection well for disposal or a treatment plant.]

Pelepko responded by saying there is a process now for repermitting a well to change its use or alter a conventional well.

“When we had talked about this prior, it was more in the context of the change of use concept I think is what we had really discussed,” said Pelepki. “And I think the advice we offered is there's ways to re-permit a well, issue a well permit for drilling or alteration.

“So we had mainly relied on that definition of alteration to look at different scenarios where the well's purpose might be changing, provided that application was consistent, the operational system, the definition of alteration we have.

“I don't know that we specifically encountered requests, the likes of which you're describing where the anticipated purpose of the well changes because the geology wasn't what someone thought it might be or something like that.

“That's a scenario that I don't think we've necessarily tackled specifically, but I could get with our permitting folks and see if there's any additional insight that they might have on that scenario,” Pelepko said.

Selling Oil/Gas From ‘Mineral Brine’ Wells

Stewart also asked DEP if there was guidance on using the co-product determination process in the Residual Waste Regulations to approve the sale of any of the oil and natural gas “unintentionally” produced by a conventional oil and gas well converted to a mineral brine well or a new mineral brine well.

[The new BCD Properties permit has a condition declaring any oil and gas produced by the mineral brine well a waste, but there is nothing in the permit prohibiting the use of the co-product determination process.

[The co-product process allows a company to do an analysis of a material that would ordinarily be a waste and compare it to an intentionally produced product-- in this case oil and/or natural gas-- to determine if they have the same characteristics and likelihood of harming the environment.

[If they do, the company can sell that material as a product, which in this case the comparison would be easy because they are the same things. Read more here.]

DEP said the agency’s Waste Management Program is in the process of updating the co-product determination regulations in 25 Pa Code Chapter 287.8 and presented some broad concepts to DEP’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee in March. Read more here.

The changes address ensuring that the “efficacy” of waste for a particular use is consistent and adequately demonstrated.

DEP explained it is likely the regulations will be changed before any sort of guidance document is produced.

[Note: It takes two years or more for DEP to adopt a regulation, so the existing co-product process would be available to conventional oil and gas well owners.]

Stewart said guidance on this point would still be helpful from DEP.

Pelepko concluded his discussion of the mineral brine permit issues by saying--

“I understand there is great interest through our [industry] work group meetings and through other dialogue at these Council meetings and even with your opening remarks about the need for solutions for waste brine [contaminated water].

“So I think the agency appreciates those needs and we continue to view the [industry] work group as a vehicle for that.

“But at the same time, we are also looking at end use applications for brine [contaminated water] specifically in the context of the issues of BCD properties and the longstanding operations of Seneca Minerals [converted gas wells].”

DEP has said in other briefings the contaminated water from mineral brine wells could be used for road dumping, airport runway deicing and to prevent coal piles from freezing.

Click Here to listen to audio of the discussion. [A little scratchy at times.]

Visit DCED’s PA Grade Crude [Oil] Development Advisory Council webpage for more information and available handouts.

Voting members of the Council include members of the industry, two Senate and two House members, two representatives of academia, but no members of the public impacted by the regulations and policies discussed at the meetings.

The public is not included in the workgroup and committee meetings of the Council because they are not considered Council meetings.

Questions about CDAC should be directed to Adam Walters 717-214-6548 or send email to: adwalters@pa.gov.

Resource Links:

-- Briefing: DEP Issues A New Type Of Conventional Oil & Gas Well Permit Allowing Groundwater Contaminated By Oil & Gas Formations To Be Dumped On Roads, Used In Consumer Products Without Restrictions [PaEN]

-- FracTracker Alliance Appeals DEP Conventional Oil & Gas Mineral Brine Well Permit Due To Concerns The Permit Creates A New Loophole For Disposing Of Contaminated Groundwater Without Testing Or Restrictions On Its Use [PaEN]

-- The Conversation: Pennsylvania Roads Are Being Coated In Radioactive Oil & Gas Wastewater - New DEP Well Permit Allows Uncontrolled Use [PaEN]

Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Snapshot:

-- Middle Susquehanna RiverKeeper: DEP Considering ‘Alternative Enforcement Measures’ To Assure Cleanup Of Eureka Resources Oil & Gas Wastewater Treatment Plants In Lycoming, Bradford Counties [PaEN]

-- DEP - Day 62: Contaminated Water Releases, Polluted Soil At Multiple Locations At Equitrans Water SVC [EQT] Richter Shale Gas Water Impoundment; Little Cleanup Happening In Greene County [PaEN]

-- DEP - Day 41: Remediation, Collection Of Contaminated Water Continues At Loan Asset Issuer Shale Gas Water Pipeline Release Site In Washington County [PaEN]

-- DEP: Diversified Production LLC Contaminated Water Pipeline Release Pollutes Farm Field In Indiana County [PaEN]

-- DEP: Routine Inspection Finds ‘Significant’ Release Of Contaminated Water From Conventional Oil & Gas Wells Pollutes Hillside In Warren County [PaEN]