Top stories: New drilling regulations
Dead vegetation around a conventional well site in Warren County indicates a possible brine spill. Conventional drillers successfully argued they should be exempted from new state regulations for oil and gas this year. (Courtesy Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection)
Nearly a decade has passed since Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale natural gas boom took off, but the state just finalized new regulations for drillers this fall.
The process of creating the rules led to a bitter fight between environmentalists, the industry, and state regulators, and it’s not over yet.
Half of the new rules were tossed out back in June, amid pushback from the Republican-led legislature. They were the ones dealing with the conventional industry, which drills shallower wells.
Environmental groups were upset that Governor Tom Wolf’s administration agreed to the deal.
Kurt Klapkowski, with DEP’s oil and gas program says the intense political battle is unlike anything he’s seen in more than 20 years at the department.
“It’s just the reality we operate in. We tried to be analytical. We tried to professional,” he says. “We tried to divorce ourselves from those political processes as much as possible.”
The rules for Marcellus Shale drillers took effect in October and create tougher standards for waste management and replacing damaged water supplies.
The state Department of Environmental Protection wanted more oversight of well permit applications near public resources, such as parks.
That’s become sticking point for the industry. David Spigelmyer, is president of the trade group, the Marcellus Shale Coalition which has filed a lawsuit over the new rules, known as Chapter 78a.
“There are aspects of Chapter 78a that are onerous, costly, and they provide little environmental benefit from our perspective,” says Spigelmyer.
A state judge recently sided with the industry, and has put a temporarily hold on some of the new rules.
The department is now trying re-booting the regulations for the conventional industry. It’s a process that will likely take another two years.
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