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Groups Urge DRBC Don’t Drill The Delaware, Industry Says Rules Exceed Legal Authority
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Groups representing residents of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware gathered to deliver more than 35,000 public comments to the Delaware River Basin Commission, urging them not to move ahead with gas drilling in the River Basin until such drilling is proven safe. The groups expressed strong concern that DRBC proposed rules without first conducting a cumulative impact study.
At the same time, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a group representing businesses involved in Marcellus Shale development said while they support the state mission of DRBC to ensure proper environmental controls on drilling, "we believe (the rules) exceed DRBC's legal authority and duplicate member state jurisdiction and existing DRBC programs in several critical respects."
Environmental Groups
The groups delivered more than 35,000 public comments from four states, including from public health professionals and academics, in advance of the April 15th deadline, breaking the record for the most number of comments ever delivered to DRBC, and demonstrating extreme public concern over gas drilling’s impacts on the Delaware River and its surrounding watershed.
More than 15 million people rely on water from the Delaware River for drinking and other everyday uses.
“It’s clear today, with more than 35,000 comments submitted, that the public is demanding protection to their health, environment and drinking water from dangerous gas drilling that’s been proposed near the Delaware River,” said Erika Staaf of PennEnvironment. “Considering the gas industry’s track record of pollution in Pennsylvania, the DRBC should heed the cries of these residents and extend the moratorium on gas drilling that has so far protected the Delaware and its inhabitants from this hazardous practice.”
“Never before have so many stood up to demand action by the Delaware River Basin Commission," said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper. “This unprecedented and overwhelming demand for protection from the DRBC demonstrates just what a major threat gas drilling is to our region and should put the Governors on notice that if they don’t ensure the DRBC protects the public, instead of continuing to act as servants for the gas drillers, the public will hold them accountable.”
Since 2004, companies have drilled more than 4,300 hydraulic fracturing wells in Pennsylvania and the state has issued permits for thousands more. New York could also expect hydrofracking to begin soon. Incidents and accidents that damage the environment and put public health at risk have already occurred:
-- In September 2009, Cabot Oil and Gas caused three spills in Dimock Township, Pennsylvania, in less than a week, dumping 8,000 gallons of fracturing fluid components into Stevens Creek and a nearby wetland.
-- A 2010 EOG well blowout in Clearfield County spilled 35,000 gallons of wastewater, some of which reached the Little Laurel Run, a stream that feeds the Susquehanna River.
-- The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection recorded more than 1,000 violations of regulations intended to protect water quality at gas drilling sites between 2008 and August 2010.
Specifically, the coalition expressed concerns that the rules do not restrict the use of toxic chemicals drillers use while drilling and fracking in the watershed, regulate how to dispose of toxic drilling wastewater, prevent drilling and associated development and waste pits near the river and streams – which could occur as close as 500 feet, and do not stop the forested upper Delaware from becoming a devastated industrial landscape.
“We are urging President Obama, through his representative on the commission, to keep the moratorium on drilling in place in the Delaware River Basin and to call for preserving the Delaware, a national treasure and the source of drinking water for five percent of the country. Fuel production is not 'clean' when it damages our water, air and eco-systems,” said Karina Wilkinson, Regional Organizer for Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy group.
The Delaware River watershed, which extends through New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, supplies drinking water to more than 15 million people – over 5 percent of the U.S. population, – provides recreational opportunities and pumps millions of dollars into the region’s economy each year, and provides habitat for hundreds of critical wildlife species.
Marcellus Industry
“The MSC (Marcellus Shale Coalition) supports DRBC in its stated mission of ensuring that proper environmental controls are provided to safeguard the water resources of the Delaware River Basin, and of establishing a regulatory scheme within the scope of DRBC authority that complements state and federal requirements,” said Kathryn Klaber, president of the MSC. “However, the MSC has significant concern regarding the scope of the draft regulations, which we believe exceed DRBC’s legal authority and duplicate member state jurisdiction and existing DRBC programs in several critical respects.”
Specifically, the MSC’s comments, in part cite the following areas of paramount concern:
-- Requirements for the Siting, Design and Operation of Well Pads: The Draft Regulations contain very detailed and far-reaching land use requirements pertaining to the siting, design, construction and operation of well pads for natural gas activities – representing a significant and unnecessary departure from the agency’s role of managing water resources in the basin. These proposed regulations contain a host of new construction and operational standards that are either not required by or inconsistent with state regulatory requirements.
-- Exceed the Scope of DRBC authority: DRBC’s regulatory authority is derived from, and thus limited by, the Delaware River Basin Compact, which established DRBC in 1961 as a regional agency to manage and control the water resources of the Delaware River Basin. The Compact does not grant DRBC review and approval authority over land use as outlined in the draft regulations.
-- Duplicative of State Requirements: Both New York and Pennsylvania have comprehensive oil and gas regulatory programs. DRBC should defer to the member state programs in all areas where they regulate, and thereby avoid unnecessary, duplicative requirements and administrative costs.
-- Natural Gas Development Plan (NGDP) is Unworkable: A requirement to submit a 5-year NGDP for review and approval, which would compel operators to prepare detailed, forward-looking information about the development of all of their leasehold areas in the Basin, is unworkable and demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the manner in which natural gas development occurs. This level of detail – over the entirety of an operator’s lease holdings to be developed in 5-years – would be impossible to assemble with any meaning or accuracy in advance.
-- Water Related to Natural Gas Development: The Draft Regulations addresses water sources for uses related to natural gas development. Much of this section is unnecessary, since DRBC already has a well-established program for review and approval of water withdrawals. DRBC should utilize its existing program for Project Review under Section 3.8 of the Compact and should not adopt a special water source program for water used in natural gas operations. No other industry is singled out by DRBC with an industry-specific water source regulation.
In addition to submitting formal comments, the MSC, partnering with American Petroleum Institute, requested an independent analysis of the draft regulations by ALL Consulting, a professional consulting firm specializing in water management, planning and energy development.
The complete analysis was submitted to the DRBC for review and consideration. Following are several key findings of the analysis:
-- The consumptive water use requirements for natural gas development at full build-out, as compared to other water uses within the Basin, are relatively minor. The nuclear power industry uses more than 10 times the amount of water that would be used for natural gas development; golf course maintenance uses more than 20 times the amount; and thermoelectric power generation and agriculture use more than 45 times the amount.
-- The land footprint for natural gas development, as compared to other land uses, is relatively minor. -- The footprint for natural gas development would be less than the footprint for golf courses in the Basin and 50 times less than the footprint for homes in the Basin;
-- Absent a variance, the siting restrictions and setbacks contained in the Draft Regulations would preclude natural gas development in more than half of the land area overlying the Marcellus Shale formation in the Basin;
-- Many of the submittals, reporting requirements and notices required by the Draft Regulations are duplicative of host state requirements; and
-- The process of applying for and obtaining approval to develop natural gas wells pursuant to the Draft Regulations is likely to take as long as 24 months.
A complete copy of the MSC comments is available online.
A copy of DRBC's proposed rules is available on the DRBC website.
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4/18/2011 |
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