12/02/24 - 90 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/5xpcbut8
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Susquehanna River Basin Makes Changes To Water Plan, Approved Water Withdrawals
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The Susquehanna River Basin Commission this week voted on regulatory, enforcement, policy and administrative matters; approved the annual Water Resources Program and revisions to the Comprehensive Plan; supported additional funding for a national stream gage program; and heard report on current hydrologic conditions across the Susquehanna basin.
SRBC’s voting commissioners and alternates were: Kenneth Lynch, SRBC Chair, Director, Region 7, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation; Kelly Hefner, SRBC Vice-Chair, Deputy Secretary for Water Management, Pa. Department of Environmental Protection; Col. David Anderson, District Engineer, Baltimore District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and Herbert Sachs, Special Projects Coordinator for Office of the Secretary, Md. Department of the Environment.
The commissioners, under the public hearing portion of the meeting: (1) approved 31 water resources projects, including six into-basin diversions (see list of approved projects below); (2) rescinded two previously approved but inactive projects; (3) denied administrative appeal by the Allegheny Defense Project on three previously approved into-basin diversions for natural gas well development; (4) approved revisions to the Regulatory Program Fee Schedule; (5) adopted amendments to the Comprehensive Plan; and (6) accepted a $15,000 settlement from a water bottling company, Nature’s Way Purewater Systems, Inc. (Pittston, Luzerne County, Pa., facility), for using water without prior SRBC approval.
The commissioners also: (1) approved the release and publication of a proposed rulemaking package to revise Project Review regulations (see below for details); (2) approved the Water Resources Program for fiscal years 2012 and 2013; (3) adopted SRBC’s fiscal year 2013 budget; (4) elected commissioner officers for fiscal year 2012 – Pennsylvania will serve as chair and Maryland will serve as vice-chair; and (4) approved a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to appropriate additional funds to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Streamflow Information Program to help continue funding critical stream gages in the Susquehanna basin.
The public comment period for the proposed rulemaking, which will begin immediately when they are posted on SRBC website, will run through August 23. During the public comment period, SRBC will conduct public hearings on August 2, 10:00 a.m., Rachel Carson State Office Building, 400 Market Street, Harrisburg, Pa., and August 4, 7:00 p.m., Holiday Inn Binghamton Downtown, 2-8 Hawley St, Binghamton, N.Y.
Among the key provisions of the proposed rulemaking, the changes would: (1) incorporate commission policy to allow for interbasin diversions of flowback from one drilling pad to another for re-use in hydrofacture operations to be handled under the Approval by Rule (ABR) program; (2)
replace specific shale name references with a generic category of “unconventional natural gas development”; (3) add language to authorize the “renewal” of expiring approvals, including ABRs; (4) expanding the ABR program scope to include any hydrocarbon development projects that meet SRBC standard regulatory thresholds; (5) place into the regulations the current practice of requiring post-hydrofracture reporting; and (6) restructure water source approvals under the ABR program.
A list of water withdrawals approved is available online.
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6/27/2011 |
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