The Department of Environmental Protection published a notice in the September 14 PA Bulletin canceling the September 18-19 subcommittee meetings of the Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board due to be held in Harrisburg.

Subcommittees of the Board, including some outside stakeholders, had met twice to consider issues related to the recently proposed Chapter 78 oil and gas regulation changes mandated by the Act 13 Marcellus drilling law.

A controversy developed in July when members of the Board wrote to DEP and members of the Environmental Quality Board saying the proposed Chapter 78 regulations had major flaws and were not ready for public review.  The Advisory Board members had voted in April to allow the regulations to move ahead for public comment.

DEP decided to go ahead with the regulations, over the objections of the industry-dominated Advisory Board, and they were formally approved for public comment by the Environmental Quality Board at its August 27 meeting.

The subcommittees and stakeholders had been considering several key issues on which consensus was not yet reached, including: public resource protection, pre-hydraulic fracturing assessment, waste management at well sites, and water supply restoration standards.

9/16/2013