On December 1, Kurt Klapkowski, Acting DEP Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management, said the schedule for considering updates to environmental protection standards for conventional oil and gas drillers will be up to the incoming Shapiro-Davis Administration.

He made the comments to members of DEP’s Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board at a December 1 meeting.

Klapkowski explained that for more than two years, DEP has been in the process of updating conventional oil and gas environmental protection and waste disposal and handling standards, after the last comprehensive update was “abrogated” by the General Assembly in 2016.  Read more here.

The first of two regulatory packages dealing with permitting and environmental protection standards was expected to come before the Environmental Quality Board for action this year, but didn’t.

“The Environmental Protection Standards proposed rulemaking was reviewed by CDAC [Crude (Oil) Development Advisory Council] earlier this year, and they prepared a report to the Environmental Quality Board, so that regulation is in process to move to the Environmental Quality Board,” said Klapkowski. “But I wouldn't expect an Environmental Quality Board meeting probably until March of next year, would be my guess, for the earliest one.”

The second draft of the second package-- dealing primarily with waste disposal, handling and similar  requirements-- also was not completed.

“For the waste management rulemaking, we have not had that formal sort of review by the CDAC to date. We will be discussing this at their meeting on December 15th,” said Klapkowski.  “I'm not sure that formal review will occur at that meeting, but we are going to be putting this back in front of them again.”

The last draft of the waste handling regulation update was posted by DEP in September, 2021.

However, that draft did not address many key issues, like continuing to allow the road dumping of conventional oil and gas wastewater on dirt and gravel roads.

A comprehensive study released by Penn State in May found runoff from spreading conventional oil and gas wastewater on unpaved roads contains concentrations of barium, strontium, lithium, iron, manganese that exceed human-health based criteria and levels of radioactive radium that exceed industrial discharge standards.  Read more here.

In fact, 84 municipalities are designated by DEP as “waste facilities” because of the road dumping of conventional drilling wastewater.  Read more here.

Unconventional shale gas operators are already banned from dumping their wastewater on roads.

It also did not address the issue of conventional oil and gas operators creating thousands of dumpsites across the state through practices allowing on-site disposal of drill cuttings and drilling wastewater.  Read more here.

In addition, conventional oil and gas operators only pay $46,100 of the $10,600,000 it costs to regulate the industry.  Read more here.

“The other piece of it has to do with the area of review requirements. and one of the things that we've done with the area of review requirements that I think will be very instructive for folks who see this rulemaking or have seen it in the past is that we did take a hard look at the sections that had to deal with area of review in the unconventional regulations and maybe some flaws in some of how they were drafted and how they were structured,” explained Klapkowski.

“So for the conventional waste management regulations, again, this one is sort of second in line for us behind the environmental protection standards regulations. So I would say that the timeline's a little longer on that one,” said Klapkowski.

Follow-Up At Dec. 15 Meeting

Klapkowski said there will also be more discussion of the update to the conventional oil and gas regulations at the December 15 meeting of DCED’s Crude [Oil] Development Advisory Council.

Conventional Compliance Report

On July 30, Gov. Wolf directed the Department of Environmental Protection to conduct an evaluation of how it regulates conventional oil and gas wells to prevent new abandoned wells, tighten review of permit transfers, review compliance with environmental safeguards and make recommendations for changes and actions, including criminal sanctions. Read more here.

The evaluation was outlined by Gov. Wolf in a formal statement published in the July 30 PA Bulletin and came in the wake of the Governor allowing House Bill 2644 to become law without his signature.  Read more here.

As of December 1, that report has not been released.

Related Articles This Week:

-- AG Shapiro: Coterra Energy, Formerly Cabot Oil & Gas, Pleads No Contest To 15 Criminal Charges Related To Polluting Water Supplies In Dimock, Susquehanna County  [PaEN]

-- DEP Has Ordered A ‘Top To Bottom Review’ Of How It Regulates Underground Natural Gas Storage Areas As A Result Of The Equitrans Gas Leak In Cambria County In Nov.  [PaEN]

-- DEP Preparing To Plug The Next 198 Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Wells With Federal Funding  [PaEN]

-- EQB Overwhelmingly Approves Emergency Regulation Setting VOC/Methane Limits For Conventional Oil & Gas Facilities; Republicans Vote Against  [PaEN]

-- Dramatic Video From Carnegie Mellon’s Project Breathe Shows Shell Ethane Plant In Beaver County Flaring Natural Gas Due To Malfunction  [PaEN]

-- Natural Resources Defense Council Blog: Rising Cost Of Pennsylvania’s Petrochemical Industry Subsidies - By Mark Szybist

DEP Public Notice Dashboards:

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Nov. 26 To Dec. 2  [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment  [PaEN]

-- DEP Posted 80 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In Dec. 3 PA Bulletin  [PaEN]

[Posted: December 1, 2022]

12/5/2022