Gas well scrutiny by DEP knocked

BY LAURA LEGERE

Times-Shamrock Writer

DIMOCK TWP. - On a gravel drilling site where Cabot Oil and Gas recently completed a natural gas well- one of six currently in development on Ken Ely's 183 acres- the landowner pointed to tears in a plastic waste pit liner, water dripping from a tanker and a coffee cup tossed onto a pool of frozen wastewater.

"Something's wrong that they didn't catch this kind of stuff," he said, referring to a state Department of Environmental Protection inspector who had been on site to look into a different issue days before.

Ely lives in a rustic house on the side of a Susquehanna County mountain, near a pond full of fish and downgrade from the gas development that has changed his fortunes and the landscape. Not long after Cabot began drilling, he made a habit of noticing the equipment, processes and workers involved in extracting gas from the mile-deep Marcellus Shale.

"I realize that on each site there are going to be spills or what they call ‘working hazards,'" he said. "I try to be reasonable, but the things I think they can address, I point out."

Landowners like Ely have become protectors of their properties as companies move in to drill wells into the gas-rich rock formation. They offer amateur oversight at a time when DEP is understaffed and industry groups are lobbying to make it simpler and quicker to get drilling permits.

Acting DEP Secretary John Hanger said the department is "concerned about having the appropriate level of inspection" to make sure gas companies are in compliance with state regulations. The state Environmental Quality Board on Tuesday is slated to approve an increase in Marcellus Shale gas well permit application fees from $100 to an average of $2,600 per well, which will allow the department to allocate more resources to inspections and permits.

In the meantime, Bryan Swistock, a senior water resources associate with Penn State Cooperative Extension has been telling landowners at informational workshops around the state to "do their best to keep an eye on things" at well sites on their properties as long as they do not trespass on active drilling pads.

"It's uncanny how good people are at just using their instincts and just understanding things aren't right," he said. Landowners have sent him photographs of torn or degraded waste pit liners, leaking tanks and other potential problems that should be "immediately" reported to DEP.

On Ely's property, Cabot workers responded to his complaints about the problems on the drilling sites and within two hours closed the seal on the leaking tank- called a "frac tank" by the industry because it holds the water used to hydraulically fracture the Marcellus Shale, a process necessary to release the gas trapped there.

Kenneth Komoroski, a Cabot spokesman, said there should never be torn liners or trash in waste pits, but that Cabot corrects those problems when it finds them. He also said that flowback water- the water that returns from the shale laced with high levels of salt and smaller quantities of chemical additives- is placed directly into transport vehicles and taken to treatment facilities; it would not be stored in frac tanks, which are used to hold fresh water, he said.

"Cabot works hard to respond promptly to any inquiry," he said. "Rather than have such concerns remain, if there's a quick fix and even if not, it's something we want to address."

DEP spokesman Mark Carmon said a department inspector had been on the Ely site to respond to concerns about flaring- a process of burning gas as it vents from a new well- and secondarily heard concerns about leaking tanks, of which the inspector "didn't see any evidence."

"Again, we were up there looking for something else," he said. Two inspectors were scheduled to look at the well sites this week and last week, he said.

Long a stone quarry worker and an outdoorsman, Ely believes there is no reason natural gas development cannot be a positive experience "if DEP does their job and follows up on what Cabot does."

"Because people get lax," he said. "I hate to say it, maybe they need a little more regulation."

Permit process criticized

Currently, natural gas companies operating in the state are pushing for simpler regulations and permits that require them to provide less information to oversight agencies.

In recent weeks, industry representatives have criticized DEP's permitting process, calling it slow, unpredictable and inconsistently interpreted by staff around the state. At a November hearing of the state Senate Republicans' policy committee, gas company representatives testified that they have delayed their Pennsylvania operations or shifted resources to shales in other states because of uncertainty over the permits.

"Unquestionably, it's more challenging than any other state in which Cabot operates," Komoroski said about the permitting process.

Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association president Stephen Rhoads said the causes of the problems are many: DEP has imposed changes to its permit requirements as it incrementally learns more about the demands of the shale exploration. This results in "fits and starts" and "occasionally inconsistency from one region to another," he said.

A permit addendum DEP developed in June to address the water withdrawal and treatment needs specific to Marcellus Shale exploration has had at least four revisions, he said, some of which have added entirely new requirements and others which have incorporated minor changes.

Komoroski said that because Cabot is exploring primarily in Susquehanna County, three agencies- DEP, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission and the county conservation district- have regulatory oversight and different, often changing, permitting demands. Within DEP, authority over gas regulations has been expanded from the traditionally centralized Bureau of Oil and Gas Management in Meadville to other programs, including the Bureau of Watershed Management, and other offices, including Wilkes-Barre and Williamsport, where staffs are less experienced in gas development.

Rhoads said ongoing conversations with the department about the permit changes have been "fruitful" and have revealed DEP's "efforts to improve." But, he added, "We need consistency. We need a stable foundation on which to work. We're not there yet."

Hanger bristled at charges that the permits are not being processed in a timely way. "We are issuing drilling permits within the 45 days required by law," he said and added that on average DEP processes Marcellus Shale permits in 28 days.

"We are not Louisiana, where you can apparently walk into some county courthouse in the morning and walk out with a permit in the afternoon," he said. "And we're never going to be."

Water concerns addressed

The amended version of the Marcellus Shale drilling permit addendum that DEP released in late August was created to address problems caused by drilling operations in western Pennsylvania, where there are no river basin commissions to regulate the rate and location of water withdrawals from rivers. Two streams there were de-watered or drained dry by gas operators who planned to use the water to hydraulically fracture the shale, DEP found. In addition, DEP said the highly salty water gas companies pull back from the fractured shale, and dispose of at wastewater treatment plants, was partially to blame for the unusually high levels of total dissolved solids in the Monongahela River in October.

The high levels led DEP to recommend that customers of 11 public water suppliers that pull drinking water from the river to use bottled water instead.

"The environmental concerns are not exaggerations," Hanger said. "They need to be taken seriously."

State water specialists and environmental groups have praised DEP's water use permit addendum while others have pushed the state to go further with their requirements.

Swistock, of Penn State, said DEP has done a "very nice job" of addressing water use concerns with its permit addendum and has helped ensure "the water removal is going to be safe for other water users and the environment."

A group of environmentalists and sporting associations wrote a letter to Hanger in November asking DEP not to loosen oversight under pressure to speed up Marcellus Shale development.

They cautioned, "If the rush to drill is allowed to go forward without adequate permit conditions and oversight, it could irreparably and unnecessarily harm habitat and water sources, de-watering streams, damaging water and air quality, fragmenting forests and impacting threatened and endangered species in some of the most pristine parts of our state."

Myron Arnowitt, Pennsylvania director of Clean Water Action, a signatory of the letter, said gas industry complaints of being singled out for their water usage are overblown.

"The types of things that are being asked of this industry are being asked of other industries in the state and other industries are able to operate as profitable businesses," he said. "We don't see this as being an unreasonable demand."

As for indications by the industry that they are moving their operations out of the state, Arnowitt said the fact remains that there is a tremendous amount of gas under Pennsylvania.

"The gas isn't going anywhere just because these companies say they are willing to leave," he said.