State Enforcement Blitz Focuses on Trucks Hauling Drilling Waste Water

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

06/23/2010

CONTACT:

Lt. Myra A. Taylor

717-783-5556

250 Vehicles Put Out of Service Due to Violations

HARRISBURG -- The Pennsylvania State Police placed 250 commercial vehicles out of service during a three-day enforcement effort last week that focused on trucks hauling waste water from Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling operations across the state, Commissioner Frank E. Pawlowski announced today.

Pawlowski said state troopers worked in partnership with personnel from the Department of Environmental Protection, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as part of Operation FracNET. In total, 1,137 trucks were inspected from June 14-16.

“Pennsylvania has experienced significant increases in heavy truck traffic in areas where Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling operations are taking place, particularly in Bradford, Clearfield, Susquehanna, Tioga and Washington counties,” Pawlowski said. “The process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, requires significant amounts of water to be delivered to the sites and later trucked away.”

He said the enforcement effort centered on identifying commercial vehicle safety deficiencies that could lead to crashes.

Pawlowski said 131 of the 250 vehicles placed out of service were trucks hauling waste water. He said 669 traffic citations and 818 written warnings were issued as the result of waste water truck inspections. In addition, 23 of the 45 drivers placed out of service during the operation were waste water vehicle operators.

“As activities at natural gas sites continue to increase, it is important that everyone involved, including the waste transportation industry, understands Pennsylvania’s environmental and traffic safety laws and complies with them,” said DEP Secretary John Hanger.

The enforcement effort was conducted in areas covered by Pennsylvania State Police troops B, C, F, P and R.

For more information, visit www.psp.state.pa.us or call 717-783-5556.

Media contact: Lt. Myra A. Taylor, 717-783-5556

Editor’s Note: The following is a breakdown, by state police troop area, of the number of inspections conducted, number of vehicles placed out of service, and number of citations issued during Operation FracNET:

• Troop B (Allegheny, Fayette, Greene and Washington counties), 227 inspections; 57 vehicles placed out of service; 241 citations issued;
• Troop C (Clarion, Clearfield, Forest, Elk, Jefferson and McKean counties), 260 inspections; 29 vehicles placed out of service; 111 citations issued;
• Troop F (Cameron, Clinton, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Union and Tioga counties), 239 vehicles inspected; 33 vehicles placed out of service; 205 citations issued;
• Troop P (Bradford, Sullivan, Wyoming and part of Luzerne counties), 166 inspections; 66 vehicles placed out of service; 358 citations issued;
• Troop R (Lackawanna, Pike, Susquehanna and Wayne counties), 142 inspections; 25 vehicles placed out of service; 141 citations.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Governor Rendell: PA Taking Aggressive Action to Protect Public, Environment as Marcellus Shale Drilling Operations Expands

Directs DEP to Hire 68 Additional Staff to Bolster Inspections, Environmental Compliance New Regulations Planned to Improve Well Safety Standards

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

01/28/2010

CONTACT:

Tom Rathbun, DEP

717-787-1323

HARRISBURG -- In order to protect Pennsylvania’s residents and environment from the impact of increased natural gas exploration across the state, Governor Edward G. Rendell announced today that the commonwealth is strengthening its enforcement capabilities.

At the Governor’s direction, the Department of Environmental Protection will begin hiring 68 new personnel who will make sure that drilling companies obey state laws and act responsibly to protect water supplies. DEP also will strengthen oil and gas regulations to improve well construction standards. These critical upgrades are designed to prevent gas leaks that can pose risks to the public and water quality.

“Interest in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale formation is greater than ever before and as natural gas prices continue to rise, that interest will only increase,” said Governor Rendell. “In fact, the industry has told us that they expect to apply for 5,200 permits to drill in the Marcellus Shale this year -- nearly three times the number of permits we issued in all of 2009. Given these conditions, an extraction tax is gaining widespread support across our state and I will again ask the General Assembly to enact such a levy. It is fair and affordable to drillers. They know it, and so do members of the House of Representatives who voted for it last year.

“The actions I am announcing today, however, are about decisive, progressive protections for the people of Pennsylvania. We were able to hire 37 additional inspectors and permitting staff in 2009, but the industry’s projected growth in 2010 means that we need additional inspectors to ensure oil and gas companies follow environmental laws and regulations. As I’ve said all along, we want to encourage the development of this resource because it’s a tremendous economic opportunity for the state, but we will not allow that to happen at the expense of our environment.”

DEP performed 14,544 drilling site inspections in 2009 and took 678 enforcement actions against drillers for violations.

The 68 additional personnel will be funded entirely from money generated by new, higher permitting fees that were instituted in 2009—the first such increase since 1984. The new fees were put in place with bipartisan support from the General Assembly, industry and environmental organizations.

The Governor noted that given the need for these additional health and safety personnel and the dedicated funding source that is independent of the state’s General Fund, these new hires are exemptions to the general hiring freeze he instituted last year.

DEP’s work to amend Pennsylvania’s oil and gas regulations will strengthen well construction standards and define a drilling company’s responsibility for responding to gas migration issues, such as when gas escapes a well or rock formation and seeps into homes or water wells. Specifically, he said the new regulations will:

• Require the casings of Marcellus Shale and other high-pressure wells to be tested and constructed with specific, oilfield-grade cement;
• Clarify the drilling industry’s responsibility to restore or replace water supplies affected by drilling;
• Establish procedures for operators to identify and correct gas migration problems without waiting for direction from DEP;
• Require drilling operators to notify DEP and local emergency responders immediately of gas migration problems;
• Require well operators to inspect every existing well quarterly to ensure each well is structurally sound, and report the results of those inspections to DEP annually; and
• Require well operators to notify DEP immediately if problems such as over-pressurized wells and defective casings are found during inspections.

“These new draft regulations, which were developed through open meetings with experts in the industry, are designed to give Pennsylvanians peace of mind by bringing our state’s requirements up to par with other major gas producing states or, as in the case of the well casing requirements, to a level that is even more rigorous,” said Governor Rendell.

The new regulations will be offered for public comment on Jan. 29 before going through DEP’s formal rulemaking process.

Interest in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale formation has been increasing. One third of the more than 6,200 oil and natural gas drilling permits DEP issued in 2009 were for drilling in the Marcellus Shale. By comparison, only four of the more than 6,000 permits issued in 2005 were for the Marcellus formation.

For more information, visit www.depweb.state.pa.us.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Pennsylvania regulators to inspect gas wells proactively

Tom Fowler
Houston Chronicle: chron
November 18, 2009

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission says it will start inspecting natural gas drilling sites more aggressively, instead of just responding to incidents:

"Until now our agency has only reacted to those drilling sites where a problem resulted in material entering a waterway or wetlands," said Dr. Douglas Austen, PFBC executive director. "We are now taking a proactive approach to identify possible problems at a drilling site and to work with the company to ensure necessary measures are in place to minimize the possibility of damaging nearby waterways."

The agency will focus on those well sites that are in close proximity to Commonwealth waterways, including wetlands. The inspections will determine if adequate measures are in place at the drilling site and access roads to prevent damage to the nearby aquatic resources. As part of the inspections, PFBC staff will also be obtaining water quality data from several locations in the nearby waterway.

Pennsylvania and New York lawmakers have been increasingly nervous over the growth of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale formations because of concerns over the fluids used in a key drilling method, hydraulic fracturing. Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas created a stir in Pa. recently when it was fined for spilling fracking fluid three times. It has since entered into an agreement with state regulators over ongoing operations.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!