River commissions set drilling standards

Water protection is the goal

By TOM KANE

TRENTON, NJ & HARRISBURG, PA - Both the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) have put drilling companies on notice.

Both water regulatory agencies state categorically that they are not trying to stop gas drilling, but will ensure that no damage will come to the water resources of both river basins.

SRBC notified natural gas operators on August 15 that as of October 15, 2008, any amount of water withdrawn or consumptively used to develop wells in the Marcellus or other shale formations in the Susquehanna watershed will require prior approval from SRBC.

Consumptive use refers to water that is used and then lost in the operation, as in a golf course where the water does not return but seeps into the ground. In the instance of gas drilling, it is stated in the industry that 40 percent of the water used in the well operation is never returned but stays in the ground.

“While this regulatory provision is certainly not new, it is the first time in the commission’s 37-year history we are imposing it on a class of projects,” said SRBC Executive Director Paul Swartz. “I decided that it would be prudent to impose the more stringent provision on the natural gas industry to give us the ability to review and regulate the industry’s individual and cumulative impacts on water resources.”

The factors SRBC considered as required by regulation include: the quantity and rate of water use, the location of water for withdrawals, the potential to alter the characteristics of the basin’s water resources and the potential to affect interstate water quality.

Carol Collier, executive director of the DRBC, has put forward similar regulations to drilling companies in the Delaware River watershed. Collier said that the one company operating in the watershed, Stone Energy, has not yet responded in writing to the regulations on withdrawal.

“We have had conversations with the company’s attorneys and other officials, but have not yet gotten an official reply,” Collier said. The commission is fining the company but Collier would not say by how much.

“There are three parts to this kind of operation,” she said. “First, withdrawal from the basin or buying water from a water authority. Second, how will they use the water at the site; how will they store the water when it is recovered? Third, does the returned water go to a wastewater plant, does it go out of the basin?

“We have stated that we want to look at the whole process and they still have to get a permit from us for their entire operation.” Even if a gas company gets water outside the basin or from a licensed water source, they have to seek the permission of the commission, she said.