Jonathan Fritz wants fracking ban planning ended

David Hulse
Posted 10/6/17

HARRISBURG, PA —  A resolution introduced by former Wayne County Commissioner, now Rep. Jonathan Fritz (R-Susquehanna/Wayne) urging the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to cease …

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Jonathan Fritz wants fracking ban planning ended

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HARRISBURG, PA —  A resolution introduced by former Wayne County Commissioner, now Rep. Jonathan Fritz (R-Susquehanna/Wayne) urging the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to cease consideration of a ban on natural gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin passed the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee on October 3.

 The Delaware River Basin Commission approved a resolution calling for the preparation of new regulations banning natural gas development using horizontal drilling and fracking within the 13,539 square-mile basin. Fritz claimed this is, “effectively prohibiting drilling in Wayne and Pike counties.”

Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, cast Pennsylvania’s affirmative vote at the commission’s September 13 meeting. The resolution calls on DRBC staff to prepare and publish new regulations by November 30.

“It boils down to fairness,” said Fritz. “With 10,000 natural gas wells elsewhere in the state, it begs the question, how can it be done safely in other basins, but it’s gauged as too risky in the Delaware River Basin? There is a very evident double standard here. Government, without the soundest of justification, should not put permanent bans in place. Doing so can have profound precedential, programmatic and legal consequences.”

 Fritz’s resolution (HR-115) arrived on the floor of the General Assembly on October 3, but has not been brought up for a vote.

A 2015 Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) study report found “no correlation between shale gas development and watershed impairment in the Marcellus region between 2010 and 2013.”

“The SRBC’s large scale watershed analysis differs from the specific instances of water damage the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has linked to oil and gas development,” according to a report featured on the SRBC website by WTIF, Harrisburg’s PBS affiliate.

“Since 2008, the DEP says there have been 258 cases of damage to private water supplies from oil and gas operations in Pennsylvania. Some of those incidents relate to low flow, rather than contamination. The department says they are evenly split between conventional and unconventional (Marcellus Shale) drilling,” WTIF reported.

The 2015 SRBC report also stated that “the basin’s water resources are sufficient in magnitude to accommodate the water demands of the industry concurrently with other water users.”

Analyzing the period between July 2008 and December 2013, the 2015 report found the gas industry consumed 9.76 billion gallons of surface water and purchased another 1.97 billion gallons from public drinking water supplies.

The DRBC’s resolution would ban fracking, but has been widely criticized by environmental groups as it “could allow the storage, treatment, and discharge of frack wastewater and the withdrawal of water from the watershed for fracking elsewhere,” according to the Delaware Riverkeeper Network

The resolution calls for regulatory “provisions for ensuring the safe and protective storage, treatment, disposal and/or discharge of wastewater within the Basin associated with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing for the production of natural gas where permitted” and “regulation of the inter-basin transfer of water and wastewater for purposes ofnatural gas development where permitted.”

None of these uses have been allowed under the existing moratorium.

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