Water is key focus of W.Va. DEP proposed gas law

Associated Press

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.

The Department of Environmental Protection wants natural-gas companies to submit comprehensive water management plans, including lists of chemicals to be used, when applying for future permits to drill horizontal wells in the Marcellus Shale field.

A 100-page draft of proposed legislation provided to The Associated Press late Friday shows the DEP wants companies to identify not only when, where and how much water they withdraw for drilling operations. The department also wants to know what chemicals companies use in hydraulic fracturing, how much wastewater they produce, and when and where they would dispose of the waste.

The Marcellus field is a vast, mile-deep natural-gas reserve underlying most of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and portions of Ohio, Maryland and Virginia. It is believed to hold trillions of cubic feet of gas, but breaking it free from the rock requires horizontal drilling and water-intensive hydraulic fracturing technologies.

The proposed legislation, which DEP Secretary Randy Huffman calls “rough and raw,” also would require companies to replace water they contaminate. Companies would have to provide emergency supplies within 24 hours, a temporary supply within 72 hours and a permanent supply within two years.

Companies would need permission from the secretary and professionally engineered designs before building open pits that hold more than 210,000 gallons of water. Those pits may have to be lined to prevent chemicals from leaching out, and the DEP could revoke or change permits for any pit deemed a public hazard.

Huffman cautioned that the legislation, which contains seven new sections of code, is a working document that will likely change.

“It’s very rare that we release proposed legislation in such a rough and raw format, but we didn’t want there to be an appearance of secrecy or lack of access,” Huffman told the AP, which had requested the documents.

Nor is the legislation all-inclusive, he said. Still to be addressed are issues such as the spacing of wells, noise control, road protection and bonding requirements.

Huffman’s team also must tackle the complex issue of mineral rights and whether holdout property owners can be forced to give them up, or how much to charge for Marcellus permits. The DEP needs more revenue to expand its inspection staff.

New fees for Marcellus drilling permits would be “significantly higher” than the fees for conventional shallow wells, Huffman said, but the amounts will be determined later.

“This is the foundation,” Huffman said. “This is just to get the process started.”

Both DEP staff and a nine-member task force Huffman appointed are now reviewing the legislation. Huffman said the document is mainly the result of public comments and private meetings with stakeholders over the summer.

Industry officials have said they expected the state to modify West Virginia’s drilling laws, and to increase fees to compensate the agency for permitting and monitoring Marcellus operations.

The legislation contains a new section of “environmental protection performance standards,” which would require companies to notify landowners of blasting plans, replant disturbed areas, case and seal wells to prevent groundwater contamination, and protect offsite areas from damage.

Companies would not only have to inform the DEP of their water withdrawal locations but post signs identifying them to the public, along with the operator’s permit and telephone numbers.

Huffman said the DEP wants to ensure Marcellus wells are properly planned to address the large-scale disturbance of earth and problems with slippage and sediment runoff, among other things.