EPA critical of Pa. gas well air pollution rules

EPA critical of Pa. gas well air pollution rules

PITTSBURGH

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is criticizing Pennsylvania’s interim rules on air pollution from Marcellus gas wells, saying the regulations apparently would allow for more pollution than federal guidelines do.

The federal agency offers guidance on how to identify a single, major source of pollution, which could include several wells depending on their location to each other. Each major pollution site would then be subject to tighter air pollution controls.

But the EPA says the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection isn’t using federal guidelines to determine how close the sites need to be to be considered an aggregated, or single major, source of pollution, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (http://bit.ly/rCyqa2) reported Tuesday.

The EPA contends the state decision to treat natural gas wells and development sites more than one-quarter mile apart as separate sites will allow for more air pollution, the newspaper reported.