PA Marcellus News Digest 5/25/12

HAVE A GREAT MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!

PA Marcellus News Digest
May 25, 2012

Release

PUC Issues Agenda for Forum Examining Increased Use Electric, Natural Gas Vehicles

Wallaby
May 25
HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) today issued the agenda for its Forum to examine the increased use of alternative fuel vehicles, specifically electric and natural gas.
“We are pleased to have so many senior representatives from companies that are actively involved in alternative fuel vehicle projects joining us for this discussion,” said PUC Chairman Robert F. Powelson. “Our goal is to engage in a conversation on how the PUC and the Commonwealth as a whole can foster policies and regulatory frameworks that support investments in natural gas and electric vehicles and their required infrastructure.”
Link: http://wallaby.telicon.com/PA/library/2012/2012052591.HTM

Articles

Frack-Friendly New Report Debunked
Mother Jones
Kate Sheppard
May 25
Earlier this month, the State University of New York at Buffalo released a report concluding that fracking is getting safer, as both industry and regulators are doing a better job. The study got plenty of coverage—the Associated Press, Forbes, WGRZ, Buffalo News—but in the week since it was released, it's been attacked for a number of flaws.
Link: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/05/frack-friendly-new-report-debunked

Allegheny County approves air permit for Marcellus shale compressor station
Pitt Trib
Brian Bowling
May 25
The Allegheny County Health Department has approved an air permit for Superior Appalachian Pipeline to build a Marcellus shale compressor station in Frazer.
This is the first such permit approved in the county, said health department Director Dr. Bruce Dixon.
Link: http://triblive.com/news/1861954-74/permit-county-allegheny-approved-changes-compressor-department-dixon-facility-gas

Regulations for gas drilling in state to be topic of seminar
Reading Eagle
May 25
Berks Gas Truth is holding a seminar Wednesday at 7 p.m. on the state gas-well regulations enacted under Act 13.
The two-hour forum will be held at Easy Does It Inc., 1300 Hilltop Road, Bern Township.
Act 13 establishes impact fees for natural-gas drilling, but one of the more controversial sections of the law considers drilling operations as permitted uses in any zoning district, pre-empting local zoning of gas drilling operations, including those related to the pipelines and compressor stations.
Link: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=388955

Senate panel OKs bill aimed at sparing fresh water sources in gas drilling
Herald Standard
May 25
HARRISBURG — A state Senate committee on Wednesday unanimously approved Sen. Richard A. Kasunic’s legislation that would encourage the use of mine water for Marcellus shale well development.
“This measure is aimed at encouraging the use of mine water in drilling rather than the continued heavy use of municipal and fresh water sources,” said Kasunic, D-Dunbar.
Link: http://www.heraldstandard.com/gcm/news/local_news/senate-panel-oks-bill-aimed-at-sparing-fresh-water-sources/article_09f63f7a-5058-5751-ad97-bc2d4a77d39c.html

Deep Injection Well Construction Booms Despite Push to Recycle
State Impact
Susan Phillips
May 24
Link: http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/05/24/drilling-waste-disposal-well-construction-booms-despite-push-to-recycle/

Methane gas found in three wells, two streams
Post-Gazette
Don Hopey
May 24
Methane gas has bubbled to the surface in three residential water wells and two streams in Bradford County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, near a Chesapeake Energy Marcellus Shale gas drilling operation.
Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/breaking/methane-gas-found-in-three-wells-two-streams-637440/

Journalists Roundtable, focusing specifically on Marcellus Shale
Guests are:
Scott Detrow, StateImpact PA
Donald Gilliland, The Patriot-News, Harrisburg
Laura Olson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
video: http://streaming.pcntv.com:554/jrt/jrt052412.mov

Is Pittsburgh’s Fracking Ban Hurting Business?
State Impact
Scott Detrow
May 25
Link: http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/05/25/is-pittsburghs-drilling-ban-hurting-business/

Don’t Hold Your Breath On Act 13 Changes
State Impact
Scott Detrow
May 25
Link: http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/05/25/dont-hold-your-breath-on-act-13-changes/

DEP Issues Statement On Bradford County Methane Migration Investigation

State Impact
Scott Detrow
May 24
Link: http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/05/24/dep-issues-statement-on-bradford-county-methane-migration-investigation/

Report Reveals Few Penalties for Violating Gas Drilling Rules in PA
Damascus Citizens for Sustainability
Clean Water Action
May 23
(Harrisburg) – Clean Water Action released a report today examining the enforcement actions taken in 2011 by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) against Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling companies whose operations violated the law.
Link: http://www.damascuscitizensforsustainability.org/2012/05/report-reveals-few-penalties-for-violating-gas-drilling-rules-in-pa/

Energy Corp. of America raises $150 million for wells
Post-Gazette
Erich Schwartzel
May 25
A major gas driller in the Marcellus Shale region has raised $150 million that it plans to spend developing wells throughout the Appalachian formation.
Energy Corp. of America raised the money by selling secured notes to CPPIB Credit Investments Inc., a subsidiary of a Canadian-based pension plan with a $4.6 billion portfolio.
Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/marcellusshale/energy-corp-of-america-raises-150m-for-wells-637472/

State fines of gas drilling firms plunge, revised data show
Pitt Trib
Timothy Puko
May 24
State officials on Thursday corrected data they provide about gas drilling fines, saying fines dropped by $300,000 from 2010 to 2011, a fraction of the difference reflected on a state website that was the basis for reports a day earlier.
Link: http://triblive.com/news/1858429-74/fines-state-officials-sunday-2010-data-database-department-drilling-gas

Powdermill compiles list of Pa. shale wells
Post-Gazette
Sean D. Hamill
May 25
The project started with what seemed to be a simple question from a summer intern: How many Marcellus Shale wells does the state have?
Thanks to a plethora of errors in the state data for Marcellus Shale, it's taken staffers at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Powdermill Nature Reserve 10 months of on-and-off work to answer that question.
Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/marcellusshale/powdermill-compiles-list-of-pa-shale-wells-637445/

Resident allowed to appeal DEP ruling on well water
Post-Gazette
May 25
Pennsylvania's environmental court has ruled that a Washington County resident may appeal a state Department of Environmental Protection determination that his private water well was not contaminated by nearby Marcellus Shale gas drilling operations.
Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/washington/resident-allowed-to-appeal-dep-ruling-on-well-water-637501/

PJM Power Pool Says It Is Handling "Massive" Shift From Coal To Gas
John Hanger's Facts of The Day
Blog
May 24
In its press release announcing the outcome of its 2015-16 electricity capacity auction, PJM says: "PJM is effectively, efficiently, and reliably handling a massive shift from coal to gas."  No hyperbole there. Seewww.pjm.com/~/media/about-pjm/mushroom/2012-releases/20120518-pjm-capacity-auction-secures-record-amounts-of-new-generation-demand-response-energy-efficiency.ashx.
Link: http://www.johnhanger.blogspot.com/2012/05/pjm-power-pool-says-it-is-handling.html

PJM Power Pool Doubles Renewable Energy: Green Power Booms In Home of Marcellus Shale Region
John Hanger's Facts of The Day
Blog
May 24
In 2005, the first exploratory Marcellus Shale gas wells were being drilled in Pennsylvania.  At the same time the first Marcellus Shale wells were drilled, renewable energy from all sources--including hydro and biomass--generated about 20 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity within the PJM power pool, the world's largest wholesale electricity market that extends from Illinois to New Jersey.
Link: http://www.johnhanger.blogspot.com/2012/05/pjm-power-pool-doubles-renewable-energy.html

DEP Data Shows Drilling Still Slow
Bradford Era
May 23
Drilling in the region is continuing to slow, with both permits and the number of wells drilled lower now than at the beginning of the year.
Link: http://www.bradfordera.com/news/local/article_1e54eaf2-a545-11e1-b78e-001a4bcf887a.html

Shale Gas Innovation Contest Identifies 12 New Technologies
Wallaby
Business Wire
May 24
STATE COLLEGE, Pa.--The Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center (www.sgicc.org) is pleased to announce the winners of its Shale Gas Innovation Competition. The contest, which was announced in October 2011, offered a total of $50,000 in cash prizes for the two best shale gas-oriented innovations in two categories - new products/services and new technologies. Each winner was awarded $25,000 by C. Alan Walker, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED) at an event held in Harrisburg, PA, on May 22, 2012.
Link: http://wallaby.telicon.com/PA/library/2012/2012052498.HTM

PFBC defends gas drilling lease at Rose Valley Lake
Express
Savannah Barr
May 24
(EDITOR'S NOTE: See Friday's paper for more news from this conservation forum.)
The state Fish and Boat Commission's decision to enter into a non-developmental gas lease with Big Star Energy that allows the company to drill under Rose Valley Lake to reach natural gas deposits was a hot topic during a forum held at Lycoming College on Wednesday evening.
Link: http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/578680/PFBC-defends-gas-drilling-lease-at-Rose-Valley-Lake.html?nav=5011

SRBC says new policy will protect water levels
Express
Elizabeth Regan
May 23
WATERVILLE-The Susquehanna River Basin Commission is considering a new policy to protect monthly and seasonal stream flows in the face of gas industry water withdrawals, agency representatives told Pine Creek Preservation Association members this week.
Link: http://www.lockhaven.com/page/content.detail/id/538959/SRBC-says-new-policy-will-protect-water-levels.html?nav=5009

Drilling chemical list would be given doctors
Pitt Trib
AP
May 22
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Doctors given new access to the proprietary chemical recipes that oil and gas drillers use to crack into Ohio shale would be prohibited from sharing the information with the public under an energy proposal moving through the Ohio House.
Link: http://triblive.com/state/marcellusshale/1844918-74/chemical-ohio-information-doctors-medical-bill-drilling-committee-provision-public

Well construction boom comes despite drive for reuse
E&E News
Mike Soraghan
May 24
(full text below)
Marcellus Shale drilling is driving a boom in the construction of wastewater disposal wells in Ohio, despite the oil and gas industry push to reuse the water that flows back up after hydraulic fracturing.

In Ohio, 16 new wells are under construction to take waste "brine" from oil and gas wells. Seven have been granted permits but have not yet been drilled, according to figures provided by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. An additional 20 applications for new brine wells are under review.

Taken together, the wells under construction, permitted and applied for would represent a 25 percent increase over the 172 active wells currently accepting drilling and fracturing waste.

In Pennsylvania, there are only five such wells in operation. But two more permits are under review, according to U.S. EPA officials, one in the west of the state in Venango County and the other more central in Clearfield County.

Two disposal wells permitted near Corry, about 40 miles southwest of Erie, aren't yet receiving waste because their permits were appealed by neighboring landowners.

Waste disposal is the less-well-understood side of oil and gas production, but it was pushed into the spotlight by fears that treatment plants didn't properly treat the radiation-laced brine before releasing it into streams. Then, as Pennsylvania regulators clamped down on allowing treated wastewater into rivers, a New Year's Day earthquake was linked to an injection well just across the state line in Youngstown, Ohio.

The website of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, which represents drillers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and other states, says that "in the Appalachian Basin, flow-back is almost entirely recycled and reused to fracture additional wells."

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer told a congressional committee in December that about 80 percent of the brine from hydraulic fracturing is used on another frack job.

"Recycling rates across the Marcellus continue to tick positively upward as technologies evolve and become more widely available," said Travis Windle, spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition. "These advancements represent a huge environmental success story. And while more and more flowback and produced water is recycled each day, EPA-permitted injection wells play an important role in the broader water management process, especially as it relates to drilling fluids."

Though less than 8 percent of the brine, used fracturing fluid and drilling waste from Pennsylvania Marcellus wells is injected into disposal wells, that's up from a little more than 6 percent in 2010. And state records show that the total amount of waste being sent to injection wells has gone up nearly 500 percent since 2010.

In Pennsylvania, waste injection wells are regulated by EPA, while in Ohio they're regulated by state officials.

Some in industry have said Pennsylvania's geology is unsuitable for underground injection, while state officials have said the best areas of the state for injection are being used for gas storage. But EPA scientists, along with some academics, say Pennsylvania's geology is just as suitable as the rest of Appalachia. There are 30 oil and gas brine wells in the four Ohio counties that border Pennsylvania.

Nationally, EPA records show there are a little more than 150,000 "Class II" injection wells associated with oil and gas. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, about 40,000 of those are disposal wells. The rest are wells where water is used to dislodge oil and gas and "enhance recovery" of the minerals. Underground injection is also used to dispose of radioactive waste, hazardous waste, mining fluids and carbon dioxide.

U.S. Geological Survey officials have pointed to injection as a likely cause of a "remarkable" increase in earthquakes across the middle of the country (EnergyWire, March 29).

Oil and gas producers are exempt from a federal environmental law designed to prevent industrial waste injection wells from triggering earthquakes (EnergyWire, March 22). States can adopt stricter regulations on injection wells, as Ohio is doing for future wells after the Youngstown quake.

The Ohio rules order well operators to submit more comprehensive geological data when requesting a permit to drill and require tracking of wastewater.

Other states have not followed suit, but EPA is drafting suggestions for state regulators to minimize earthquakes caused by waste injection (EnergyWire, March 15).

And a National Academy of Sciences panel is studying how oil and gas production and other types of energy production can lead to man-made earthquakes. NAS officials are hoping to release that report this summer.
###

Riverkeeper urges Pa. to keep air pollutants out of the water
E&E News
Ellen M. Gilmer
May 25
(full text below)
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network is taking aim at emissions from natural gas operations in Pennsylvania, pollutants that can ultimately land in the group's namesake river.

The state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has proposed a permit revision that draws from U.S. EPA's new air toxics standards to curb emissions of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds and sets the first emissions standards for sulfur dioxide and particulate matter. The revision would affect natural gas production and processing facilities in Pennsylvania.

The Riverkeeper group filed comments with the department this week charging that the permit plan doesn't do enough to protect the river as those pollutants sink onto the water or enter it via precipitation. EPA has warned of the effect, known as atmospheric deposition, for years.

"Atmospheric deposition is now recognized in many areas as a significant cause of water quality problems, acidification of streams and lakes, and toxic contamination of fish and the birds and mammals that eat them," states a 2001 EPA handbook for watershed managers.

But the Riverkeeper group says Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's administration has ignored the risk.

"DEP did not look at this issue at all," Deputy Director Tracy Carluccio told EnergyWire. "That pollution not only affects everyone in the airshed, but it also affects millions more people who are downstream in the watershed."

A technical review submitted with the group's comments recommends that DEP spend more time analyzing pollution effects and set stricter limits on emissions, adding that the agency should consider banning gas flaring, an industry process of burning off unwanted gas that can't be economically transported. The report was prepared by Texas environmentalist and clean air specialist Cherelle Blazer.

"This is a huge missing piece of the air pollution puzzle that faces all Pennsylvanians because of the dangerous pollutants the gas industry emits," said Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum in a statement. "The problems must be solved by addressing the whole picture, not just little bits."

According to DEP, 244 individuals and groups submitted comments, including 211 based on a template from the Clean Air Council. The Riverkeeper group remains optimistic that the department will be receptive to the concerns.

"We don't want them to move ahead with a paper tiger," Carluccio said, "a hollow and ineffective general permitting plan."

About 8.5 million people live in the Delaware River watershed, which includes parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and New York. The system provides water to 15 million people, including parts of New York City.