Natural gas drilling regulations due today
By: AMANDA CREGAN The Intelligencer
The rule book for drilling in the Delaware River watershed will be unveiled by the Delaware River Basin Commission.
TRENTON - Today marks a pivotal moment for gas drilling in this region.
At 9 a.m., the Delaware River Basin Commission unveils its draft regulations for natural gas drilling. The agency oversees water quality and quantity in the Delaware River basin, and oil and gas companies must first gain its approval before drillers begin mining for natural gas in this region.
The draft regulations will be posted on the commission's website, www.state.nj.us/drbc, along with a fact sheet, flow chart and a formal statement from the commissioners.
Though the commissioners crack open the gas drilling rule book today, it is not the final word.
It kicks off a 90-day comment period, which is open to the public to submit their thoughts and suggestions on the new drilling regulations. Comments can be submitted by mail or by following a link on the DRBC's website. The commission will also host three public hearings early next year.
The meetings dates and locations have not been scheduled.
"We think that it is time for democracy to speak. These hearings are democracy in action," said New Jersey Commissioner John Plonski, representing Gov. Chris Christie. "We encourage everyone who has an interest in this to come forward."
Pennsylvania Commissioner Dana Aunkst agreed.
"Pennsylvania believes we've reached a point where we're ready to put (draft regulations) out, and we're ready for public comment," said Aunkst, representing Gov. Ed Rendell.
The DRBC will hear public comment before publishing final gas drilling regulations.
The Delaware River supplies drinking water to 15 million people across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
"It's an incredible resource to the mid-Atlantic region," said Carol Collier, DRBC executive director. "The purpose of the proposed regulations is to protect the resources of the basin during construction and operation of all natural gas drilling in the watershed," she said at Wednesday's DRBC meeting in Trenton. The regulations center around water withdrawal, well pads, drilling activities and wastewater disposal, she told a crowd of nearly 200 attendees Wednesday.
Though there are a number of facilities that draw water from the Delaware River each day, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, "may have substantial impacts due to their high, intermittent, daily rate," said Collier, of the concern about water withdrawal in the drilling process. It's estimated that each gas well site requires 3 million to 9 million gallons of water. When the drilling regulations are finally approved, there could be as many as 10,000 gas wells along the Delaware River watershed, commission attorneys have said.
The DRBC will be looking to carefully map out a healthy concentration of well pad sites, said Collier.
"The whole idea is to identify foreseeable natural gas development in a geographical area," she said. "The idea is to minimize impact to water resources."
As part of that, gas drillers would not be allowed to drill in flood hazard areas, steep slopes or critical, federally protected wildlife habitats.
There will be required setbacks, and the groundwater within the gas well site will be tested before and after drilling for any signs of contamination from the chemicals used during the fracking process.
All wastewater must be transported to authorized treatment facilities, she noted. "We all know that wastewater produced at these sites contain salts and other chemicals that present its own challenges."
The DRBC will also require financial assurance from drilling companies that would provide for any potential pollution cleanup or site abandonment.
For companies and stake holding homeowners who are anxious to begin drilling for natural gas across the region, the draft regulations are long overdue. The commission had originally announced that they would be unveiled last summer.
For environmentalists and gas drilling opponents, like Tracy Carluccio, of the DelawareRiverkeeper Network, the rules came too soon. "It's a terrible mistake on the part of the DRBC," she said Wednesday. Carluccio and fellow environmentalists want the agency to conduct a cumulative impact study of gas drilling's potential effect on the watershed before drilling gets under way.
Funding for that study is expected to be included in next year's federal budget.
"We need the data so the rules that are crafted can truly protect the river and the watershed and prevent pollution and avoid degradation," she said.
And within DRBC's own board, not everyone agrees that the commission should make way for natural gas drilling.
New York Commissioner Mark Klotz, representing Gov. David Paterson, spoke out against the draft regulations, citing the need for a cumulative impact study.
When DRBC approves its final regulations, gas drilling will not be welcome in New York until the state does its own study and publishes its own drilling rules, according to a letter from Paterson to the DRBC board.
TRENTON - Today marks a pivotal moment for gas drilling in this region.
At 9 a.m., the Delaware River Basin Commission unveils its draft regulations for natural gas drilling. The agency oversees water quality and quantity in the Delaware River basin, and oil and gas companies must first gain its approval before drillers begin mining for natural gas in this region.
The draft regulations will be posted on the commission's website, www.state.nj.us/drbc, along with a fact sheet, flow chart and a formal statement from the commissioners.
Though the commissioners crack open the gas drilling rule book today, it is not the final word.
It kicks off a 90-day comment period, which is open to the public to submit their thoughts and suggestions on the new drilling regulations. Comments can be submitted by mail or by following a link on the DRBC's website. The commission will also host three public hearings early next year.
The meetings dates and locations have not been scheduled.
"We think that it is time for democracy to speak. These hearings are democracy in action," said New Jersey Commissioner John Plonski, representing Gov. Chris Christie. "We encourage everyone who has an interest in this to come forward."
Pennsylvania Commissioner Dana Aunkst agreed.
"Pennsylvania believes we've reached a point where we're ready to put (draft regulations) out, and we're ready for public comment," said Aunkst, representing Gov. Ed Rendell.
The DRBC will hear public comment before publishing final gas drilling regulations.
The Delaware River supplies drinking water to 15 million people across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
"It's an incredible resource to the mid-Atlantic region," said Carol Collier, DRBC executive director. "The purpose of the proposed regulations is to protect the resources of the basin during construction and operation of all natural gas drilling in the watershed," she said at Wednesday's DRBC meeting in Trenton. The regulations center around water withdrawal, well pads, drilling activities and wastewater disposal, she told a crowd of nearly 200 attendees Wednesday.
Though there are a number of facilities that draw water from the Delaware River each day, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, "may have substantial impacts due to their high, intermittent, daily rate," said Collier, of the concern about water withdrawal in the drilling process. It's estimated that each gas well site requires 3 million to 9 million gallons of water. When the drilling regulations are finally approved, there could be as many as 10,000 gas wells along the Delaware River watershed, commission attorneys have said.
The DRBC will be looking to carefully map out a healthy concentration of well pad sites, said Collier.
"The whole idea is to identify foreseeable natural gas development in a geographical area," she said. "The idea is to minimize impact to water resources."
As part of that, gas drillers would not be allowed to drill in flood hazard areas, steep slopes or critical, federally protected wildlife habitats.
There will be required setbacks, and the groundwater within the gas well site will be tested before and after drilling for any signs of contamination from the chemicals used during the fracking process.
All wastewater must be transported to authorized treatment facilities, she noted. "We all know that wastewater produced at these sites contain salts and other chemicals that present its own challenges."
The DRBC will also require financial assurance from drilling companies that would provide for any potential pollution cleanup or site abandonment.
For companies and stake holding homeowners who are anxious to begin drilling for natural gas across the region, the draft regulations are long overdue. The commission had originally announced that they would be unveiled last summer.
For environmentalists and gas drilling opponents, like Tracy Carluccio, of the DelawareRiverkeeper Network, the rules came too soon. "It's a terrible mistake on the part of the DRBC," she said Wednesday. Carluccio and fellow environmentalists want the agency to conduct a cumulative impact study of gas drilling's potential effect on the watershed before drilling gets under way.
Funding for that study is expected to be included in next year's federal budget.
"We need the data so the rules that are crafted can truly protect the river and the watershed and prevent pollution and avoid degradation," she said.
And within DRBC's own board, not everyone agrees that the commission should make way for natural gas drilling.
New York Commissioner Mark Klotz, representing Gov. David Paterson, spoke out against the draft regulations, citing the need for a cumulative impact study.
When DRBC approves its final regulations, gas drilling will not be welcome in New York until the state does its own study and publishes its own drilling rules, according to a letter from Paterson to the DRBC board.
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