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Natural gas drillers should help pay to monitor water
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share thisWater pollution continues to be the chief environmental issue arising from development of the Marcellus Shale gas formation. Vast amounts of water are withdrawn mostly from public waterways, infused with chemicals, injected into the ground at high pressure and, ultimately, discharged back into the environment.
The state Department of Environmental Resources has beefed up its inspection capability, despite recent budget cutbacks. Yet the record so far is that problems are discovered and investigated well after the fact.
Much of the gas field lies within the sprawling Susquehanna River watershed, which covers the Southern Tier of New York and the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania.
In order to help ensure environmental compliance by drillers and to ensure water quality, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission has proposed a low-cost system to monitor water quality in real time.
The commission wants to set up 30 automatic monitoring stations along tributaries of the Susquehanna, close to where drilling is most active. Powered by solar panels, the units could be placed in remote locations. They continuously would relay data about the streams to the commission.
Sites would be monitored before the units are placed to establish data baselines, which then could be compared with data from the continuous monitoring to determine significant changes as they occur. Data would include stream depth, water temperature, turbidity, acidity, dissolved oxygen and electrical conductivity. In the event off significant changes, the commission would alert DEP and investigate to find a source.
Such a system would cost about $1 million. The commission has begun to seek funds from the appropriate governments and non-governmental organizations interested in water quality.
In order to facilitate such a system, the DEP should add a surcharge to permit fees for exploration and drilling.
Given governmental budget constraints and the vast scope of the gas field and the watershed, lawmakers, regulators and state and local governments should embrace the low-cost, high-tech commission proposal.
3 posted comments
Our governor did not eliminate the gas tax. There never was a gas tax. And if the bill was passed to enact a gas tax, most of the money would have ended up being spent on the general budget, not to see that the environment was properly protected from the gas well drilling activity.Why go after just the oil/gas industry. Not too long ago it was pointed out how two of the biggest Susquehanna River polluters are already based right here in Bradford County. Why does D.E.P allow this to continue?
First, there is no longer a Department of Environmental Resources and hasn't been since about 1995. The department is now called Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, as mentioned further down in the article.Second, the reason for the lag in response to these releases and the start of the associated cleanups is the lag in reporting by our "guests" the natural gas drilling industry. When there is a release at these sites, the general response is: to deny that it happened until someone decides it is too large to hide, to cover it up and hope an inspector doesn't see it, report it to DEP WELL AFTER THE FACT and downplay the severity, admit fault and claim ignorance to the regulations (we're new here!), and a myriad of other diversion techniques. The basis of the problem remains to be a lack of inspectors to be able to physically inspect these sites any more than once a month, at best. There are literally hundreds of well pads to inspect and only a few inspectors in some of the regional offices. Once the gas site inspectors identify a release, the Environmental Cleanup Program takes over to oversee the cleanup of ANOTHER environmental mess created by industry. This is an impossible nut to crack. Moreover, the industry is operating virtually untaxed and able to strong-arm politicians and legislators into writing laws to protect their business interests, while throwing long-term environmental repercussions to the wayside... The study that the governor cited, as his motivating factor on voting against the Gas Severence Tax, was funded by the industry and those who would gain financially. Putting a monitoring system on the river is a band-aid on a bullet hole. This will only be an indicator of pollution and violations of the Clean Streams Act, after the fact. By the time contamination reaches the river it will be pervasive in the release area, while the groundwater and solis will most likely be contaminated on a large scale. We are on our own now people, the governor has made this very clear by eliminating the gas tax and cutting the DEP budget by %30 and over 100 additional layoffs. Don't be fooled by slick talk, smiles, and meager donations and gifts from the industry "talking heads". Anyone can show up for a five minute photo opportunity and shake hands, politicians do it ALL THE TIME. This seems to be the only thing they do for the people of this state. We need to clean the attic...and the basement...and the whole damn house! Be vigilant, but not vigilantes...