Updated revisions to Pennsylvania's Chapter 78, which regulates oil and natural gas unconventional and conventional wells, were released during August by Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Quigley and Deputy Secretary Scott Perry.
The DEP plans to bring these rules before oil and gas advisory boards and the Environmental Quality Board before Dec. 31. The state Independent Regulatory Review Commission was scheduled to receive the final draft by March 2016. Final rules were to be published by the second quarter of 2016.
The draft final, which is 291 pages, comes after a process that began in 2011. Earlier versions were submitted to multiple reviews by the DEP's advisory groups and several public-comment periods. DEP held 12 public hearings across the state, Quigley said.
The latest version excluded noise regulations on well sites. State law requires the DEP to regulate public nuisances, but Perry said public comments indicated that noise regulation "at this point in time was premature."
DEP decided instead to publish a nonbinding guidance document on best practices to reduce noise.
The agency also contemplated how best to handle provisions centralized storage tanks for wastewater.
The latest amendments retained changes to improve water resource protection, add public resources considerations, protect public health and safety, address property owners' concerns, and enhance transparency and improve data management as outlined in a previous proposal (UOGR, March-April 2015, p. 13).
Under the proposed rules:
• If drillers contaminate a water supply, they must restore it to its conditions before drilling or to standards that meet Pennsylvania's Safe Drinking Water Act, whichever is better. In earlier versions, drillers only had to restore water to conditions that existed before drilling.
• Companies must close existing storage pits where they store production fluid waste within a specified time period of the final regulations or obtain a permit through DEP's waste division.
• Brines, drill cuttings, drilling muds, oils, stimulation, well-treatment fluids flowback, and other fluids are to be kept in tanks and other approved storage structures. DEP planned to maintain a list of approved modular above-ground storage structures on its web site.
• If a well is within 100 ft of a water body or wetland designated by the state as high quality or exceptional value, the company must demonstrate how operations will protect the water or wetland.
Schools and playgrounds were added to a public resources list in the 200-ft radius the DEP must consider when issuing a well permit. A well can be drilled within 200 ft of a school or playground after DEP authorization. Drilling operations cannot impede use of public resources: schools, playground, state lands, historic sites, scenic rivers, or landmarks.
