PennFuture's work

PennFuture is working to make sure Marcellus drilling is done right.
We want to make sure the economic benefits that Pennsylvania has the potential to realize won't be overshadowed by destruction of our natural resources.

Aerial photo of a natural gas horizontal well pad site in Washington County, taken in March of 2009; courtesy of PennFuture members.
Marcellus Shale drilling pad, Washington County, March 2009 
We are focusing
on several issues:

  1. Ensuring that the Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Oil and Gas Management is adequately staffed to oversee gas drilling activity in Pennsylvania.
    The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is charged with enforcing the Oil and Gas Act of 1984, which sets forth the rules and limitations for drilling in Pennsylvania, and administering the regulations promulgated under that Act as well as the other laws that protect Pennsylvania's natural resources. However, as of January 2009, there were only fifteen oil and gas inspectors on the Department's staff to oversee drilling and production operations occurring at the over-60,000 wells operating in the Commonwealth. Clearly, more regulatory oversight is required.

    PennFuture supports efforts to increase permitting fees and impose a impact fee on gas (as every other petroleum-producing state has done) to pay for the additional inspectors that will need to be hired to provide that oversight.
     
  2. Ensuring that the millions of gallons of contaminated water that are produced by hydrofracturing operations are treated at facilities designed to meet NPDES requirements.
    Publicly-owned treatment works are generally not capable of treating the briny water produced by gas wells. New treatment facilities must be constructed to prevent the contaminants in brine from being discharged into the waters of the Commonwealth. Preferably, on-site treatment methods will be encouraged to reduce truck traffic and air pollution (and the threat of spills) in rural areas. All facilities that treat brine (also called "produced water" or "flowback") should be subject to more stringent discharge limits for the water quality parameters that are most affected by brine from drilling operations, including chlorides, sulfates, and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). 
     
  3. Prohibiting drilling operations that threaten to harm Exceptional Value or High Quality streams. 
     
  4. Ensuring that groundwater resources are protected when underground injection is used to dispose of contaminated water from drilling operations.Photo of a stream flowing through a treed landscape.
     
  5. Ensuring that water withdrawals used to perform drilling operations do not adversely impact existing stream uses.
     
     
  6. Increasing the existing bonding requirements for oil and gas wells to ensure that the taxpayers are not left holding the bill for cleaning up environmental damages that may be caused by drilling activities.
    The bonding requirements imposed by the Oil and Gas Act have not changed since 1984 and are simply not sufficient to cover the cost of plugging abandoned and illegally operated wells today and in the future. 
     
  7. Ensuring that the cumulative impacts of drilling operations are considered during the permitting process.
    DEP's permitting rules do not require it to consider the cumulative impacts that many wells may have when drilled in a particular locality or watershed. PennFuture is working to change this omission. 
     
  8. Making information regarding the amount and chemical characteristics of brine publicly available.
    Pennsylvania lags behind other gas-producing states in the amount and nature of information regarding well production that it makes publicly available. The information is kept confidential from the public for five years, but is available to the DEP for enforcement purposes. This information should be made publicly accessible via the Internet as it is in other major gas-producing states. 
     
  9. Putting a freeze on drilling on state parks and forests.
    Already one-third of state forest lands, 700,000 acres, have been made available for drilling, with almost 106,000 acres opened for Marcellus drilling in just the past 16 months. We need a freeze on new gas leases in state parks and forests to prevent them from being used as a cash cow to close budget gaps. 
     
  10. And, last but not least ...
    The proceeds from any impact fee imposed on gas production should be invested in projects that will improve and protect Pennsylvania's natural resources, preferably, the Environmental Stewardship Fund.