House members say shale legislation needed
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Tom Beauduy, deputy director of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, at a hearing at the Murrysville Community Center on Thursday. He explained to the House Republican Policy Committee all of the tests and checks used to make sure the water supply is safe during Marcellus Shale drilling.
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After hearing from five different viewpoints at a public hearing Thursday about water safety and the Marcellus Shale industry, members of the House Republican Policy Committee said they heard some new details and ideas that may spur proposed legislation.
Some of the testimony -- from two industry representatives, two regulators and a citizens' group -- shows that "certainly there needs to be some updates to legislation that could improve this industry," said Rep. Dave Reed, the committee chairman who represents much of Indiana County and who called the 31/2-hour hearing in Murrysville "a good step."
About 60 citizens and seven House Republicans attended.
Mr. Reed believes that when legislation is proposed in the future, it will have bipartisan support.
In particular, he hoped to see the kind of stream water monitoring work being done by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission as a model for other regions in the state.
Tom Beauduy, the commission's deputy director, testified that for the last year the basin commission has been using remote monitoring devices that report back to a centralized computer every five minutes about the quality and depth of a series of headwater streams that eventually send their water to the Susquehanna River.
He said he has been told that the system is one of the most advanced water quality monitoring systems in the country. There is nothing similar in place on headwater streams in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-Chester, was surprised to find out from another speaker, Calvin McCutcheon, owner of McCutcheon Enterprises, which handles industrial waste, that current law allows Marcellus Shale drillers to bury the synthetic lining and some well waste on the site, rather than put it in a landfill.
"That is rather disconcerting to learn," said Mr. Hennessey, who said he would talk to the director of the House environmental committee.
Rep. Eli Evankovich, who represents parts of Westmoreland and Armstrong counties, told Mr. McCutcheon his constituents say wastewater haulers will simply "pull over on a rural road and dispose of the water there."
"Is there anything we can do to strengthen the regulations to make that less likely?" he asked.
Mr. McCutcheon, whose company hauls and treats wastewater from Marcellus Shale well sites as part of its business, noted that current law requires solid waste haulers to track with manifests everything from pickup to treatment to a landfill. But the state does not require wastewater to be tracked in the same way.
First Published April 22, 2011 12:00 am
