Suspension of pollution rules for drilling sought
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Just a week after repealing a policy requiring an environmental assessment of Marcellus Shale gas wells in state parks, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has announced it is suspending and reconsidering several key air pollution controls governing the drilling industry.
The changes, detailed in Friday's Pennsylvania Bulletin where official state actions are listed, would eliminate a guideline in place since December that requires the state to consider and regulate the collective or aggregate emissions of well operations in a region.
It's a directive that follows federal Clean Air Act regulations and, if air pollution emissions produce unhealthy air, could result in tighter pollution controls than if the wells are regulated individually.
The bulletin notice said the department is soliciting public comments on "whether any guidance or policy should be considered on this topic, and, if so, what such a policy or guidance might provide."
Environmental groups and Democrats criticized Friday's announced changes as another step by Gov. Tom Corbett to dismantle environmental and public health protections and boost the state's booming natural gas industry.
"This is troubling," said Jan Jarrett, president and chief executive officer of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, a statewide environmental group active on Marcellus issues.
She said that by rescinding the rule the DEP has lost an important tool for evaluating and reducing air pollution.
DEP spokeswoman Katy Gresh said the agency's action was done with the intention of gathering input.
"The bottom line is that this document that DEP has rescinded was not a regulation. It did not change anything, except that it is opening the door for public comment. We look at all of these cases in a very specific case by case basis, and rescinding this document has not changed that," she said.
The DEP also is seeking public comment on a policy adopted last summer that regulates emissions from non-road, "stationary engines," including natural gas compressor station engines, which can be sources of smog-producing emissions.
Proposed revisions to emissions rules for those engines would, "offer greater flexibility to the regulated community," said the bulletin notice posted by DEP Acting Secretary Michael Krancer.
First Published February 26, 2011 12:00 am
