Clean water proposal would benefit parks
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How clean is clean? Pennsylvania state park waters would be among those impacted by a Department of Environmental Protection proposal mandating that water used in drilling for natural gas be cleaned to drinking-water quality before it's discharged back into the environment.
In most cases, the proposal would require companies to return the water cleaner than when they got it.
Last week, the state House approved a three-year moratorium on leasing additional state forestland for Marcellus shale gas drilling until the impacts of the drilling can be evaluated. Department of Conservation and Natural Resources secretary John Quigley said the proposed DEP regulations would be an additional commonsense precaution.
"DEP has proposed [in April] a set of water quality regulations that basically says, if you're going to discharge treated frac water to a waterway of the commonwealth, that discharge has to be drinking-water quality," he said. "And they've similarly proposed a watershed-wide drinking-water quality standard."
Quigley said while Marcellus deposits underlie 61 percent of Pennsylvania state parks, the commonwealth owns mineral rights to only 25 percent of state park lands.
"The state can't prevent gas drilling on lands where it doesn't own the mineral rights, and we're seeing derricks going up on state parks all over the place," said Quigley. "This is a water-rich state. We can't afford to degrade that resource, and we need to put [the DEP proposal] in place because Marcellus, in particular, is a heavy water user and we need ... common sense but stringent regulations. Because if we repeat the mistakes of the past, the citizens of this state are going to pay."
In April, Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, announced in a written statement the industry had an "unwavering" commitment to working with the state legislature.
" ... The MSC remains an active and engaged participant in crafting common sense solutions that will ensure that the significant economic benefits and job creation potentials associated with environmentally responsible shale gas development are realized," she said.
First Published May 9, 2010 12:00 am
