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Forum: Drilling could affect county lands
Marcellus Shale rock formation is believed to hold trillions of cubic feet of natural gas

ATGLEN — While there isn't any Marcellus Shale in Chester County, it doesn't mean that county residents won't be affected by the current drilling frenzy affecting other areas in the state, officials said Tuesday.

"We haven't heard about Marcellus Shale's effect on Chester County, but we will still have pressure on Chester County to have pipelines to bring Marcellus Shale to market," said state Rep. Curt Schroder, R-155th, of Downingtown, at Tuesday's forum on pipelines.

Chester County currently has nine natural gas and petroleum companies that have pipelines in the county. That figure could increase dramatically with the thousands of new Marcellus Shale wells scheduled to be drilled in the next 20 years.

Right now there is about seven million acres in the state under lease by the gas drilling industry.

One-third of state forest land, 700,000 acres, has been leased by the oil and gas industry.

"We have been leasing the forest to natural gas companies for 74 years and we have been able to strike a balance between preserving the ecology and drilling for gas," said John Quigley, the new secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, at Tuesday's forum.

"We're projecting that 6,000 new wells will be built over the next 20 years and 1,000 new wells on public land in the next five years. We desperately need to understand what's happening, what the cumulative effect will be with all these new wells," said Quigley.

At the forum hosted by Safety, Agriculture, Villages and Environment (SAVE), state legislators, state officials and an attorney with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation outlined environmental challenges posed by the Marcellus Shale drilling.

Marcellus Shale is a rock formation that underlies about two-thirds of Pennsylvania and portions of New York and West Virginia. It is 5,000 to 8,000 feet below the surface and is believed to hold trillions of cubic feet of natural gas.

About 90 percent of the drilling activity in the state is on private land.

State legislators have called for a moratorium on granting any more leases on state land. Several legislators have introduced bills in the House and Senate that would impose the moratorium until the long-term environmental, fiscal, economic and social effects have been assessed.

The natural gas is extracted from the shale by a process known as hydraulic fracturing. After the well is dug, millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals are pumped into the well under pressure which fractures the shale, releasing the gas.

Withdrawals of water needed for the fracking process is regulated by river basin commissions including the Susquehanna River Basin Commission and the Delaware River Basin Commission.

One issue is whether the fracking fluid injected into the deep well is contaminating local water supplies. Another issue is whether the wastewater fracking fluid, which is retrieved during the process, is being adequately treated before being discharged.

Recently, the state Department of Environmental Protection fined the Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. $250,000 and shut down some of its wells. The wells in Dimock Township, Susquehanna County, were defective and contaminated the well water of 14 households.

Wastewater from the fracking process has a large amount of total dissolved solids, TDS, which are chiefly salt and sulfites or dissolved sulfur, said Tom Rathbun, a DEP spokesman.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not set a drinking water standard for TDS and consequently there is no regulation for how much TDS can be in the wastewater.

Large amounts of salt and dissolved sulfur can kill all aquatic life. Wastewater with high TDS can also kill beneficial bacteria in a standard wastewater treatment plant.

Many rivers in the state are affected by abandoned mine discharges that are also high in TDS.

The DEP has proposed regulations that will set a standard for TDS of 500 milligrams per liter for companies that hold existing permits and want to expand or for companies seeking new permits. The proposed regulations would set a limit of 2,000 milligrams per liter for all industry but 500 milligrams per liter for wastewater from drilling operations.

Rathbun said it's possible the regulation could be approved by the fall.

In terms of what chemicals are in the fracking solution, Rathbun said the chemicals are in the public record but not the proportion of each chemical.

He said properly drilled wells should travel through the ground and the water strata safely without contaminating groundwater.

"If we thought hydrofracking is affecting groundwater, we would stop it," Rathbun said.

The EPA however, recently announced that it will conduct a comprehensive study of hydraulic fracturing and whether it poses a risk to water quality and humans.

Rathbun said contamination of local water supplies was more likely to come from surface activities at the drilling site such as the handling of wastewater on site.

About 120 people attended the forum at the Octorara Primary Learning Center.

Fran DeMillion, from Kennett Square, said she was very interested in the discussion of Marcellus Shale.

"I'm interested in getting information on Marcellus Shale. I'm an outdoorsy person and the environment is so important," said DeMillion.

George Morrison of East Fallowfield said he was a steam fitter who had actually worked on the Williams Transco pipeline project.

"Most people realize that pipelines are part of life here. They just want to see that they are done properly," said Morrison.

To contact staff writer Anne Pickering, send an e-mail to apickering@dailylocal.com.