Questions from Water Celebration Day

Transcription

1 Questions from Water Celebration Day Duane Nichols, Co-Chair, WV/PA Monongahela Area Watershed Compact What is Total Dissolved Solids just what is says? Including NACI Salt, but excluding insolvable sediment? Delegate Woody Ireland, R-Ritchie, Joint Legislative Select Committee Member Do you have a drill pad within 1,000 feet of your home? If so, how do you feel about this? How is the legislature going to ensure that West Virginia gets adequate financial return (substantial financial return) from the extraction of our state s resources? Why are we such a poor state with so much poverty when we have so many natural resources? Where is the money going? What do you think of imposing a % royalty fee on new wells rather than the up front $10,000 fee? I think this would help spur development while ensuring a long term financial benefit for the state. Would you comment on the $8 billion contract signed between British Group and Cheniere Gas Company in Texas to ship LNG through Louisiana to Europe out of the U.S. i.e., exporting gas for the money not to support American consumers? Will West Virginia gas also be exported? Are amendments available online? Is there any provision for funding from the gas and other industries to be directed to watershed groups so they can continue their work? Could you please address the provisions in Bill 424 that pertain to the treatment of return water from the fracking process? Specifically in regard to injection wells, mandatory reuse and the use of open pits to store process water. Eddy Grey, PE, PS Triana Services Do you test people s well water and municipal water pre-drilling? What other methods of fracturing are used besides hydraulic? Has supercritical CO2 been considered? Re: Reducing independence on foreign oil. Will West Virginia gas be exported? Asia and Europe pay more for gas than U.S. consumers. Therefore, gas companies can make more money by exporting while U.S. consumers are still dependent on foreign oil. How much of the captured gas is used domestically or sold to foreign markets? Where does the West Virginia gas go? What about the discrepancies in the Gasland movie? 1

2 What are the reasons why a driller would not negotiate with a landowner about the location of a well pad and access road? Shouldn t neighboring landowners also have a right to be involved in negotiating a drilling site? Was there ever a situation where 32 wells were drilled in a two-square-mile area? It was mentioned that gas is exempt from the Clean Air Act. Can you speak on that? And what is the impact on our water? What protections are in place? Some of our elected officials at the federal and state level are saying that the EPA is conducting a war against coal. Does the coal industry see the natural gas industry as a threat because gas is promoted as cleaner and more efficient than coal? Re: Why Natural Gas slide. 43% cleaner than coal and 28% cleaner than oil *. Do you know what the asterisk (*) to this statement says? Does it refer to consumption or the total of production and consumption? Could you please speak about the treatment of return water from the frac procedure and the prevelant treatment processes in West Virginia? You said the industry is subject to Clean Water Act, etc. but I understand gas drillers don t have to get a construction stormwater permit to disturb land (> 3 acres) although others would have to get such a permit. This results in loss of soil sedimentation in streams - maybe even stream filling. Is that true? Scott Rotruck, Chesapeake Energy Last Thursday at the Law School Senator Manchin repeated the phrase energy independence 17 times during his keynote speech on Marcellus. I believe this to be misleading. Two of Chesapeake s main investors are China and India. The U.S. does not currently have the infrastructure to use natural gas to operate vehicles and most people in this region do not use gas to heat our homes. Even yesterday, all of the machinery on the well site were run on diesel. How is this true energy independence? If you can, please explain how you interpreted this obvious buzz word. Why aren t the energy companies and their nationwide alliances more open with the public (forums, advertisements, etc.) concerning the impacts, actual and potential, of modern drilling? Would you cooperate with a county level monitoring corps? Rick Campbell, WVDEP Inspector Are there any quality assurance requirements for cleaning/transporting equipment? How can a vigorous, reliable inspection of Marcellus well drilling sites be accomplished with an insufficient number of inspectors? Are there enough inspectors to be onsite during cementing on more than 25% of the wells? 2

3 Re: Inspection drills. Do you go back to check the old wells and see the land around the drills? What procedures or maintenance is used when checking existing wells to identify environmental impact? Do the new E&S requirements consider the pipelines? With 17 inspectors how in the world will each site be properly inspected? How many inspectors would be able to do the job? Do new E&S controls apply to shallower wells as well? We know, and Secretary Huffman has admitted, that DEP is struggling to keep pace with new gas development. Several questions: 1) The WVDEPOOG website is the best resource for the public to search activity. It is infrequently updated and sometimes inaccurate. Is the OOG working to improve this resource? 2) My inspector has inaccurately identified permit sites we see where they are, and he has been wrong. How is this possible? 3) Yesterday, we learned that professionals spend their careers working on well technology including BMPs. It is not uncommon to see a permit/phases of development received and approved by OOG on the same day. Is this adequate review for both the professionals and the community? 4) Do inspectors truly view themselves as enforcers or are they there to help industry comply? Do you support the amendment to Senate Bill 424 that would eliminate the Oil and Gas Inspector Advisory Board (not sure if this is the exact name)? What does the inspector actually do? In particular, is he intrusive; must people wait on him? John King, Northern Environmental Advocate 1) Compliance assistance sounds very non-confrontational. Can you really avoid hostility between drillers and environmentalists? Answer: Protecting the environment requires a team effort. It is important for permittees, as well as environmentalist, to have a clear understanding of the regulatory framework governing Marcellus development. Compliance assistance is a very important tool to help our permittees understand their permit s terms and conditions. I think most companies want to do the right thing, and appreciate having an inspector explain exactly what DEP expects from them. I m not sure anything can be done to completely eliminate hostilities emanating from both sides of the Marcellus debate, but I do believe there is plenty of room for common ground. I see no reason for a them against us situation. Watershed groups derive success by identifying common goals, generating public private partnerships and utilizing collaborative decision making processes. These same principals could certainly apply to Marcellus related issues and it would be interesting to see what watershed groups could do in a statewide coordinated effort. 3

4 2) Are there any plans for the state to increase the assistance or advocate program? You seem stretched pretty thin not enough enforcers or go betweens in relation to the amount of industry. Answer: The Advocate office does not engage in enforcement activity and compliance assistance is normally initiated by the inspector. The Advocate Office was primarily designed to help citizens. Two new positions were added to the Advocate Office in 2010 and there are no immediate plans to expand the office any further. However due to recent legislative developments, DEP s Office of Oil and Gas is gearing up to hire several new inspector and technical staff positions. Julie Archer, WV Surface Owners Rights What barriers inhibit surface owners or counties from simply repurchasing several leases, or offering to purchase new leases? When the surface owner does not own the mineral rights who answers for damages to surrounding lands? You said you have 15 days. You have no chance to say how it goes. And you don t want close to your home. Base drills have all the rights. The person doesn t. (200 feet to home) John King, Northern Environmental Advocate/ Rick Campbell, WVDEP Inspector Please provide some additional details regarding the permit process. Are there water quality monitoring requirements? Are there any mitigation requirements for disturbance? Are cumulative impacts considered? One issue that may be missed is related to flood plain construction. Individual counties permit any flood plain construction but only review flooding concerns not potential environmental concerns linked to flooding. (For example, a flowback pit near a stream being washed out and into stream) Does DEP look at this at all? How specific does a request for permit need to be regarding location if Mr. King has seen well pads in wetlands, why did DEP issue the permit? John King, Northern Environmental Advocate /Eddy Grey, PE, PS Triana Services How closely can a well be drilled to a river/stream/creek? Scott Rotruck, Chesapeake Energy /Eddy Grey, PE, PS Triana Services Have you seen the movie Gasland? The movie makes it appear the companies involved have said to landowners you cannot prove we caused harm to your well so we are not responsible. Will you comment? 4

5 Why can t the rock cuttings be recycled into road base, building pavers or other uses instead of burning in a landfill? Some folks that have leased land for drilling have reported health issues. Have any of your employees, working on the rigs, reported any illness or side effects after handling materials from rigs (fracking substances) or after working on sites for a long period of time? (I understand some employees work 100+ hours/week). If so, is there anyone keeping track of these illnesses/symptoms/side effects? And what are the number reported related to workers bring sick or having some sort of ailment? Eddy Grey, PE, PS Triana Services /Delegate Woody Ireland, R-Ritchie, Joint Legislative Select Committee Member Is there any way a county can prohibit drilling in Karst areas that are public water sources and without zoning? Anyone What materials are filtered from the recycled water? Are there places where they use wastewater plants discharge water or storm oversurge water for fracking fluids? There continues to be debate about well contamination from fracking. Would it not be helpful for industry and individual companies to routinely include tracers in frac fluid to at last settle the questions in many instances? At that point the other concerns e.g. about cement, old abandoned wells, etc. can be addressed. Re: Tracers in frac fluid. In instances where pollution is claimed, results should at least be submitted and/or available to DEP Office of Oil and Gas if not publically available? Should not each company be required to identify any abandoned well within the pool of gas/shale being tapped? And then assure that those older wells be plugged by someone e.g. either the Marcelles driller and/or agreement with owner of the older well? Last week at WVU Law School Professor Tom Kinnamen of Bucknell University refuted many of the methods and conclusions regarding the economic analysis of Marcellus impacts made by Dr. Witt of WVU. This overall conclusion is that the economic gain will be great for some but that the losers in this play will be the people who live in the communities where the gas is developed. This is the story of West Virginia coal all over again. We have already seen this in Wetzel County. Are we the martyrs again? How do we balance the boom and survive the bust? Do you agree or disagree that West Virginians are being asked again to allow industry to exploit our resources in the spirit of patriotism and sacrifice? What can we do? If anything How do they change gas water to fresh? 5