Feds target drill-site pollution

Staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON -- Faced with a natural gas drilling boom that has sullied the air in some parts of the country, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed for the first time to control air pollution at oil and gas wells, particularly those drilled using a method called hydraulic fracturing.

The proposal, issued to meet a court deadline, addresses air pollution problems reported in places such as Wyoming, Texas, Pennsylvania and Colorado, where new drilling techniques have led to a rush to obtain natural gas that was once considered inaccessible. More than 25,000 wells are being drilled each year by "fracking," a process by which sand, water and chemicals are injected underground to fracture rock so gas can come out. 

The proposed regulations are designed to eliminate most releases of smog- and soot-forming pollutants from those wells. New controls on storage tanks, transmission pipelines and other equipment -- at both oil and gas drilling sites on land -- would reduce by a quarter amounts of cancer-causing air pollution and methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, but also one of the most powerful contributors to global warming.

The rules, according to the EPA, actually would save energy companies about $30 million a year because the companies could sell the gas they are forced to collect.

EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy said the steps announced Thursday will help ensure "responsible production" of domestic energy. The agency is also in the process of studying whether hydraulic fracturing is polluting water, research that also could lead to more regulations on the practice.

But Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said the proposed rules could have the opposite effect of reducing air pollution.

In a prepared statement Klaber said, “This sweeping set of potentially unworkable regulations represents an overreach that could, ironically, undercut the production of American natural gas, an abundant energy resource that is critical to strengthening our nation’s air quality.”

While some states have had air-related health issues as a result of drilling, a state study in Pennsylvania of air quality near Marcellus Shale drilling sites in four counties found no emissions at levels that would threaten the health of nearby residents or workers.

“Our state regulators are keeping an eye on the ball,” said Klaber. “However, it’s not clear if EPA is as well.”

The state study was done last year and the number of wells have doubled, added Tom Jiunta, founder and president of Luzerne County’s Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition.

“That’s one static test,” said Jiunta.

The regulations are going to upset the oil and gas industries because it’s an expense for them, he said.

“I think the EPA was right in stepping in to monitor this,” he added.

The coalition paid to have baseline testing done of the air quality in the region so that it will have a reference point for comparison, said Jiunta.

In March, pollution from natural gas drilling in the Upper Green River Basin in western Wyoming triggered levels of ground-level ozone, the main ingredient in smog, worse than those recorded in Los Angeles, one of the smoggiest cities in the U.S.

In Dish, Texas, a rural town northwest of Dallas, the state’s environmental regulators detected levels of cancer-causing benzene, sometimes at levels dangerous to human health, likely coming from industry’s 60 drilling wells, gas production pads and rigs, a treating facility and compressor station.

The gases escape into the atmosphere during drilling, from storage tanks, compressors along pipelines and other equipment. Until now, the EPA has mainly controlled pollution from natural gas processing plants. .

Times Leader reporter Jerry Lynott contributed to this story.