Mundy urges tough drilling rules

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.comStaff Writer

State Rep. is seeking support from House members for more stringent regulations on oil and natural gas drilling as well as a moratorium on the discharge of treated drilling wastewater into state waterways.

Mundy, D-Kingston, said she soon will introduce legislation to protect floodplains from natural gas drilling by banning drilling within those areas.

“If there were drilling in the floodplain in Kingston, Forty Fort, Wyoming, West Wyoming, all the areas flooded in 2006 or in 1972, obviously the fracking water would be all over the flooded area and into the Susquehanna River,” Mundy said.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of injecting millions of gallons of water with a mix of sand and a relatively small amount of chemicals – some of them toxic – into a well bore to stimulate the release of natural gas. The water is often stored on drilling sites, usually in steel tanks, until it can be trucked away to a treatment plant.

Because of the potential damage oil and gas drilling can cause at and around sites, Mundy said her bill would require the state to conduct site visits before issuing erosion and sediment control permits for the sites.

Permits would be issued only to applicants that develop appropriate erosion and sediment control as well as storm water management plans that comply with the Clean Streams Law and other environmental regulations.

Additionally, the bill would establish a three-year moratorium during which no new permits could be issued for the discharge of drilling wastewater into surface waters.

The moratorium would require DEP to evaluate potential alternatives for wastewater disposal. The department would then be required to enforce those alternatives, provided they are environmentally sound.

Within the first six months of the moratorium going into effect, DEP would be required to establish an online tracking system to monitor the storage, transportation and disposal of oil and gas drilling waste.

Mundy said the moratorium would not prohibit hydraulic fracturing, just the introduction of the wastewater in surface waters. The wastewater could still be treated at closed-loop system plants in which it is cleaned and/or diluted to the point that it is re-usable, or it could be injected into approved deep underground vaults.

Mundy on Wednesday sent a memo to her state House colleagues inviting them to co-sponsor the proposed legislation.

Mundy said the legislation would require DEP, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Fish and Boat Commission and the Game Commission to work together to provide an all-encompassing report on the impact of drilling and future oil and gas activities.

“The laws we have on the books in Pennsylvania to monitor drilling are lax in terms of protecting the environment. More needs to be done, and my legislation would provide necessary guidelines and protections,” Mundy said.