TimesLeader.com

Gas drilling concerns to be aired in Tunkhannock

Hearing set for Oct. 6 on proposed facility to treat waste from drilling.

By Rory Sweeney rsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Coming just weeks after fears over environmental contamination from gas drilling became a reality in Susquehanna County, the state Department of Environmental Protection is prepared to hear about such concerns at a hearing on Oct. 6 on a proposed facility to treat waste liquids from natural-gas drilling.

While questions about contamination will be answered, DEP spokesman Mark Carmon said such concerns will not be allowed in the official record.

“Given the fact that there is a lot of interest and concern – controversy, whatever you want to call it – in the community, we thought it would be good to enter into a dialogue,” he said. “One of the things that we’re going to emphasize is, first of all, the meeting and the hearing are on a specific permit application. It’s not a debate on gas drilling in Pennsylvania. Obviously, some of the events up in Dimock may cloud the debate, but that’s to be expected.”

The hearing will focus on an application by North Branch Processing LLC for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit to discharge treated wastewater from gas drilling to the Susquehanna River in Eaton Township in Wyoming County.

The meeting at 5 p.m. will include questions and answers, and will be followed around 7 p.m. by the official hearing, which will include only comments on the record. The meeting will be at the Tunkhannock Area Middle School.

The hearing for a second such treatment facility is set for Oct. 20 at the middle school.

North Branch proposes discharging up to 500,000 gallons per day of treated effluent directly into the river at a site near Skyhaven Airport, while Wyoming Somerset Regional Water Resources Corp. hopes to discharge up to 380,000 gallons per day into Meshoppen Creek in Lemon Township.

The closest public water source downstream of the discharge would be Danville, according to DEP.

The standards the facilities will have to meet aren’t yet clear. DEP is working with the industry and other interested parties to draft new standards, Carmon said, which are scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2011. He expected the new guidelines to be more stringent.

The discharge permit covers a variety of substances that could be in the wastewater, including chlorides, sulfates and total dissolved solids.

Treating the contaminated wastewater – created in the process that cracks the shale to release the gas deposits about a mile underground – has become one of the biggest issues with the proliferation of gas drilling in Pennsylvania because the state has few treatment facilities.

To further complicate the problem, none of the facilities is in the northern or eastern sections of the state, where much of the drilling in the Marcellus Shale is focused. The proposals are the first on the eastern side of the state.

The public record for the North Branch facility will stay open until Oct. 16; the Wyoming Somerset facility until Oct. 30.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.