Coal Bed Methane Industry to See Effluent Limitations Guidelines Development

Coal bed methane (CBM) development is a large - and growing - growing segment of natural gas operations in West Virginia. It captures methane that can be used as natural gas, while providing a protection for underground coal miners. Methane presents the risk of explosion underground, and removing the gas in advance of mining is a safety benefit. However, the production of CBM produces large quantities of water, which has to be discharged somewhere. One option is to truck the water to an underground injection control (UIC) well, but that can be expensive. The preferred route is to discharge it to the nearest stream, but that requires a permit, and water treatment can be costly.

For certain industries, EPA investigates wastewater treatment options and develops effluent limitations guidelines or ELGs that detail how much pollution that industry can be expected to remove from the wastewater. All dischargers are then expected to treat their wastewater to those levels, or even lower if necessary to meet water quality standards. EPA has recently announced that it will be calculating ELGs for the coal bed methane industry during the coming year, as described below. Once developed, the ELGs will be used to write permits for CBM well discharges.


3) EPA Publishes its 2008 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan EPA published its final 2008 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan in the Federal Register today. Effluent guidelines are industry specific national regulations that control the discharge of pollutants to surface waters and to publicly owned treatment works. The Plan announces that EPA will conduct focused detailed reviews in 2009 and 2010 for the steam electric power generating industry; the coalbed methane extraction portion of the oil and gas extraction industry; and unused pharmaceutical disposal in the health services industry. EPA has already initiated a study on pharmaceutical disposal practices at health care facilities, such as hospitals, hospices, long-term care facilities, and veterinary hospitals. A draft information collection request on unused pharmaceuticals management in the health service industry was published in the Federal Register in August for comment. The preliminary effluent guideline plan was published for public comment in October 2007.

To see a copy of the Federal Register notice and other related documents, visit EPA's web site at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/guide/304m/ . Contact Carey Johnston at 202-566-1014 or email him at johnston.carey@epa.gov for more information about the 2008 Plan.