West Virginia DEP Issues Marcellus Shale Guidance

The Marcellus Shale holds a tremendous amount of natural gas that has recently become available because of the ability to drill horizontally through the shale and fracture it. The shale play extends in a wide area including New York, Ohio Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It has been in the news quite bit lately, in part because of unfounded fears that the chemicals used in fracturing the shale will contaminate water supplies. No chance of that, given the distances between the shale and water-bearing aquifers, and the casing that seals off aquifers from contaminants, but the fear remains. In addition, Marcellus wells tend to have a larger footprint, a concern to some landowners, and the fracturing uses large quantities of water. You can see my earlier post on January 7 for some discussion of some of thee issues.



In a bid to establish regulation, the WV Department of Environmental Protection has developed a guidance for Marcellus Shale wells, principally to help operators know when there is sufficient water in a stream to withdraw and use for well treatment. This is guidance, not a rule. The DEP press release, and a link to the guidance, follows.

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Kathy Cosco, 304-926-0440

DEP Releases Marcellus Shale Industry Guidance

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has released a guidance document and permit addendum designed to better manage water use and disposal by the oil and gas industry when drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation.

The document was created by the Office of Oil and Gas and the Division of Water and Waste Management at the request of Cabinet Secretary Randy C. Huffman. Because of the public interest in the industry practice, the agency sought public comment on the guidance, even though it is not required to do so for such a document.

The document addresses the need for well operators to be diligent about protecting the state’s waters. It also includes a copy of an addendum that is now part of the permit application.

In addition, the document directs well operators to a guidance tool on the DEP’s website to be used to determine whether a body of water can sustain the proposed withdrawal.

The guidance document and addendum can be found on the DEP’s website at: http://www.dep.wv.gov/oil-and-gas.