Horizontal Well Rules Advance

The huge increase in horizontal well drilling that has come with development of the Marcellus Shale play has led state regulators to take a close look at the environmental requirements  for those types of wells.   The Marcellus Shale industry is currently  operating under emergency rules that were adopted by the  West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection last year. The DEP now has to replace those emergency rules, which are only good for a little over a year, with legislative rules that are permanent.  Toward that end, in June the  DEP proposed its Rules Governing Horizontal Well  Development (35 CSR 8), which were similar to, but an expansion of, the emergency rules.  Comments on the proposed rule were accepted, and there were a large number  offered by the oil and gas industry and by the public.  You can see the comments, and the DEP's response, here.  (It may take a while to load, as there are over 700 pages of comments, hearing transcript and DEP response.)  The rule, as it was amended and sent to the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee on September 14, can be found here.

Legislative rules must be approved by the Legislature in West Virginia.  Come January, the proposed rule will be considered by the LRMRC, which will make a recommendation on adoption to the Legislature.  It will work its way through  several committees, where we will likely be fighting over certain provisions, until it is  passed by the Legislature and final-filed by the DEP.