As Delaware Announces No Vote on DRBC Regulations, Monday’s Meeting in Doubt

November 17, 2011 | 7:14 PM

By Susan Phillips

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Delaware River­keeper Maya von Rossum tells StateIm­pact PA that her sources say the Delaware River Basin Com­mis­sion has decided to can­cel Monday’s sched­uled meet­ing and planned vote. The DRBC could not be reached to con­firm the move, which would put off a deci­sion on the Commission’s pro­posed nat­ural gas drilling rules. But von Rossum says that dur­ing a con­ver­sa­tion with New Jer­sey offi­cials respon­si­ble for per­mit­ting the Delaware Riverkeeper’s planned demon­stra­tion, the offi­cial let slip that the meet­ing may not take place. The River­keeper, along with sev­eral other envi­ron­men­tal groups, planned to protest the Commission’s deci­sion not to allow pub­lic com­ment on the revised rules. If the DRBC does not hold its Mon­day meet­ing, it will be the third time a pub­lic event sched­uled to address the new gas drilling rules would be post­poned. An approval of the pro­posed reg­u­la­tions would lift the cur­rent mora­to­rium on gas drilling in the Basin.

Rumors of a third can­cel­la­tion began cir­cu­lat­ing on the inter­net Thurs­day evening. At about the same time, Delaware Gov­er­nor Jack Markell sent a let­ter to the Com­mis­sion out­lin­ing his oppo­si­tion to the rules. In the let­ter, Markell says the DRBC has not con­ducted enough sci­en­tific analy­sis on the impact of gas drilling.

“Instead of begin­ning the explo­ration in the Delaware River Basin and hop­ing we get a proper reg­u­la­tory frame­work in place after-the-fact, it is Delaware’s view the Com­mis­sion has an oblig­a­tion to ensure that crit­i­cal issues regard­ing well con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion are final­ized first and not sub­ject to sub­se­quent dilu­tion,” Markell wrote.

The Com­mis­sion has pro­posed what it calls a “cap and pause,” mean­ing no more than 300 well sites can be devel­oped within 18 months. At that time, the DRBC would revisit their gas drilling rules, and amend them if nec­es­sary. Markell has come down on the side of envi­ron­men­tal­ists, who have been call­ing for a con­tin­ued mora­to­rium while the Com­mis­sion con­ducts an envi­ron­men­tal impact study. The Delaware River pro­vides drink­ing water for about 15 mil­lion peo­ple includ­ing two-thirds of Delaware’s residents.

The move by Markell puts the approval of the reg­u­la­tions in jeop­ardy. A sim­ple major­ity of the five-member Com­mis­sion is nec­es­sary to approve the new rules, and lift the drilling mora­to­rium in the Delaware River Basin. Penn­syl­va­nia is solidly behind lift­ing the mora­to­rium. On Wednes­day, Pennsylvania’s Sec­re­tary of the Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion, Michael Krancer, tes­ti­fied in Con­gress that states are the proper author­i­ties to over­see gas drilling, not the fed­eral gov­ern­ment. Krancer was likely refer­ring to the EPA. But the fed­eral gov­ern­ment also has a vote on the Com­mis­sion, rep­re­sented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers. In fact, the revised DRBC gas drilling rules do leave much of the reg­u­la­tion and enforce­ment of land use and well sit­ing to the states.

New York’s Attor­ney Gen­eral has filed a law­suit try­ing to force the Com­mis­sion to con­duct an envi­ron­men­tal impact study. So the Empire State’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive on the Com­mis­sion is expected to join Delaware and vote against the rules. That leaves New Jer­sey, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers in a dif­fi­cult posi­tion as the decid­ing votes. It’s unclear how either will come down on the issue. But with­out a solid major­ity the Com­mis­sion may not want to put the rules up for a vote on Mon­day. Although drilling oppo­nents are already claim­ing a vic­tory, those res­i­dents of Wayne and Pike coun­ties who want the mora­to­rium lifted will likely be dis­ap­pointed that drilling the Delaware River Basin remains in limbo. Expect some sort of announce­ment from the DRBC Fri­day morning.