SRBC Suspension Slows Talisman Operations

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

April 20, 2012 | 1:17 PM

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

A Susquehanna County drilling rig

An update on the Susquehanna River Basin Commission’s temporary ban on water withdrawals at locations in five counties: at least one natural gas driller is scaling back operations, due to the restrictions.
Drillers, of course, use millions of gallons of water at a time during hydraulic fracturing operations.
According to Reuters, Talisman will slow down operations while the restriction is in place.

Talisman Energy, one of 10 companies operating in a drought-affected area, said it had scaled back drilling — but did not say by how much.
“We scaled back operations until the rains start. We do that every year depending on conditions. It’s expected,” said Diane Gross, a company spokeswoman in Pittsburgh.
Water is an integral part of the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”

Other drillers told Reuters they haven’t had to slow down operations yet. Most drilling sites take in water from multiple locations, or store large amounts of fluid in tanks or pools.
A dry winter and spring have the Susquehanna River way below its typical water levels.