Township Supervisors Seek Stricter Regulation of Disposal Wells

• Susan Phillips
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  Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

The head of the state’s township supervisor’s lobbying organization has come out in favor of greater regulation of deep injection wells. David Sanko, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Association of Townhip Supervisors, recently wrote a letter to Gov. Corbett asking him to adopt measures similar to the state of Ohio.
Deep injection wells that are categorized as Class II take oil and gas wastewater, and dispose of it deep within the earth. Pennsylvania has only six of these wells operating, but several new permits are pending. The EPA oversees permitting of deep injection wells in the state.
After a deep injection well in Youngstown, Ohio caused several earthquakes over the Christmas holidays, Ohio took steps to monitor for seismic activity, reduce injection pressure, and require automatic shut-off devices.
In his letter to Corbett, Sanko says the increase in gas drilling will likely lead to an increase in deep injection wells, and he worries that the EPA is not up to the task of properly permitting these projects.

“In addition, EPA’s recent finding that EPA Region III failed to satisfy its responsibility to ensure the public that it relied on appropriate data as to drinking water wells in the area of proposed Class II injection wells in Columbus Township, Warren County serves to highlight the necessity and importance of ensuring that the Class II wells located in the Commonwealth are adequately regulated.”

Last month, the Environmental Hearing Board in Washington, D.C., rejected a permit for two new deep injection wells in Warren County. The Board told EPA Region 3 they did an inadequate job in surveying drinking water wells in the area. A group of residents worried about potential ground water pollution had appealed the permit.
The state now has six permitted, but only five operating wells. The EPA temporarily shut down one disposal well in Clearfield County after learning of a blow-out several months later.
Although the state has deferred jurisdiction over deep injection wells to federal regulators, Sanko wants Gov. Corbett to ask the EPA to adopt the rules now in use in Ohio. State Rep. Camille “Bud” George, a Democrat from Clearfield County, has introduced legislation to impose a moratorium on all new deep injection wells. But the bill is now stalled in committee.

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