Gas pipeline plan scrapped amid Kentucky resistance

Kinder Morgan, one of the largest pipeline companies in North America, announced last week it is canceling the Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline project. The $4 billion enterprise would have involved constructing about 200 miles of new pipeline from Louisiana to Texas, new storage capacity and laterals in Ohio, and converting 964 miles of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline to carry fracked natural gas liquids from the Marcellus/Utica shale region to the Gulf Coast, Marcellus Drilling News reports; the 70-year-old TGP now flows the other way and carries gas from the Gulf to the Northeast.

Kinder says it canceled the project because of not enough interest from producers, but Marcellus Drilling News notes that the project was more likely shuttered because of "stiff opposition from Kentuckians who don't like the idea of switching the pipeline to flowing 'dangerous' NGLs." The Tennessee Gas Pipeline passes through 256 miles of Kentucky.

"The project had drawn opposition in Boyle, Madison and other Kentucky counties as well as criticism from groups such as the Kentucky Environmental Foundation," Greg Kocher reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "Opponents were concerned about the risks of a 1940s-era pipeline carrying a heavier, more explosive substance."

Kinder says it will still try to reverse a large portion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, but will instead flow Marcellus-Utica natural gas south instead of liquids, Marcellus Drilling News reports.

Resistance to hydraulic fracturing in gas drilling continues in Marcellus Shale states

As Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania introduced legislation for federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing in natural-gas drilling last week, there was action in other states underlain by the deep, dense, gas-rich Marcellus Shale (map), a prime target of the frackers.

Maryland’s House of Delegates "advanced a plan calling for a two-year study of Marcellus Shale drilling, overriding the objections of Western Maryland lawmakers who want to see the potentially lucrative activity sooner, " writes Julie Bykowicz of the Baltimore Sun. Delegate Maggie McIntosh said "the state needs time to study hydraulic fracturing and that proceeding quickly could prove harmful to Maryland's waterways," Bykowicz reports.

In West Virginia, after the legislature declined to establish new regulations for Marcellus drilling, “Lawmakers and surface-owner groups met to announce the signing of a letter urging Randy Huffman, secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, to use his emergency authority to halt the issuance of new horizontal drilling permits in the Marcellus Shale,” reports Taylor Kuykendall of the Register-Herald in Beckley.

Supporters of the moratorium in West Virginia include the Lewisburg City Council, which Peggy Mackenzie of the Mountain Messenger reports “may well be the first municipality in the state to declare the prohibition of locating, drilling, equipping, operating or producing any oil and gas wells within the city limits.” The council approved a resolution expressing “concerns about the lack of protection afforded the state’s water resources, particularly the Greenbrier River watershed, which is the source of water for Lewisburg’s regional system, serving 4,732 customers,” writes Tina Alvey of the Register-Herald.

New York state is enforcing a moratorium on Marcellus drilling until at least July 2011, reports the Associated Press.

W.Va. study of natural-gas pollution failed to include waste from horizontal drilling

A West Virginia University researcher who led a state-sponsored study to examine potential pollution in natural gas drilling acknowledged that the report failed to include data on all types of wastes from the Marcellus Shale formation, Ken Ward reports for the Charleston Gazette: "Teams performing the legislatively mandated review examined only materials from the vertical portion of wells, not from the horizontal drilling at those same sites, which would have included Marcellus Shale mud and drill cuttings. The omission is important because researchers believe material from the Marcellus Shale is generally more radioactive, and citizen groups are expressing growing concern about the risks of handling and disposal of radioactive drilling wastes."

During a legislative briefing on Sunday, Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of WVU's Water Research Institute, cited lack of access to data for not being able to test horizontal drilling, Ward writes. Ziemkiewicz said the state Department of Environmental Protection tried on three occasions "to obtain Marcellus drilling mud from a Stone Energy site in August 2012," but "were told each time that 'drilling malfunctions' made it impossible for them to do so."

When a second sampling site, this one operated by Chesapeake Energy, was selected, "poor weather related to Superstorm Sandy stopped the drilling there prior to reaching to Marcellus, Ziemkiewicz said," Ward writes. "The company indicated it would notify WVDEP and WVU when drilling resumed. However, when WVDEP followed up with the company after Hurricane Sandy, the agency and WVU were notified that the horizontal leg was completed and no samples were available." By then, Ziemkiewicz said, there wasn't enough time to analyze samples to complete the report by the end of 2012. (Read more)

With 30,000 wells coming, Marcellus Shale generates economic activity and ecological worry

The natural-gas industry plans to drill 30,000 wells in the Marcellus Shale formation (map) in the next 10 years, creating economic activity amid environmental concern, and some of the gas may be used to generate power that would have been generated by burning coal, Joel Kirkland of Environment & Energy News reports. "A natural gas-burning electricity generator produces half the carbon dioxide emissions of a plant that burns coal," he notes.

In the second story in a "Gas Rush" series, Kirkland also notes that "Deep-seated public anxiety has set in about the environmental impact of horizontal gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking.' Regulators responsible for protecting the clean water supplies of New York City and Philadelphia have called a drilling timeout in the Delaware River watershed. But rivers of corporate cash continue to flow into the Marcellus and other shale fields. The magnitude of investment this year alone suggests energy companies have no plans to retreat from an ocean of recoverable gas."

The boom is good economic news for many. "The low cost of producing Marcellus gas, its pipeline-ready quality and its proximity to consumers in the Northeast have driven investment" by many multinational firms, Kirkland writes, and "The gas rush in southwestern Pennsylvania has claimed a significant slice of Pittsburgh's economy. One in five business expansions is tied to the nearby shale deposits, according to the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance." (Read more, subscription requried)

Fracking crackdown, natural-gas prices depress N.Y. leases, but activity spawns a new publication

Exxon Mobil's recent $1.7 billion acquisition of Phillips Resources and TWP's Marcellus Shale gas leases may mean Marcellus prices are dropping, report Christopher Swann and Reynolds Holding of Reuters.

Exxon is paying about $5,000 an acre; in 2010 leases were selling for as much as $17,000 an acre. Falling natural-gas prices and state regulators' crack down on hydraulic fracturing are leading many energy firms to find other locations, Swann and Holding report. "Marathon Oil paid $20,000 an acre for oil-rich land in Texas earlier this month." Marcellus land does have at least one advantage over many other locations. Its proximity to New York City, where the gas sells for a premium, has Shell "mulling a new petrochemical plant in the region," Swann and Holding report.

However, the closeness to Gotham, which draws its water from a Catskills area underlain by the Marcellus, also makes activity in the area more environmentally sensitive. An online publication, The Watershed Post, has sprung up to cover the rural area, and fracking in particular. Here is a story about it from Brett Norman of Columbia Journalism Review.

Wyoming gas-drilling study influences debate over Marcellus Shale wells in western New York state

An Environmental Protection Agency study of Wyoming natural-gas drilling is affecting at least one other drilling project across the country. EPA found traces of caustic chemicals in 11 private water supplies in Wyoming, clouding the future of a proposed drilling project in Broome County, New York, Tom Wilber of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin reports, adding that the findings have intensified the debate over the proposed Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act (FRAC Act) currently before Congress.

We first reported on the controversial drilling process called "fracking," injecting a high-pressure cocktail of chemicals, water and sand into rock formations to release natural gas, in February. EPA's first investigation of water contamination due to fracking revealed contamination in 11 of 39 wells tested in Pavillion, Wyo., Bob Moen of The Associated Press reports. (Read more)

The FRAC Act, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Maurice Hinchey of New York and Diana DeGette of Colorado, would require companies to disclose the chemical solutions used in the process. Opponents say the measure could discourage drilling into strata like the vast Marcellus Shale now under development in Appalachia by 10 to 20 percent, Wilber reports. The debate is heating up as a draft of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation regulations for oversight of water-intensive drilling anticipated in full-scale Marcellus production is completed by Sept. 22.

"The analogy I like to use is when cigarette companies used to say there is no scientific proof that smoking causes lung cancer," Stan Scobies, a Binghamton advocate for a cautious drilling, told Wilber. "If you don't look, you don't find it." Roger Willis, president of Pennsylvania-based Universal Well Services, told Wilber that fracking risks are no different than any other industrialized process. While the two sides continue to debate, permits for drilling the Marcellus in New York are on hold until the DEC's assessment is complete. (Read more)

Marcellus Shale gas-drilling accidents raise fears

The June 3 well blowout at a Marcellus Shale drilling operation in rural Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, has attracted the ire of lawmakers and locals worried about the safety of the industry. Those fears were exacerbated last week when drillers near Moundsville, W.Va., "hit a pocket of methane in an inactive deep mine, causing an explosion and fire that flared 50 feet high for four days, destroyed a drilling rig and burned all seven workers on the well pad," Don Hopey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

"We're horrified by the possibilities of that happening here," Debbie Borowiec of Upper Burrell, Pa., where two gas wells are planned near 67 homes, told Hopey. "The more research we do the more horrific it is, and I don't think a lot of people know what's going on." The state Department of Environmental Resources said wastewater that escaped during the Clearfield County blowout contaminated a nearby spring, but did not affect any creeks or streams. "We now have a worst-case scenario at the Clearfield County site where there is evidence of a catastrophic release of gas and contaminated water from Marcellus well drilling," Conrad Dan Volz, director of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Healthy Environments and Communities, told Hopey.

The blowout's "silver lining, which will likely not reassure locals, is that it happened in a rural, relatively unpopulated area, Volz said. "If that accident had occurred in a populated area, like Lincoln Place in Pittsburgh, it would have had a serious impact on human health without a doubt," he added. Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, cautioned against any rush to action following the accidents saying, "To call for a moratorium at a time when family incomes are in decline and they need a good supply and a fair price on gas to heat their homes is not a good policy, especially when there are good people developing the resource." (Read more)

Environmental group starts website with information about the Marcellus Shale

The Pennsylvania Environmental Council unveiled "a new website aimed at organizing the avalanche of information on all things Marcellus Shale," the rock formation that is producing much natural gas with hydraulic fracturing, the council says in a press release.

MarcellusFacts continuously searches the Internet for new information on Marcellus Shale and presents it in an easy-to-read format. The site collects information from gas industry sources, nonprofit environmental organizations, Pennsylvania newspapers, Google News, universities, and the council's website. The goal is to present unedited information from all sides of the debate in a "clear and concise format for computers or smartphones," it says.

"There is so much information about Marcellus Shale in cyberspace that it has become very difficult to manage it all," Council President Paul King says. "Our goal in creating MarcellusFacts is to simplify the challenge of being well-informed on the issues and to make the people of Pennsylvania better participants in the public process."

Drilling in Marcellus Shale leaves more chemicals than expected, as Congress reconsiders exemption

Gas drilling companies leave a lot more water and chemicals in the Marcellus Shale formation, right, than they did in similar formations elsewhere when they won an exemption from federal regulation four years ago partly with arguments that relatively little drilling fluid remained, Abram Lustgarten of ProPublica reports. The news could affect debate on a bill in Congress that would eliminate the exemption. (ProPublica map)

"When lawmakers approved that exemption, it was generally accepted that only about 30 percent of the fluids stayed in the ground. At the time, fracturing was also used in far fewer wells than it is today and required far less fluid," Lustgarten writes. "Three company spokesmen and a regulatory officials said in separate interviews with ProPublica that as much as 85 percent of the fluids used during hydraulic fracturing is being left underground after wells are drilled in the Marcellus Shale." (Read more)

Meanwhile, Mike Lee and Elizabeth Campbell of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram report on problems caused by a disposal well for chemicals used to extract gas from the Barnett Shale, a formation similar to the Marcellus. "There have also been reports of problems in small-town water wells and private water wells across the Barnett Shale," they write.

Pennsylvania gas and oil inspectors must get top-level OK to cite drillers in Marcellus Shale

A recent directive by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection requires oil and gas inspectors get approval from top officials before citing violations in drilling of the deep, dense and gas-rich Marcellus Shale.

The department says the rule is aimed at inconsistencies in enforcement, but there is concern "that the state's environmental inspectors can no longer act independently and that regulations could be overridden by the political whims of the state's new governor, Tom Corbett," reports Abrahm Lustgarten of ProPublica, the nonprofit, investigative news operation that has won awards for its coverage of the industry. "Corbett has made no secret of his support for drilling and has stated repeatedly that regulatory reforms can help spur job creation."

Corbett's position has former DEP head John Hanger and others questioning the origin of the directive. Hanger told ProPublica, "I do not believe this is coming from John Hines," the department's executive deputy secretary, who will have to consider "each of the hundreds of enforcement actions taken routinely against oil and gas operators in Pennsylvania each month," Lustgarten reports. Hanger, who headed DEP under Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell "and worked to strengthen the state's oil and gas regulations," said he disagrees with the directive because "it represents a break from how business has been done in the department within the Marcellus Shale and within the oil and gas program for probably 20 years."

DEP spokeswoman Katy Gresh told ProPublica, "The initiative is not political, will not interfere with enforcement, and is intended to clear up confusion and inconsistency in the agency's regional offices. The governor's office is not behind this. The governor charged [DEP] secretary [Michael] Krancer with bringing about consistency in his agency. This was a decision made at DEP in order to affect positive change." (Read more)

UPDATE, May 9: DEP Secretary Mike Krancer debunked reports that inspectors were ordered to seek top approval before issuing violations by saying "such approval had not been required" and "that story was blown way out of proportion," Nicholas Kusnetz for ProPublica reports. Katy Gresh, DEP spokeswoman, added in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "The notice of violation process is just as it was. The inspectors don't need pre-approval and that has been communicated to them."

Republicans flourish in once-Democratic southwestern Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale region

Republican success at the polls last month gave the GOP control of the U.S. Senate in addition to the stronghold the party already has in the House. One area where tides are turning is southwest Pennsylvania, a region that has over the years switched its alliance from Democratic to Republican, as more Marcellus Shale oil and gas drilling sites pop up, and the business continues to boom, Lou Jacobson reports for PoliticsPA.

The area is considered the northern end of the "McCain Belt," the swath of counties running west and south to Oklahoma and Louisiana where John McCain did better in the 2008 presidential election against Barack Obama than George W. Bush did against John Kerry in 2004.

"The trend manifested itself first at the top of the ticket but has now moved down to statewide and state legislative races," David Patti, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Business Council, told Jacobson. He said southwestern Pennsylvania “may be registered Democratic, but that means little. They are pro-God, pro-life, pro-gun, moderate on the environment, moderate on tort reform and are not anti-business. They are pro-labor and don’t see that as incompatible with these other considerations. Like Ronald Reagan, they believe they aren’t leaving the Democratic Party–they believe the Democratic Party at the top of the ticket has left them.”

Observers say "the rapidly advancing energy boom has sped up the process of realignment," Jacobson writes. "In this once-sleepy corner of the state, landowners have signed mineral leases, and out-of-state energy companies have flooded the region with business and jobs. To the extent that there’s an environmental downside to the drilling, it hasn’t yet taken precedence in local public opinion, observers say."

Larry Maggi, a Democratic commissioner in Washington County for more than a dozen years, told Jacobson, "The Marcellus Shale is a game-changer, just like the heavy industry that came before it. It has literally changed Washington County’s economics. It has opened up opportunities that have never existed before. Instead of exporting of our kids, our youth are staying here.”

Southwest Pennsylvania was once densely populated, and Democrats still outnumber Republicans 3-to-2 in registration, but Republicans were out in full force during this year's election and outnumbered Democratic voters, Jacobson reports.  "Signs of this realignment—specifically, a shift from the region’s Democratic roots to a Republican ascendancy—have been under way for several years. Bolstered by voters’ disaffection with the national Democratic Party’s stances on social issues, guns and the environment and aided by a pro-Republican redistricting map in the state, the GOP has managed to win all but one of the region’s congressional seats and has gained ground in lower offices." (Read more)

Surface spills contaminating water in Marcellus Shale; levels considered too low to be harmful

Surface spills of chemicals are contaminating residential wells near Marcellus Shale fracking operations in northeast Pennsylvania, says a study of 64 private water wells by researchers published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lisa Song reports for InsideClimate News. The contamination, which was not caused by fracking compounds that were injected deep underground, was found to be at low concentrations that are not considered harmful to humans.

"Brian Drollette, a chemical and environmental engineering graduate student at Yale University and the paper's first author, called the results encouraging for local residents because they showed fracking fluids were not moving upward from the Marcellus shale to shallower groundwater aquifers—at least not in the short term," Song writes. "The study authors said this could help improve public health because residential wells near known surface spills could be monitored and targeted for treatment." (Drollette graphic: Increase in Pennsylvania gas wells from 2007-2014)

Homeowners affected by the spills "can remove the chemicals from their water using simple filtration systems," said Desirée Plata, another study author, Song writes. "Drollette said the conclusions of his study only apply to northeastern Pennsylvania. Due to differences in geology, 'our results don't necessarily translate to other shale [fields] in the U.S.,' he said."

Spills can be linked to "faulty gas well casings, leaking waste containment ponds, underground fuel storage tanks, migration from deep shale (formations approximately 1 mile deep) and surface releases associated with hydraulic fracturing activities," Drollette and Plata write for Phys.org. "We determined that the likely exposure pathway was from surface operations at gas well sites and not from deep subsurface transport."

Report lists benefits, pitfalls of Marcellus fracking

A report done for New York state officials says natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region that uses hydraulic fracturing, in which high volumes of water, sand and unknown chemicals are forced into deep, dense shales to release gas, could create 37,000 jobs and generate $31 to $185 million a year in state income taxes for New York. (Click on map for larger version)

The report for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation also outlines some pitfalls of drilling in the largely rural south-central and southwestern areas of the state, which the report says are likely to become the "epicenter of the expected hydrofracking activity over the next 30 years," Mireya Navarro of the New York Times writes. The  downsides include large-scale industrial activity, heavy truck traffic, more spending on police and fire protection, and higher housing prices, responding to demand.

The report has become part of a broader draft document that environmental regulators will use to identify risks and propose rules to allow fracking with horizontal drilling for the first time in the state, writes Navarro. The state still plans to ban fracking in most watersheds supplying drinking water, but Navarro reports that areas on the Marcellus Shale could have tens of thousands of wells. (Read more)

Study: Brine in Marcellus Shale could migrate upward, so drilling fluids might, too

A new study has concluded that salty, mineral-rich fluids naturally found below Pennsylvania's natural-gas fields could be seeping upward into residents' drinking water. The findings suggest that drilling waste and chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing "could migrate in ways previously thought to be impossible," Abrahm Lustgarten of ProPublica reports. (Getty Images photo by Spencer Platt: Gas drilling in South Montrose, Pa.)

Duke University and California State Polytechnic University researchers tested drinking-water wells and aquifers in northeastern Pennsylvania and found that water had mixed with brine that closely matches brine found in the Marcellus Shale in some samples. No drilling chemicals were found in the samples, and there was no correlation between where the natural brine was found and where drilling occurs. But, Lustgarten notes, its presence and finding that it had moved over thousands of vertical feet "contradicts the oft-repeated notion that deeply buried rock layers will always seal in material injected underground through drilling, mining or underground disposal."

The same Duke researchers found last year that methane gas was more likely to leak into water supplies in places adjacent to drilling. This is the second recent study finding that geology surrounding the Marcellus Shale region could allow contaminants to migrate more than previously expected. The other study, published in Ground Water in April, used modeling to predict that contaminants could reach the surface within 100 years. (Read more)

Gas drilling, proposed severance tax on gas are issues in race for governor of Pennsylvania

We have reported frequently on the effort to get natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation that stretches from Ohio to New York and across two-thirds of Pennsylvania. The formation is believed to hold the largest untapped natural gas reserves in the United States. John Gramlich of Stateline.org explores the political implications of drilling, the upcoming election in Pennsylvania and the possible outcomes. (Map of Marcellus Shale)

Political contributions by the gas industry in Pennsylvania have gone up as lawmakers there have debated placing a severance tax on gas, reports Gramlich. The industry has spent more than $7 million in combined campaign donations and lobbying expenses to state politicians, which have tripled in the last three years. The Republican nominee for governor, Tom Corbett, is opposed to the severance tax and received $284,000 from natural gas drillers last year. The Democratic nominee, Dan Onorato, is a severance tax supporter and received only $59,000 from drillers.

“There’s no one here who doesn’t have an opinion about it,” says Fritz Mayer, editor of The River Reporter, a local weekly newspaper whose entire staff now covers the drilling beat. The paper’s circulation has risen because of intense interest in the debate, Mayer said to Gramlich. In an effort to win over the public, the gas industry has "taken out full-page newspaper advertisements promising an economic revival for a Rust Belt state known for played-out coal mines and long-shuttered steel plants," reports Gramlich.

The Delaware River Basin Commission has so far refused to allow drilling to commence. "At issue for the commission is whether natural gas drilling — and particularly a commonly used technique known as 'hydraulic fracturing' — will contaminate local drinking water supplies, which happen to include those for many of the East Coast’s biggest urban areas," according to Gramlich. (Read more)

The Obama administration has decided to stay out of efforts to block Marcellus drilling, reports Mike Soraghan of Environment & Energy Daily. Brig. Gen. Peter "Duke" DeLuca, commander of the North Atlantic Division of the Army Corps of Engineers, last week declined a request from Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) to use DeLuca's vote on the Basin Commission to seek a temporary ban on gas production in the watershed. DeLuca was unwilling to wait on the DRBC's cumulative impact statement saying that could delay drilling for years. (Read more, subscription required)

Pennsylvania orders shutdown of natural-gas 'fracking' projects after three spills

Three spills of gel-like lubricant in a week have led the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to suspend Cabot Oil & Gas Co.'s natural-gas drilling projects in Susquehanna County. The spills at the Heitsman well site in Dimock Township polluted a wetland and caused a fish kill in Stevens Creek, George Basler of The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin in New York reports. Cabot uses chemicals under pressure to fracture deep, tight shale beds to produce gas, a process called "fracking."

"We don't think the action is necessary because we felt we were responding appropriately," Cabot spokesman Ken Komoroski told Basler. Cabot shut down the Heitsman operation voluntarily after the third spill. The DEP order required Cabot to develop an updated and accurate pollution prevention and contingency plan in 14 days and conduct and engineering work study of all their operations in 21 days. (Read more) For background on fracking, click here.

The Press & Sun-Bulletin has been reporting on the fracking controversy in the region along the states' border for a while now. In a Sept. 19 story about the disparities between Pennsylvania and New York in development of the Marcellus Shale gas play, Tom Wilbur wrote of Dimock: "Royalties tend to be uneven and inconsistent, depending on which wells happen to be producing at a given time and the price of natural gas." Water contamination problems have also become commonplace in Dimock, Wilbur reports, adding the DEP has installed purification systems in some homes affected by the drilling, but Cabot has denied responsibility in others.

Residents of Sanford, N.Y, have had a different experience with Marcellus drilling. They formed a landowner coalition that negotiated a $2,400 an acre and 15 percent royalties price for drilling rights, Wilbur reports. In Dimock many residents sold their rights for $25 an acre or less and state-minimum 12.5 percent royalties. New York has suspended permitting for Marcellus wells while its Department of Environmental Conservation reviews the environmental impact of fracking. Meanwhile, many Sanford residents say bring on the drilling. Local D'Layne Chamberlin, owner of a thriving farm helped largely by gas money, told Wilbur: "I'll help them drill the first six feet." (Read more)

Marcellus Shale drilling sites are piling up too fast for West Virginia agency to keep inspected

Most of the focus of Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling has been on New York and Pennsylvania, but now the West Virginia Department of Environmental Regulation says the number of gas wells being permitted in the state's portion of the formation is growing faster than the agency's ability to keep pace. DEP records show "the number of permits issued for unconventional drilling operations more than tripled between 2007 and 2009, but the number of inspectors increased by only one," Vicki Smith of The Associated Press reports.

Four more inspectors are on the payroll this year, but DEP Secretary Randy Huffman "acknowledges 18 people are not enough to handle not only more than 1,000 new Marcellus wells, but also tens of thousands of traditional, shallow gas wells," Smith writes. "We simply do not have the number of people necessary to do the job," Huffman told AP. "It's easy to issue a permit. What I think we're doing is issuing permits faster than we have the ability to keep up with them on the ground." The DEP plans a "comprehensive, top-down look" at its Division of Oil and Gas within the next few months to present to Gov. Joe Manchin in November.

"Any rush to judgment would be a mistake," Charlie Burd, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia, told AP. "It's not like there's some tremendously critical issue out there that should be driving this. I think everyone concerned will be better off if we take our time and do it right as opposed to reacting quickly." Burd called the DEP's timeline for the agency review "very aggressive." (Read more)

Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf reinstates fracking ban on state parklands

Newly-elected Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, on Thursday reinstated a ban on fracking in state parklands, Ben Finely reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer. "The executive order protects about a million acres—or 60 percent—of Pennsylvania state parks and forests that sit atop the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation."

Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell "imposed the ban in 2010, and his Republican successor, Tom Corbett, lifted it last year," Finley writes. "Corbett had projected up to $95 million in revenue from leases that would have been signed." Throughout his campaign, Wolf said he would reinstate the ban, if elected. Wolf beat Corbett by a count of 54.93 percent to 45.07 percent.

The oil and gas industry was not happy with the move, Don Hopey reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Pennsylvania has 2.1 million acres of state forest and has issued oil and gas leases for about 700,000 acres—more than 130,000 acres of that for Marcellus Shale deep wells."

"The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has approved more than 1,000 Marcellus Shale gas wells on forest lands, and about 600 of those wells have been drilled on 230 wellpads," Hopey writes. "But there is room on existing leases for as many as 6,000. If all of those wells are drilled and developed, approximately 25,000 forested acres would be converted for roads, pipeline right of ways and wellpads."

Feds cut Marcellus gas estimates by almost 3/4

New official estimates "severely cut" the amount of natural gas believed to be in the Marcellus Shale under several Appalachian states, but the gas boom will continue, reports Erich Schwartzel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The U.S. Department of Energy estimated 410 trillion cubic feet of gas last year, but now is guessing 141 trillion cubic feet. Researchers were able to reach the estimate because of drilling doubled in 2011, providing much more data.

Industry representatives say the estimates are premature and "as fickle as Goldilocks." Its lobbying adversary, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said the estimate "underscores the critical and growing role that American natural gas will continue to play in meeting our nation's growing energy needs for decades to come." Spokesman Travis Windle said production continues to increase because of technological developments. The Energy Department estimates production will increase from 5 trillion cubic feet in 2010 to 13.6 tcf in 2035. (Read more)

White foam in Pennsylvania drinking water linked to Marcellus Shale gas well sites

White foam found in drinking water in three homes in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, (Family Search map) was likely caused by Marcellus Shale gas well sites, said a study by researchers at Penn State University and Appalachia Hydrogeologic and Environmental Consulting published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Laura Legere reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"Test results from commercial laboratories during investigations at the sites had not picked up on what was causing the foaming—they reported no unsafe levels of compounds other than natural gas in the water, while other compounds, like glycols and surfactants, had appeared inconsistently or at barely detectable levels," Legere writes. "The same or similar organic compounds that the researchers traced in the water, including 2-n-Butoxyethanol, or 2-BE, are known to be used in drilling and hydraulic fracturing additives or to appear in waste fluids from oil and gas operations."

"Researchers said it is impossible to 'prove unambiguously' that the contaminants in the water came from shale gas-related activities because they were unable to secure samples of fluids that were used at or near the well site," Legere writes. "But they said that multiple strands of evidence, including timing, well construction problems and the presence of matching compounds in both shale fluids and the water wells, make shale activity 'the most probable source.'”

A spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition "said that significant technological advancements and stronger regulations have been developed in recent years to protect groundwater, 'which is a top industry priority,'” Legere writes.