DEC Regulation Parts 550 To 560

TO:
Attn: dSGEIS Comments NYS DEC 625 Broadway Albany NY 12233-6510
FROM: Brian Brock 486 Oak Hill Road Franklin NY 13775-3130 [email protected] DATE: January 9, 2012 RE: Revisions and Additions to 6NYCRR, Parts 550 to 560
After 25 years, DEC is nally revising and extending regulations of the Division of Mineral Resources for oil, gas, and solution mining. Unfortunately these proposed regulation are so incomplete that they should be withdrawn. Because any revisions of regulations could serve unchanged for another quarter century, they should be comprehensive. Once the SGEIS on Well Permit Issuance for Horizontal Drilling and High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing in the Marcellus Shale and Other Low-Permeability Gas Reservoirs is nalized, regulations should be revised in light of : ! The nal SGEIS. ! The 37 recommendations of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission / Environmental Protection Agency Review of Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Waste Management Regulatory Programs(1994). As recently as 2009, in answering the STate Review of Oil and Natural Gas Regulations questionnaire, the DEC admitted that most of these recommendations were not or only partially addressed. ! The GEIS on Oil, Gas, and Solution Mining Regulatory Program (1992). This GEIS, the rst guidance document for environmentally safe drilling, was never promulgated into law. Regulations based on it were proposed in 1997, but have disappeared without a trace. (Despite their being the subject of three workshops in October of that year, not one copy could be found in response to FOIL request 11-1415.) A March 2000 revision of these proposed regulations was found but was released only after redaction. The currently proposed SGEIS regulations should be built on a foundation of GEIS regulations, but that foundation does not exist. Belatedly these should be incorporated into the ongoing revisions. Even as far back as 17 years ago, NYSs inadequate oil and gas regulations were the primary criticism of IOGCC/EPA review: I.1 DMN rules require substantial upgrading to reect current statuary directives, program policies, and state-of-the-art improvements in E&P wastes management. Some of these areas requiring improvement are discussed in the GEIS and others will be highlighted in the remainder of this report. No revisions to regulations based on the GEIS or this review have been promulgated then or since. They are long overdue. Horizontal drilling with high-volume hydraulic fracturing should not be permitted until much revised regulation are promulgated. As a letter from the IOGA-NY to DEC (September 2,
2011) makes clear, the oil and gas industry wishes few or no additional regulations. In fact, they state that the lack of regulations resulting from the GEIS has served state and operators extremely well, by allowing exibility in both the conduct and practice which is desirable and necessary to promote current and future efciencies, ie. prots. It in not a stretch to conclude that the existing scandalous circumstance, where regulatory reform has been blocked for a quarter century, is the result of industry lobbying. Should permitting precede regulatory reform, regulations may never be promulgated, as happened with the GEIS. Of the proposed regulations, some suggestions: 550.1 General Policy should be expanded to include protecting environment, health, community, and infrastructure. As currently written, DMN is required only to address production. Although in the mission statement: The Division of Mineral Resources is responsible for ensuring the environmentally sound, economic development ..., this has no authority. That lack was the second criticism in the IOGCC/EPA review: I.2 One of the principal stated mission of DEC is protection of human health and the environment. However, Part 550 of DMNs rules do not expressly include protection of human health and the environment as a goal or policy directive. 550.2 Add denitions for: operations shut-in well 553.1 (5), (6), & (7) Replace shale gas pool with shale unit. Gas in shales does not occur in pools, which the DEC denes as a common accumulation(550.5 (ah)) -- otherwise there would be no need for hydraulic fracturing. Prior to its use in 553.1, I had not heard of this term and a literature search found only a few citations in obscure publications. The use of shale gas pool is unsupported by usage, science, or law. ------ Add requirement for department to check production volumes and sales price that are reported by operators for wells. Audit of DEC by the Comptroller (2005-S-54) made Recommendation 4 Obtain independent corroboration of the sales and production information reported by lease holders ... General Policy 550.1(c) requires full protection of the correlative rights of all {lease} owners and the rights of all persons {and corporations}, including landowners and the general public. These rights can not be guaranteed without knowledge of true production and sales. (b)(24) well pad shall mean the area directly disturbed during drilling, completion and operation of gas well. Add denitions for: coiled-tubing unit
snubbing unit 560.5 (c) Radius for water testing, currently 1000', should be extended to 3000'. The only peer-reviewed study of water well pollution from gas drilling (Osborn, 2011) found elevated concentrations of gas up to 1 km distance from gas wellheads. 560.5 (-) Add a list of chemicals that must be tested for: Used in Drilling and Fracing friction reducer to be used surfactant to be used biocide to be used ethylene glycol methanol Found in Formation Water TSS TDS methane BTEX Na Ba As Alpha radiation 560.7 Form of permission by owner should be specied. Is a cause in the lease agreement sufcient or must owner sign a separate permission agreement?

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Attn: dSGEIS Comments NYS DEC 625 Broadway Albany NY 12233-6510

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