Court issues split decision on natural gas drilling rules
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A state court on Monday upheld portions of Pennsylvania regulations that address Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling, although the judges also sided with some of the arguments made by an industry group.
The seven-judge Commonwealth Court panel's 91-page decision concerns a lawsuit brought by the Marcellus Shale Coalition against the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Environmental Quality Board.
The judges said state officials were not authorized to require restoration of sites to their approximate original conditions within nine months of when drilling has ended.
The agencies did not persuade the judges that they have the power to require well operators to monitor wells near their drilling operations, even if they do not have the right to go on those properties and plug them if needed, Judge Kevin Brobson wrote for the unanimous court.
But the judges sided with Environmental Protection and the board in other respects, including on rules for liquid impoundment ponds and how drillers must respond when nearby wells are affected by their activity.
The decade-old boom in hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale formation that has brought wells to a wide swath of northern and southwestern Pennsylvania is considered unconventional well drilling. There are currently about 9,000 unconventional wells producing natural gas in the state, including at least one in 33 of 67 counties.
A Marcellus Shale Coalition spokesman, John Sutter, said the organization's lawyers were reviewing the decision. State officials did not return messages seeking comment.
Where the state's 2012 law on natural gas drilling did not apply, the judges found, the Clean Streams Law and other state laws often did provide authority for the 2016 regulations.
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