Oct 23, 2012 3 min read

A bill that provides liability protection for natural gas drilling companies using abandoned mine water for hydraulic fracturing has passed the state Senate.Senate Bill 1346, sponsored by Sen. Richard A. Kasunic, D-Fayette County, was approved unanimously last week. According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, acid mine drainage flows out of abandoned mines at a rate of 300 million gallons a day, affecting 5,500 of the state’s 86,000 miles of waterways.”It is unquestionably the largest legacy environmental issue we face as a state, so any measure that would support the trust funds and costs of treating the water, while providing a nonfreshwater source for the active drilling industry, is clearly a win-win,” said Kevin Sunday, a DEP spokesman. Will Dando, Kasunic’s spokesman, said acid mine water is a $5 billion problem in Pennsylvania. The state, Dando noted, does not have enough money to clean up the problem and needs the help of private investment. However, because the bill was not considered by the House before the Legislature adjourned its session, it will have to be reintroduced after the new year.Although interest in using abandoned mine water by gas extraction companies had been raised previously, the industry feared liability for water beyond that which was needed for hydraulic fracturing.Dando said the industry did not want to be perpetually treating the water. The Senate bill provides those liability protections should the water be used for oil and gas drilling.Natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale requires anywhere from 3 million to 5 million gallons of water per well site.Coal mine water is typically acidic and includes total dissolved solids, iron, aluminum, sulfates, manganese and barium.The possibility of using alternative nonfreshwater sources for gas drilling had been recommended in the Governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission’s final report in July.Aimee Curtright, who authored a RAND Corp. report, said as the gas industry began recycling its frackwater, it questioned the use of industrial wastewater. But the state’s Clean Streams Law discourages use of the water by placing open-ended liability on acid mine water use.The DEP began studying the use of acid mine water last year. It has issued a draft, but its final report has not been released.On Tuesday, Earthjustice, on behalf of 13 environmental groups, asked Gov. Tom Corbett to reverse a policy change on when the public is notified of potential water contamination related to drilling, saying it appears to accommodate the natural gas industry more than the homeowner.But Sunday said there has been no delay in communicating with homeowners whose well water may have been impacted, only that senior management at DEP now is apprised.”We provide homeowners with sample results as we get them and are in continuous communication throughout our investigations,” he wrote in an email seeking comment. “We are serious about proper enforcement, and the record shows that this administration issued the single-largest penalty in the history of the state’s oil and gas program – more than $1 million – to an operator in a case involving gas migration,” he also wrote.