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WV SORO Action Alert
February 28, 2010
Contact Your Delegates Now ~ Urge Them to Support the Marcellus Shale "Water Bill"
HB 4513, the Marcellus Shale “water bill” – was passed out of House Judiciary Committee Thursday, and will be up for House passage early this week.
Now is the time to contact your Delegates and ask them to vote in favor of this important bill aimed at protecting our water resources from Marcellus gas well drilling.
HB 4513 establishes minimum reporting requirements for water use in drilling and fracturing Marcellus Shale wells.
It’s a good start at regulating withdrawal of water for drilling and fracturing these wells. The bill also contains regulations requiring identification of the contents of fracing fluids and sets up a system for tracking the disposal of those fluids.
Please contact members of the House of Delegates, expressing your support for HB 4513.
Talking points are included below, courtesy of the WV Environmental Council.
Call the Capitol toll free at (877)-565-3447 to leave a message for your Delegate(s) or click here to get their Capitol office numbers and e-mail addresses. If you do not know who your Delegates are you can find out here.
Talking Points / Reasons to Support HB 4513
Protecting State Water Resources from Marcellus Gas Well Drilling
HB 4513 establishes additional requirements for the drilling and fracturing of Marcellus Shale gas wells. These requirements are necessary in order to protect rivers and streams from becoming dewatered by stream withdrawals or contaminated by disposal of wastewater produced in the drilling and fracturing process.
The bill would require that prior to drilling, fracturing or stimulating Marcellus Shale gas wells that use large volumes of water, operators must submit the following information to WV DEP’s Office of Oil and Gas:
* Type of water source (surface, underground or groundwater) and county of origin
* GPS data of withdrawal location
* Anticipated volume of each withdrawal
* Anticipated months when water withdrawals will be made
* Planned management and/or disposition of wastewater
* Additives to fracing fluids and material data safety sheets
For surface water withdrawals, a water resources protection plan that includes the above information, and measures to be taken to allow the state to manage water quantity. The Plan must include the following:
* Current designated and existing water uses, including public water intakes within one mile downstream
* Demonstration of sufficient instream flow immediately downstream
* Use of the DEP Water Use Guidance Tool as a measurement of flow
* Measures to protect fish
Further, the bill mandates that operators keep records of their handling of frac water, including the quantity of flowback water, the quantity of produced water, and the method of disposal of flowback and produced water.
For disposal of these waste waters, operators must keep records of the quantity of all water transported to disposal facilities, the collection and disposal locations of all waste water, and the name of the water hauler.
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