Major FrackAttack Victories

January 13, 2012

Yesterday Clean Air Council Attorneys attended the Air Quality Technical Advisory Committee meeting in Harrisburg, PA. PA DEP made four major shale-related announcements that flow either directly or indirectly from the Council's FrackAttack Initiative. 

• PA DEP is looking to lease land and place an ozone monitor in Bradford County near Marcellus Shale operations. Currently ozone monitors are placed in more urban areas. Marcellus Shale operations release nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds into the air. When NOx and VOCs combine in the presence of sunlight ozone is formed. Historically ozone is formed in urban areas, but with a number of natural gas air pollution sources dotting rural Pennsylvania there are concerns that ozone levels will increase but will not be accounted for due to the lack of rural monitors.
   
• PA DEP is currently preparing a Marcellus Shale long-term comprehensive air sampling report. PA DEP has performed three short-term ambient air sampling reports, available here, here and here. The studies indicate that “[d]ue to the limited scope and duration of the sampling and the limited number of sources and facilities sampled, the findings only represent conditions at the time of the sampling and do not represent a comprehensive study of emissions.” Therefore, it is imperative that a long-term and comprehensive study be performed to determine the extent of the emissions Pennsylvania citizens are exposed to.
   
• A substantive modification to General Permit 5 (GP-5) will be released to the public for comment during the first week of February and be available for comment for at least 45 days. In accordance with 25 Pa. Code § 127.611, PA DEP may issue or modify a general plan approval or general operating permit for any category of stationary air contamination source if they determine that sources in the category are similar and can be adequately regulated using standardized specifications and conditions. PA DEP provides notice and a comment opportunity on a proposed issuance or modification of a general plan approval or operating permit. However, once the general permit is finalized, a stationary source which fits within the conditions of the general permit may submit an application and PA DEP will take action on the application within thirty days of receipt with no public notice or opportunity for input.
   
  The GP-5 authorizes the construction and/or operation of a natural gas, coal bed methane or gob gas production or recovery facility. PA DEP and the Marcellus Shale industry have become more and more reliant on the GP-5. Citizens have become increasingly outraged and fearful due to the lack of transparency and public input with respect to the GP-5 permitting process.
   
  An internal combustion engine with a rated capacity equal to or greater than 1500 bhp may not be installed under the General Permit. However, GP-5 permits have been issued for multiple engines nearing that limit. For example, on October 29, 2011, a GP-5 permit was issued for twelve 1,380 bhp engines, four dehydrators and an emergency generator. Citizens surrounding the facility were only notified when the permit was approved and were given no notice of the potential emissions, controls or requirements.  
   
• On January 3, 2012, the Council submitted a letter to PA DEP expressing concern the PA DEP's request letters for the Marcellus Shale emissions inventory had not been sent to all companies operating in the state. At the AQTAC meeting PA DEP addressed the Council's letter and stated that they had missed some companies which were not associated with wells and that they sent requests on January 5, 2012 to four of the five companies the Council listed as missing. PA DEP will perform further review to ensure that all midstream companies are included in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale Emissions inventory. PA DEP will further place an announcement in the Pennsylvania Bulletin that emissions data will be required from all Marcellus Shale operators within 60 days of publication. Methodologies will be provided to the companies to estimate their emissions from 2011 and emissions data will be due on March 1, 2012. Marcellus Shale companies will have to submit emissions inventory information each year by March 1st. PA DEP presented a powerpoint which outlines the emissions inventory requirements including how they are addressing the failure to include the midstream companies

Today in the Pennsylvania Bulletin PA DEP announced that a public meeting and public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 in the Muncy Valley Area Volunteer Fire Company, 11997 Route 42, Muncy Valley, to discuss an Air Quality plan approval application, 57-00004A, submitted by Central New York Oil and Gas LLC for construction of a new compressor station in Davidson Township, Sullivan County. This meeting is in response to over 60 comments and requests for a hearing submitted to PA DEP from local residents.

PA DEP also announced that they are re-opening the comment period for four proposed Laser Compressor stations in Susquehanna County. This comes after an initial comment period in August in which only the applications from Laser were made available to the public instead of full PA DEP review and proposed permits. The Council submitted comments in August highlighting the insufficient public notice. The Council plans to perform a file review on these four files and expects that they will be more complete this time.