Ohio legislative panel OKs new rules for gas wells

JULIE CARR SMYTH

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — An Ohio leg­isla­tive panel approved new rules Mon­day for the con­struc­tion of oil and gas drilling wells, amid an under­ground shale explo­ration boom in the state.

The state’s rule-setting com­mit­tee also cleared new guide­lines for drilling per­mits and set cer­tain indus­try stan­dards, pri­mar­ily affect­ing wells in the Utica and Mar­cel­lus shale formations.

Larry Wolpert, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Joint Com­mit­tee on Agency Rule Review, said the panel must clear or reject rules based on tech­ni­cal cri­te­ria not pol­icy. He said no one objected to the rules, which con­form reg­u­la­tions to a bill passed two years ago. The new rules are expected to take effect Aug. 1.

The panel did not take up any of the envi­ron­men­tal or pub­lic health con­cerns debated at pub­lic forums in Ohio, Penn­syl­va­nia, New York and other states involv­ing hydraulic frac­tur­ing, or frack­ing. And a Sierra Club spokesman said the group con­sid­ers the com­mit­tee action as procedural.

In the rush to release new deposits as a result of advances in hor­i­zon­tal drilling, Ohio has issued 207 new per­mits for wells in the Utica Shale in east­ern Ohio over a year’s period that ended in March. Monthly per­mits rose ten­fold over that time.

Frack­ing involves blast­ing mil­lions of gal­lons of water, mixed with chem­i­cals and sand, at the under­ground shale to cre­ate fis­sures in the rock and release gas and oil deposits. Envi­ron­men­tal­ists and peo­ple liv­ing near drilling sites say the risks include con­t­a­m­i­nated water wells and air pol­lu­tion. The indus­try says those fears are exag­ger­ated and the process has been used safely on tens of thou­sands of wells.

Jack Shaner, a spokesman for the Ohio Envi­ron­men­tal Coun­cil, said Mon­day the orga­ni­za­tion was gen­er­ally sup­port­ive of the new well con­struc­tion rules.

“We are sat­is­fied that DNR has done a good job on these rules,” he said. “How­ever, Ohio needs to put many more pro­tec­tions in place and that’s the cen­ter of the debate right now in the Leg­is­la­ture. Well con­struc­tion is a crit­i­cal part of this, but it’s not the only part.”

Shaner said envi­ron­men­tal­ists are still fight­ing for strong pub­lic notice require­ments, full dis­clo­sure of the chem­i­cals used in the drilling process, and tough fines, among other things.

In a let­ter Fri­day to nearly 1,400 oil and gas pro­duc­ers, state nat­ural resources direc­tor James Zehringer said the new rules would be both envi­ron­men­tally safe and business-friendly. Zehringer also pitched smaller oil and gas pro­duc­ers on the fact that a sev­er­ance tax increase on high-volume wells, pro­posed by Gov. John Kasich, would not apply to them.

The tax hike has been opposed by the Ohio Oil and Gas Asso­ci­a­tion as an unfair bur­den on the industry.

Depart­ment spokesman Carlo LoParo said the let­ter was not an attempt to muster sup­port among smaller drillers for the governor’s pro­posal, which has stalled at the State­house. He said reg­u­la­tory updates are sent rou­tinely to affected businesses.

Posted by AP News on May 7 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.