"NARROWSBURG, NY — They came seeking a stance on regional natural gas drilling from the Upper Delaware Council. Instead, local citizens and members of the Damascus Citizens for Sustainability learned that the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a federal-interstate compact government agency, is in the process of formulating new regulations to increase protection of the basin’s water resources.
“The DRBC has regulatory responsibility for both water quantity and water quality,” said DRBC communications manager Clarke Rupert. “We’re not hanging our hat just on water quantity; we’re using a clause in our compact which allows us to look at proposed projects that may have a negative effect on water resources of the basin.”
Rupert went on to say that the DRBC has identified three areas of concern. “Water quantity; we want to know where the water’s coming from. What kinds of activities will be taking place on the site when the drilling takes place, and the recovered fracking water, which needs to be properly treated and disposed of,” explained Rupert. “There are only two permitted facilities in Pennsylvania that can handle such briny solutions. We’ll need to know what the plans are for treating this recovered frack water.”
The DRBC also wants to know what’s in the frack water and is creating an addendum to its current application to address this. “Regarding the fracking fluids and the chemicals that will be added, my understanding is that that will be one of the pieces of information included on that addendum to the application that they will need to disclose to us,” Rupert said.
Rupert stressed that the DRBC still has not received a single application for natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale Formation. The agency has summarized its perspective and roles in relation to gas drilling on its website at www.drbc.net. Its standard application is available there and the new addendum will be included." More>>>>
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