PA Environment Secretary Seeks Tougher Drilling Laws

Friday, June 03, 2011
The Associated Press


HARRISBURG -- Gov. Tom Corbett's administration is recommending tougher laws to protect drinking water from pollution caused by booming natural gas exploration in Pennsylvania and to allow the state to wield harsher penalties against drilling companies that violate the law.

One recommendation would restrict well drilling within 1,000 feet of a public water supply. Currently, the law requires as little as 100 feet in many cases. Another would clarify the DEP's authority to revoke or refuse to issue a drilling permit under certain conditions, and allow it to require comprehensive tracking of drilling wastewater that would help the agency more accurately determine wastewater recycling rates.

Mr. Krancer also recommended expanding buffer requirements between gas wells and private drinking water wells from 200 feet to 500 feet; boosting per-day penalties for violating the law and well-plugging insurance requirements; and extending a driller's presumptive liability for pollution or water loss from 1,000 feet to 2,500 feet from a gas well.

Many of those recommendations, if not all, have been under consideration in the Legislature since last year, with little action. Some of the bills would provide for stronger protections than the Corbett administration advocates.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11154/1151119-100.stm#ixzz1OFp45VBS

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Well, it's a start.

There must be a catch somewhere.

They could be indefinitely delayed, watered down, or simply ignored.

Not unlike the administration's promise to get out of Iraq by the end of the year, followed by the Secretary of Defense giving a speech at the American Enterprise Institute stating it's the administration's wish to stay on in Iraq through 2012, or until the mideast situation stabilizes.

It's always words versus deeds with politicians.