Monday, September 13, 2010

Pennsylvania broke law on natgas water use

By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA | Mon Aug 9, 2010

(Reuters) - Pennsylvania regulators are illegally allowing natural gas
companies to withdraw water from rivers and streams for use in the
Marcellus Shale drilling boom, an environmental group claims.

The Allegheny Defense Project says the state's Department of Environmental
Protection has no legal right to permit drillers, as it does, to take
millions of gallons of water from rivers in the western part of the state.

That right belongs to owners of riparian land -- that which borders
waterways -- but DEP has ignored the law in facilitating the industry's
demands, the group said in a letter sent to DEP Secretary John Hanger in
late July....continued...