Tell Your State Representative to Oppose Rollbacks in Drilling Standards

From Clean Water Action (http://www.cleanwateraction.org/):

They’re at it again. You may recall that we recently emailed you about the state legislature resurrecting failed polices from past sessions to weaken the process for passing new or updated regulations. Well, now the State House is bringing back another piece of failed legislation you helped us defeat last session. HB 1144 would rollback protections for shallow oil and gas drilling to 1980’s standards.

Email your state representative today at https://cleanwater.salsalabs.org/pa-oppose-hb1144/index.html and tell him/her to vote NO on HB 1144!

The most concerning aspects being reintroduced are:

• Prohibiting municipal governments from enacting local ordinances that would protect residents and the environment from shallow drilling operations.
• Eliminating the requirements to report any spills less than 5 barrels of oil (200 gallons) or 15 barrels of brine (600 gallons).
• Encouraging the use of produced water for dust control on unpaved roads. Produced water can contain high levels of salts, metals, chemicals, and radioactivity which can pose risks to wildlife, vegetation, drinking water, and nearby residents because they can persist in the environment for many years. This policy is so controversial it was amended out of the last version.
• Allowing drinking water supplies impacted by drilling operations to be restored in certain situations to levels that don’t meet Pennsylvania Safe Drinking Water Act standards.

Facts and real events continue to show the immediate need to strengthen regulations related to shallow drilling not return them to outdated 1980’s standards. Today most wells—deep and shallow alike—are stimulated by hydraulic fracturing which uses toxic chemicals and large volumes of water, disturb land, and generate polluting waste.

In addition, the Department of Environmental Protection’s Oil and Gas Annual Reports reported shallow oil and gas operations totaled nearly 10,000 violations. Not only is this on the rise but many of these violations are related to environmental health and safety.

Email your state representative NOW and tell them to oppose HB 1144.