Proposed Delaware River Basin fracking ban sparks legislation

On May 16, 2019, Delaware Governor John Carey, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed a proclamation in support of a permanent fracking ban in the Delaware River Basin.

The Delaware River Basin is a 330-mile-long river watershed running through four states: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Since 1961, the Delaware River Basin Commission (“DRBC”), a regional interstate and federal agency, has managed the basin. The governors for the four basin states and the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the North Atlantic Division make up the voting members of the … Continue Reading

PA federal judge strikes down municipal fracking ban

By Barclay Nicholson (US) and Robby Marcum (US) on October 9, 2017 Posted in Hydraulic fracking, Marcellus Shale, Northeast, Pennsylvania, Utica shale

Late last month, a federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania struck down a township’s ban on fracking activities. The ban, which prevented the injection of fracking waste into a well underlying the town, was preempted by state and federal law, said the judge.

The judge ruled that the ban was preempted by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and Pennsylvania’s Act 13, which prevents municipalities from passing ordinances that regulate oil and gas activity except through limited channels, namely the state’s Municipalities Planning Code and Flood Plain Management Act.… Continue Reading

PA DEP addresses possible link between local earthquakes and fracking

By Barclay Nicholson (US) and Robby Marcum (US) on March 1, 2017 Posted in Hydraulic fracking, Northeast, Pennsylvania, Utica shale

Pennsylvania’s environmental regulators last month addressed a potential link between a string of small local earthquakes and hydraulic fracturing in the Utica Shale. The state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) released a report in February analyzing together four small-scale earthquakes, which occurred in April 2016 in Lawrence County, and fracking operations in the surrounding area.

The relevant well pad, the report states, is located within five miles of most of the reported epicenters of the earthquakes. Fracking began at the pad almost a month before seismic activity was recorded in nearby townships.

Says the DEP in the report, “There is … Continue Reading