DEP kills directive limiting violations on drilling

The state Department of Environmental Protection has killed a controversial directive that required all of its shale-gas drilling inspectors to get approval from the agency's chief before issuing violations.

Katy Gresh, the agency's spokeswoman, said the DEP's top staff had reaffirmed to field inspectors that they have the full power to write up polluters without getting prior approval from DEP secretary Michael Krancer.

She said a controversial March 23 e-mail to agency workers - meant to be internal but leaked to the media - had been badly written in saying that Krancer would have "final clearance" over citations.

"The secretary's intent was not clearly communicated" at the time of the memo, Gresh said Tuesday. All Krancer was seeking was to ensure that he was notified of regulatory actions, Gresh said.

Jeff Schmidt, director of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Sierra Club and one of several critics of the original directive, said Tuesday that the DEP was now generating a tale of "smoke and mirrors" to pretend there had been no reversal.

In the original March 23 e-mail, a top Krancer aide wrote that "effective immediately," all violations must first be sent to him and another senior aide - with "final clearance" from Krancer, the new agency chief as a nominee of incoming Gov. Corbett. (The state Senate confirmed Krancer's nomination last week.)

Schmidt said the original edict was "explicit" in its demands.

"I think they never intended for it to be public, therefore they never planned to deal with it if it became public," Schmidt said. "Now they're coming up with one story after another to change history."

The centralization of control generated sharp controversy when the leaked e-mail's text was published in several newspapers. Critics said it appeared to signal a softening of the agency's scrutiny of natural gas drillers.

Aides said the move was aimed at enforcing uniformity in regulatory actions by agency field staff in the booming Marcellus Shale region.

The agency's move to rescind the directive was first reported Tuesday by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. John Hanger, Krancer's predecessor under Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and a leading critic of the directive, saluted its rescinding after just five weeks.

Hanger called it "an unwise and now a relatively short detour. I'm pleased that inspectors have had their authority to issue notices restored.

"The directive was a break from the practice of five previous [DEP] secretaries and three governors. . . . It was a mistake. And I think people who correct mistakes should be complimented."

In early April, 42 environmental organizations, faith groups, and businesses sent a letter to Corbett criticizing the shift. Those critics have been watching Krancer closely, aware that his boss, Corbett, received more than $800,000 in campaign contributions from drilling interests during his run for governor last year.

In reply to the groups last Wednesday, Corbett seemed to suggest that there had been no new policy. The governor, too, wrote that the directive's goal had been simply to make sure Krancer and his top aides were aware of violations.

"Inspectors in the field will continue to maintain the same ability to issue notice of violations as they have in the past," Corbett said.

In an interview with The Inquirer on Friday, Krancer said he had been unfairly criticized over the matter.

"There is no preapproval by me, by central office," he said. "That is simply a wrong story. I do believe it's being used by some folks for some purposes. It's just false."

He also said that major enforcement actions were always reviewed by Harrisburg under previous administrations.

Jan Jarrett, president of PennFuture, an environmental-advocacy group, praised the decision to revise the directive, which she had contended would handcuff inspectors' abilities to tackle pollution problems caused by natural gas drilling.

"We're glad to see they realized the importance of allowing inspectors to do the job they were hired to do," she said.

She said she thought the earlier directive, and the quick decision to revise it, may have been "part of the learning curve" for Krancer. "Now that he understands it," she said, "he's comfortable with the way inspectors operate out in the field."