Commentary: New rules would make drilling safer in Pa.

By Greg Vitali

The Independent Regulatory Review Commission on April 21 will consider rules to make gas drilling safer in Pennsylvania. The commission should approve these rules, and the General Assembly should allow them to become law.

The rules were submitted by the state Department of Environmental Protection and will provide a much-needed strengthening of Pennsylvania's oil and gas regulatory program.

The regulations include requiring drillers to:

Restore water supplies they have degraded to Safe Drinking Water Act standards.

Refrain from using temporary pits to store drill cuttings and waste fluids.

Comply with more stringent spill reporting and cleanup standards.

Provide secondary containment measures around storage vessels, trucks, and drill rigs.

Provide more security to prevent vandalism of tanks.

These commonsense provisions will better protect public health and the environment while allowing the drilling industry to conduct its business.

The regulations have been thoroughly vetted, with 12 public hearings and nearly 28,000 public comments.

They are also long overdue. Rules for surface activities associated with oil and gas wells have not been updated since 2001.

These rules do have opposition in the industry and the legislature. On March 24, the Pennsylvania Independent Petroleum Producers Association filed a lawsuit challenging the regulations. The legislature attempted to block a portion of them, but Gov. Wolf vetoed that bill.

The House and Senate can still stop these regulations. Instead, they should allow them to pass. Protection of public health and the environment require that these regulations be implemented as soon as possible.

State Rep. Greg Vitali (D., Delaware) represents the 166th Legislative District. GVitali@pahouse.net