Nov 2, 2024 By Brad Hundt 6 min read

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the sixth in a series of stories reflecting on 20 years of gas drilling in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

To understand why wastewater impoundments and injection wells have been a key component of natural gas drilling in the 20 years since the first drilling rig was erected in Washington County, it’s helpful to turn the clock back further than 20 years.

Much, much further. Close to 400 million years ago.

That’s when much of Pennsylvania and the states around it were a sea, teeming with sea scorpions, forerunners of clams and much tinier creatures. Once the sea receded, the rich organic matter and clay that were part of that sea became soft rock, and all the algae and plankton became methane and was buried under layers of rock that’s built up over centuries.

Extracting that methane is where hydraulic fracturing comes in. The natural gas industry uses millions of gallons of water every year for that task. It mixes water with sand and chemicals and injects it into the ground to fracture rock and release gas that would otherwise be extraordinarily tough to reach.

And the process generates millions of gallons of wastewater that is not usable for drinking or agriculture. When that water is not being used, or before it is hauled away for disposal, it is placed in impoundments that can take up several acres. Some of the wastewater is also deposited in injection wells, of which there are about 800 throughout the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and they are used not only to dispose of water used in fracking, but also for chemicals, food and municipal wastewater.

Both impoundments and injection wells have been a source of controversy and concern in the 20 years since natural gas drillers swooped into the region.

While proponents of the industry maintain that impoundments have become safer with time and trial and error, critics say that the impoundments risk the water supplies and health of residents who live near drilling sites. Injection wells, critics contend, can leak and even cause earthquakes. A proposed injection well in Nicholson Township in Fayette County was scrapped last year following fervent opposition from nearby residents, and it prompted the county to tighten its regulations surrounding injection wells.

“Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry is proud of our strong environmental performance record, especially as it relates to effectively managing and protecting our water resources,” according to Dave Callahan, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition. “Through collaboration with stakeholders, especially state regulators and community-level partners, our industry continues to implement efficient and safe solutions to how we do our work.”

An industry trade group, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, says that 95% of the water used in the natural gas industry is recycled, and that operations in this region are now “benchmarks in other gas-producing regions across the country.”

However, the potential dangers of impoundments were highlighted a decade ago when Range Resources, the energy company that has adopted the highest profile in the region, was fined a record $4.1 million by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for leaks and other problems that had surfaced at six of its Washington County impoundments. The agreement reached between Range Resources and the DEP also mandated that the company close five of its impoundments and make improvements to two others.

The DEP found that a leak at an impoundment in Amwell Township caused by a tear in its liner contaminated groundwater and led to the removal of 15,000 tons of soil. Another impoundment, located in Hopewell Township, developed a hole, according to the DEP, which led to diluted fluid used in fracking leaking into a tributary of Cross Creek.

Christopher Abruzzo, who was then secretary of the DEP, said that the fine levied against Range Resources established “a new, higher benchmark for companies to meet when designing future impoundments, which is an environmental win for Pennsylvania.” Matt Pitzarella, then a spokesman for Range Resources, expressed disappointment that the violations occurred, but that “newly established best practices and technologies” would be implemented.

Range Resources has declined to provide comment for this series.

Dave Hess was secretary of the DEP from 2001 to 2003 in the administrations of Tom Ridge and Mark Schweicker. He left the post before the Marcellus Shale boom began, and now writes about it in his blog, PA Environment Digest. Hess believes that some of the problems with water impoundments were the result of drillers working on different terrain than the Texas landscape where they had been fracking before they arrived in Pennsylvania.

He also agrees that impoundments have become safer over the last two decades. “Initially there were a lot of problems,” he said. A more pressing issue today, in Hess’ estimation, are the pipelines that are being constructed to carry wastewater that could be subject to leaks or other problems.

“The fact that there are no regulations on the pipelines is a real issue,” Hess said. “I think it deserves close scrutiny. … There are no standards for how they are constructed or routed.”

Lisa DePaoli, the communications director for the Center for Coalfield Justice, says that the impoundments may have improved through better construction, but “anything that is open to the air like this poses a danger.”

Some of the water from those impoundments can be disposed of by placing it in an injection well. The first injection well was used by the oil industry in the 1930s to get rid of brine. No injection wells are in Washington, Greene or Fayette counties. The closest one is in the Allegheny County community of Plum, and there are 19 in Pennsylvania, according to 2023 data from the EPA. In neighboring Ohio, there are more than 200. In 2022, an application for an injection well was submitted to Fayette County officials, who handle zoning for Nicholson Township, where the injection well would have been located.

After residents expressed vehement opposition to the proposed injection well, the application from Virginia-based G2 STEM LLC was withdrawn. Earlier this year, Fayette County’s commissioners approved an ordinance that, among other things, has a setback distance of 2,500 feet, or a little less than a half-mile, for injection wells. State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa, a Republican who represents the area in Harrisburg, co-sponsored a measure that would prohibit injection wells in Pennsylvania.

She said the material in the wastewater “would present possible health risks if they are allowed to mix with our drinking water.” Grimm Krupa said the wells were not an “acceptable risk … considering the severe consequences that may result if an accidental spill or leaking incident occurs.”

In a fact sheet the group has provided, the Marcellus Shale Coalition states that “strict well-monitoring protocols are required by the EPA for operating these wells.” They also say, “Injection wells are an economical method of disposal for wastewater resulting from oil and gas production and have proven to be a safe alternative for managing drilling and production wastes for decades.”