Pennsylvania Adopts Updates to Oil and Gas Drilling Regulations

The Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board, an independent body responsible for adopting environmental regulations, passed revisions to the oil and gas drilling regulations known as the “Environmental Protection Performance Standards at Oil and Gas Well Sites.” The rulemaking modernizes and strengthens the environmental controls employed by both conventional and unconventional oil and gas industries to assure the protection of public health, safety, and the environment. Among other requirements, the new performance standards at oil and gas well sites ban open-air waste-storage pits, establish minimum distances that wells must be from schools and playgrounds, and add new rules for monitoring wells and cleaning up spills. The rules will be reviewed next by the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission and the House and Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committees. For more information, see the fact sheet prepared by Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. [Teplitzky]