Quality

As Marcellus Shale development has been expanding across Pennsylvania, dairy production has been falling, but it’s unclear how the two trends are connected, according to a report from Pennsylvania State University.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) appointed Zak Covar executive director for the agency effective May 1. Covar has served as deputy executive director since August 2009. He succeeds Mark Vickery, who is retiring from state government after 25 years of service. From 2005 to 2007, Covar worked as the environmental and natural resource adviser to Gov. Rick Perry and was responsible for advising the governor and senior staff on all major budget and policy issues pertaining to the TCEQ, the Railroad Commission of Texas and Texas Parks and Wildlife.

It is a matter of when, not if, additional testing will be done in Pavillion, WY, where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has two test wells that turned up suspected chemicals tied to the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of natural gas wells in the area. Gov. Matt Mead’s spokesperson has confirmed that additional tests are coming, but they are still not scheduled.

A recent settlement of a case involving one of the first shale gas wells in the Delaware River Basin will change the way future Marcellus Shale wells are permitted in that region.

An estimated 56 million barrels of water are produced as a result of onshore oil and natural gas development every day, and while the quality is poor, most of the contaminants occur naturally in the produced water, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

An estimated 56 million barrels of water are produced as a result of onshore oil and natural gas development everyday, and while the quality is poor, most of the contaminants occur naturally, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Only some of the contaminants are added through drilling, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and pumping oil and gas.

A contentious House committee hearing over an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report on possible natural gas contamination of well water started off with the ejection from the hearing room of director Josh Fox of the controversial film, Gasland.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) said up to $4.5 million in grants is being made available to support development of a network of natural gas vehicle (NGV) fueling stations in Texas. The TCEQ Clean Transportation Triangle grants are part of the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan and are offered to entities that intend to build natural gas fueling stations along interstate highways connecting Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth (see Daily GPI, Jan. 17). The stations must be located no more than three miles from the interstate highways and must be made available to the public. A preference will be given to stations providing both liquefied natural gas and compressed natural gas at a single location and to stations located not more than one mile for an interstate highway system. The application deadline is April 16. For information visit www.terpgrants.org, or call (800) 919-8377.

With one transaction, Chesapeake Midstream Partners LP (CHKM) has become the “biggest gathering system in the Marcellus Shale,” CEO J. Mike Stice said Thursday.