CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has begun gathering more detailed information about where oil and gas producers are getting water to drill their wells and how they'll dispose of it afterward.
A new online form requires companies to cite the source of the water they're withdrawing, as well as how they plan to treat it and dispose of it afterward
The form, issued last week, must be completed when an operator is using more than 750,000 gallons to hydraulically fracture or "frack" a well in any natural gas formation, said Scott Mandirola, acting director of the Division of Water and Waste Management.
It applies not only to the massive Marcellus shale field, but also to companies fracking for coalbed methane.
The new form seeks more detailed information than in the past, including: latitudes and longitudes; volumes and dates of water withdrawals; well names, numbers and target formations; vo lumes injected; and locations of disposal sites, whether through underground injection, treatment plant, land application or reuse.
A typical Marcellus shale well requires about a million gallons of water. Drillers inject the water, mixed with sand and chemicals, into tightly compacted rock to force open channels and allow oil and gas to flow.
Fracking has come under increasing scrutiny as drilling crews flock to the Marcellus region, a gas reserve the size of Greece that lies about 6,000 feet beneath New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.
Last month, several congressmen concerned about potential environmental and public health problems asked eight oil and gas companies to provide information about those chemicals, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.
A 2004 study by the Environmental Protection Agency said there was no evidence fracking threatens drinking water, but critics contend the report's methodology was flawed.
W est Virginia's new disposal-plan requirement builds an existing pre-use report that had been required by the DEP's Office of Oil and Gas.
In January, that office began requiring operators expecting to use more than 210,000 gallons of water to estimate volumes, identify sources and explain disposal methods.
Brian Carr, of the Office of Oil and Gas, says the new form was required under a 2008 amendment to the state Water Resources Protection and Management Act.
The information collected will help create a state Water Management Plan, which is due with the Legislature in 2013.
