On January 13, 2014, the Pennsylvania Senate’s
Appropriations Committee passed S.B.411 which would amend Pennsylvania’s Environmental Good Samaritan Act to
limit the liability of mine operators who provide “treated mine drainage from a
permitted mining activity site” for reuse in hydraulic fracturing operations in
oil and gas development. The mine operators would be “immune from
liability for any cost, injury or damage arising out of the use of the treated
mine drainage” if (i) the mine water is used outside the boundaries of the
permitted mining activity, (ii) the water is for the development of a gas well
or another beneficial use, and (iii) the mine operator is not the same person
using the water for gas well development or other use.
This bill has been promoted as a means of encouraging gas
drillers to use mine water rather than relying on the continued heavy use of
municipal and fresh water sources as well as a means of remedying one of
Pennsylvania’s greatest sources of water pollution, namely drainage from
abandoned mines.
Without the limitations provided under S.B. 411, oil and gas
developers are understandably reluctant to use acid mine water, having concerns
about the potential long term liability for any future impacts on fresh water
sources under the state’s Clean Streams Law while only using the mine water
temporarily, for a few weeks at most.
In January 2013, the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection published a white paper to promote the voluntary use of acid mine water by the oil and gas
industry and to establish a process for the review and evaluation of proposals
to use acid mine water in natural gas extraction operations.
Of interest is a recent Duke University study indicating that, when acid mine water and hydraulic
fracturing flowback fluids are blended together, the acid mine water can act as
a treating agent to remove radioactive material from the fracking
wastewater.
