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A pro-natural gas drilling group recently withdrew request for a hearing with the federal interstate agency responsible for regulating water use in the Delaware Basin, a move that has their opposition group up in arms.
The Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance requested a hearing with the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) over issues of exploratory wells in Wayne County.
Marion Schweighofer, executive director of the NWPOA, said her organization wanted the DRBC to reconsider its inclusion of test wells in its moratorium on natural-gas development.
The DRBC placed a moratorium on all well drilling in the Delaware River Basin on June 14, and until the drilling regulations are put into finished form, drilling in the basin remains under the moratorium.
Schweighofer said all the test wells Hess Corporation and Newfield Exploration wanted to drill during 2010 on lands leased by the NWPOA will be finished by year’s end, before the hearing was scheduled to begin.
She also says the DRBC’s proposed regulations have been published and, with their eventual adoption, the moratorium will be lifted.
The Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS), an organization opposed to drilling in the Delaware Basin, called the withdrawal by the NWPOA and the gas companies “stunning.”
“Obviously, they are frightened by the information Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the DRBC itself had developed and clearly laid out in our reports,” said DCS President Barbara Arrindell. “Until these reports were prepared, no had looked at or compiled any careful analysis of the dangers of the initial aspects of the drilling process."
Schweighofer said her organization had nothing to gain from the hearing.
“We thought we’d be acting irresponsibly toward our members if we insisted on having something that would cost our organization tens of thousands of dollars just to present testimony that can be submitted as part of the regular review process for the proposed regulations,” she said.
Environmental attorney and DCS counsel Jeff Zimmerman said he was looking forward to “ripping apart” industry reports on cross examination.
“It’s too bad we most likely won’t have an opportunity to challenge the opinions that would have been presented by the industries’ usual experts,” Zimmerman said.
Arrindell said the gas industry realized their position was “indefensible.”
“The only way the industry could avoid being exposed and publicly humiliated if the hearing were to proceed was by terminating their drilling activity before all of the scheduled wells had been drilled,” she said.
NWPOA spokesman Peter Wynne said the organization had discussed canceling the hearing long before the DCS reports were issued.
“They had no influence on our decisions,” Wynne said.
“We didn’t want this to drag on and on and on,” he said, citing potentially high legal costs.
The draft regulations were published Dec. 9 by the DRBC, which began work during the summer of 2008 on what would be an 83-page proposal. The regulations are now subject to a 90-day public review and comment period that will include three public hearings.
A pro-natural gas drilling group recently withdrew request for a hearing with the federal interstate agency responsible for regulating water use in the Delaware Basin, a move that has their opposition group up in arms.
The Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance requested a hearing with the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) over issues of exploratory wells in Wayne County.
Marion Schweighofer, executive director of the NWPOA, said her organization wanted the DRBC to reconsider its inclusion of test wells in its moratorium on natural-gas development.
The DRBC placed a moratorium on all well drilling in the Delaware River Basin on June 14, and until the drilling regulations are put into finished form, drilling in the basin remains under the moratorium.
Schweighofer said all the test wells Hess Corporation and Newfield Exploration wanted to drill during 2010 on lands leased by the NWPOA will be finished by year’s end, before the hearing was scheduled to begin.
She also says the DRBC’s proposed regulations have been published and, with their eventual adoption, the moratorium will be lifted.
The Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS), an organization opposed to drilling in the Delaware Basin, called the withdrawal by the NWPOA and the gas companies “stunning.”
“Obviously, they are frightened by the information Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the DRBC itself had developed and clearly laid out in our reports,” said DCS President Barbara Arrindell. “Until these reports were prepared, no had looked at or compiled any careful analysis of the dangers of the initial aspects of the drilling process."
Schweighofer said her organization had nothing to gain from the hearing.
“We thought we’d be acting irresponsibly toward our members if we insisted on having something that would cost our organization tens of thousands of dollars just to present testimony that can be submitted as part of the regular review process for the proposed regulations,” she said.
Environmental attorney and DCS counsel Jeff Zimmerman said he was looking forward to “ripping apart” industry reports on cross examination.
“It’s too bad we most likely won’t have an opportunity to challenge the opinions that would have been presented by the industries’ usual experts,” Zimmerman said.
Arrindell said the gas industry realized their position was “indefensible.”
“The only way the industry could avoid being exposed and publicly humiliated if the hearing were to proceed was by terminating their drilling activity before all of the scheduled wells had been drilled,” she said.
NWPOA spokesman Peter Wynne said the organization had discussed canceling the hearing long before the DCS reports were issued.
“They had no influence on our decisions,” Wynne said.
“We didn’t want this to drag on and on and on,” he said, citing potentially high legal costs.
The draft regulations were published Dec. 9 by the DRBC, which began work during the summer of 2008 on what would be an 83-page proposal. The regulations are now subject to a 90-day public review and comment period that will include three public hearings.
