SRBC Rejects Anadarko Water Request in Centre County, PA

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At the the Dec. 15 meeting of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) held in Wilkes-Barre, PA, commissioners voted to reject a request from Anadarko Petroleum to withdraw up to 715,000 gallons of water per day from a well near Council Run in Snow Shoe Township (Centre County), PA. The rejection is rare because the SRBC informs requestors ahead of time that a request is likely to be voted down. Apparently Anadarko wanted to move forward with the request despite a warning from the SRBC.

[The SRBC] rejected Anadarko’s request because it would drain too much water out of Council Run, SRBC spokeswoman Susan Obleski said.

“The conditions we would have put on that project would have caused the withdrawal passby (limit) to trigger so frequently it probably would not have been worth it,” Obleski said.

“We just didn’t see it as a viable option and we advised the applicant of that.”

Anadarko spokesman Brian Cain did not directly address the rejected application but said the company desires to reduce truck traffic and conserve water, and that “preservation of the environment remains a priority” for the company.

Protestors caused the meeting to stop briefly, and reconvene in private. When the voting was done, three other permit requests were approved:

…a request by the Walker Township Water Association raising its groundwater withdrawal limit from 523,000 to 753,000 gallons per day to address increased public consumption; a request by Carrizo Oil and Gas to withdraw up to 1.8 million gallons per day out of Mosquito Creek in Karthaus Township, Clearfield County, for its drilling operations; and a request by Bioenergy International — the shuttered ethanol plant in Clearfield — to allow it to sell 800,000 gallons per day of water from its 2.5 million gallon-per-day permit to natural gas companies for drilling.

*Centre Daily Times (Dec 21, 2011) – Driller’s water request rejected

3 Comments

  1. It’s our water. Not theirs.

    Start paying as severance tax on your profit, and then we might talk.

  2. Really?? Am I to believe you have anything to do with anything in northeast PA? It is not your water or anyone elses if it’s in any way available to be bought. Also you are not the voice for this side of PA. When they get ready for water they will put the money out there and it will happen. Try and remember you are dealing with companies that could buy small countries if they wanted to. I really think you are just to ignorant to comment on here.

  3. Like I have posted before Oil Man, jwozniak is an Anti with nothing of value to say. She just spews anger and resentment like all the other Anti’s do. When posed with a question in an earlier post on alternative solutions she may have to this countries fiscal and job issues, there was no reply.Try not to waste many words on jw, she’s just here to try and annoy us. Oh, by the way her Daddy made his living in the coal industry, which kept food in her belly and a roof over her head, and probably sent her to college too. Blows my mind how someone can be so short sighted. Spoiled child I assume.