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How long does the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) have to issue a permit to drill a new shale well? By law, 45 days. How long does it have to issue the erosion and stream-crossing permits needed to build the well pad and pipelines? By law, there's no deadline at all. That one surprised us, too. So we went digging. Below we outline what the law (and DEP policy) actually requires, and then what DEP's own records say about how it's performing. MDN pulled eFACTS records for more than 4,200 shale-related permits issued since 2015. The short version: DEP is far better than during the dark days of 2017, but some deadlines are still missed, and they come with no consequences.
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