PennEnergy Creek Water Request Now “Complete” – PA DEP Reviewing
PennEnergy Resources recently reapplied (for a second time) for a permit to draw water from Big Sewickley Creek–but this time the request is cut in half, to just 1.5 million gallons of water a day (see PennEnergy Reapplies to Use SWPA Creek Water for Fracking Ops). In March PennEnergy submitted its water management plan amendment application for proposed water withdrawals from Big Sewickley Creek in Economy Borough, located in Beaver County. As before, the request is to use the water for shale well fracking. This second application proposes a lower allocation request of 1.5 million gallons per day. After an initial delay, the DEP is now actively reviewing PennEnergy’s application.
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We finally started to see more permits issued again last week. After the Marcellus/Utica was in the permit doldrum for nearly a month, bumping around at 20 permits or below, last week the number increased to a total of 34 permits issued to drill new shale wells. Pennsylvania issued 13 new permits, with seven of them going to Coterra Energy in Susquehanna County on the same pad. Ohio issued 14 new permits, with 12 of them going to Ascent Resources distributed across four different counties. And West Virginia issued seven new permits, all of them to Antero Resources, all in Doddridge County.
Just yesterday MDN told you about this year’s distribution of last year’s (2021) impact fee revenue to local municipalities and to the black hole of Harrisburg politicians (see 
In March MDN told you that the Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) issued a ruling against the now completed Mariner East 2 pipeline project, assessing a $51,000 fine on the project (see 
PennEnergy Resources recently reapplied (for a second time) for a permit to draw water from Big Sewickley Creek–but this time the request is cut in half, to just 1.5 million gallons of water a day (see 
A few days ago MDN received a phone call from the Harrisburg Patriot-News, from a reporter asking editor Jim Willis for comments on the latest activity in the Pennsylvania Marcellus. Are royalties doing better? Has there been more drilling activity? Jim tackled the question about drilling activity this way: Yes, there has been a *slight* increase in drilling activity, but not a huge increase. The reporter talked with multiple sources and published an article yesterday.
Two days ago Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee (ERE) Majority Chairman Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) issued a co-sponsorship memo asking for other House members to sponsor a resolution with him calling for the impeachment of outgoing Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Patrick McDonnell. Metcalfe calls the measure his “parting gift” to McDonnell who is leaving the agency on July 2nd (see 
Last weekend the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a notice in the weekly (Saturday) edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin to announce final guidance (i.e. regulations) on handling radioactive waste going to solid waste processing and disposal facilities from unconventional shale gas drilling operations and other sources. Last year MDN told you about a plan by the Wolf administration to require quarterly testing at landfills that accept shale drill cuttings (see 
Since 2013 anti-fossil fuel zealots–people with an irrational hatred of fossil fuels–have tried to ban drilling under (not on) public parks in Allegheny County, PA (near Pittsburgh). A small group of 100 radicals gathered outside the City-County building in downtown Pittsburgh last week to throw a collective temper tantrum, demanding Allegheny County Council ban any new drilling under county-owned parks (see 