Setback Policy in Pennsylvania
Analysis of the Peer Reviewed Article "Evaluation of Gas Well Setback Policy In The Marcellus Shale Region of Pennsylvania"
The research article “Evaluation of gas well setback policy in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania…”, written by Zoya Banan and Jeremy Gernad, addresses Pennsylvania’s current “setback policy” in the shale gas drilling industry. This specific policy is important because it establishes how close an unconventional drilling operation can be to a community. As of right now, PA’s setback policy requires well pads to be at least 500 ft (152.4 m) away from residential dwellings and outdoor recreational areas. However, the research done by Banan and Gernad shows that this distance is inadequate in many cases.
Banan and Gernad discussed how shale gas drilling can be dangerous to those near it. Namely, they focused on the air pollution produced by drilling and how it dissipates away from its source site. It is well known that unconventional drilling emits volatile organic compounds like nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter. These compounds are cancer causing carcinogens that are also responsible for a plethora of other acute diseases. This is why setback policies are essential—they implement a distance that acts as a safeguard against these pollutants.
By using an array of weather monitoring stations, Banan and Gernad were able to define the wind patterns that a generic well site in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania would be subjected to. They then estimated the amount of air pollution created by a drilling operation by quantifying a range of emission factors and other variables. Banan and Gernad then transformed all of their data and estimations into air pollution models that illustrate the concentration and distance that well pollutants travel. Based off of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) air pollution standards, this research concludes that a setback of 500 ft is an adequate distance between a community and a single well emitting an average amount of air pollution. However, their research shows that this distance is not applicable for well pads with multiple wells. A well pad with multiple wells needs a minimum buffer distance of 2400 ft (735 m) to avoid exceeding EPA air pollution concentration standards.
Banan and Gernad conclude their study by acknowledging a few key observations. Although they concluded that a setback of 500 ft is adequate for a single well operation, this distance would only be sufficient if said well was emitting an average amount of air pollution—a single well emitting a high amount of air pollution would need a larger setback. Along with this, they also point out that it is not uncommon for well pads to have more than one well. Despite these operations giving off more pollutants, they are currently held to the same setback policies as single wells. Overall, Banan and Gernad recommend that Pennsylvania should adapt their setback policy to be a function of the number of wells drilled at a site instead of a blunt 500-foot policy.
APA Citation:
Zoya Banan & Jeremy M. Gernand (2018) Evaluation of gas well setback policy in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania in relation to emissions of fine particulate matter, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 68:9, 988-1000, DOI: 10.1080/10962247.2018.1462866
Analysis Written By Morgan Moran