Misinformation about Pine Creek water drawdown brings big crowd

WELLSBORO - More than 100 people turned out for a hastily called meeting Monday with representatives of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission as the result of a headline in a Tioga County newspaper last week indicating that three quarters of the water in Pine Creek was going to be drawn out for natural gas exploration.

Tom Beauduy, deputy director of the commission, said the amount of water Ultra Resources Inc. of Englewood, Colo., would be allowed to draw out of Pine Creek was nowhere near 75 percent.

The 75 percent figure, mistakenly given to the paper by Tom Harris, president of Trout Unlimited, was incorrect. Harris apologized for the error at the meeting, before commission members attempted to explain what was correct.

The uproar centered around a sign placed along Route 6 in Gaines that stated the company had approval to take up to 298 gallons per minute out of Pine Creek at Cedar Run for use in its hydrofracing operations to get natural gas out of the Marcellus Shale. Technologies, such as hydrofracing, which are used by those companies to extract gas from the shale formation, use large amounts of water. The process involves pumping large quantities of water at high pressure into a gas well to pulverize the rock and release gas trapped in it.

Harris, mistakenly, thought it meant 75 percent would be allowed to come out, said commission hydrologist Jim Richenderfer, because of the "passby flow requirement" of 25 percent listed on the sign.

The actual amount being drawn out, Richenderfer said, is actually less than 0.25 of 1 percent of the water that flows through the creek.

"If the passby flow of water is less than 25 percent of the average daily flow, or 27,681 gallons per minute, then the company must cease all withdrawals of water from Pine Creek immediately downstream of the intake location for the protection of aquatic resources and downstream users," he said, reading from a copy of the permit, known as a "docket" issued to Ultra.

Beauduy explained there are many locations where gas companies are taking water for their operations, and each one must be allowed by permit.

"Because there are so many locations where they are taking water, you don't know if they have approval or not, and the drivers can't tell you. If you see a tanker truck with a hose taking water from a location without that sign, it's not a site that is approved," Beauduy said.

He said the commission also was monitoring the "cumulative effect" of the drawdown per year at full production. Ultra's docket is good until 2013.

The "trigger figure" for ceasing withdrawal was arrived at by looking at a 10-year flow rate in the creek and then coming up with a "worst low flow amount," Beauduy said.

Rich Adams, a water resources management independent contractor hired to enforce the law for the commission, said the application process is "extremely stringent" for companies looking to use surface water.

"We look to see if there are wild trout, loss of flow impact, if it is a wild and scenic waterway, if there are threatened or endangered species and water quality issues. We also do an aquatic survey with our own biologists on before and after testing for deterioration of site characteristics," he added.