Marcellus Drilling Cleaning Up Abandoned Mine Drainage
Abandoned mine drainage is destroying the environment everyday! Marcellus drilling may be able to change that…
More than 4,000 miles of streams polluted by abandoned coalmine drainage flow through Pennsylvania’s forests, killing all aquatic and invertebrate life. And it would take an estimated $15 billion to clean up these dead streams. Some environmentalists and at least one Marcellus driller have decided there’s an opportunity here to kill two birds with one stone. Using the abandoned mine drainage to hydro-frack wells, they say, could help clean up the coal industry’s toxic legacy while simultaneously reducing water withdrawals from the state’s rivers and streams.
Seneca Resources is one of the few Companies using this process.
At PA Oil and Gas Report, we think that more Companies would come on board to help clean up this abandoned mine drainage, if not for the fact that they may fall victim to Perpetual Treatment Liability, Clean Streams Law which could make them liable in perpetuity.
Would you recommend an exception in the legislation? Maybe a tax incentive for particpants? We would like your feedback.
