The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in the US has announced energency legislation in a move to further regulate drilling in the Marcellus Shale fields.
The legislation, announced by acting Governor of West Virginia, Earl Ray Tomblin, has been introduced for a 15 month period after frustration that legislators were unable to draw up regulations in their normal sessions. A Special Committee of the DEP was established to put the emergency laws in place.
The rules, which are set to completed by the end of August, are aimed at tightening drilling practices across the shale fields as concerns rise amongst envirnomentalists and residents in the states in the East of the US where the oil and gas fields lie.
Amongst other issues, the use of fracking - using a mixture of water and chemicals to fracture the gas and oil bearing rock - is addressed. The new regulations state that drilling companies must provide a list of additives likely to be used before fracking begins and a comprehensive after the process is finished.
Other regulations include filing a water management plan if more than 210,000 gallons of water per month is used and the filing of a public notice of intention to drill within municipal boundaries.