According the an EPA press release, the decision to get involved in Marcellus drilling is to “ensure that natural gas production takes place safely and responsibly.”  Garvin said “We want to make sure that the drillers are handling their wastewater in an environmentally responsible manner.”

The EPA had taken the action after the PADEP asked drillers to voluntarily stop taking wastewater to state treatment plants by May 19.  EPA officials say they want to know where drillers will now take wastewater.  Companies have until May 25 to report the information to the EPA.

In March, the EPA pushed Pennsylvania to step up testing of rivers that receive treated gas-drilling wastewater, which contains salty chlorides, some metals, and radioactive materials.  Last month, the EPA dispatched a unit to respond to a well blowout in Bradford County, surprising Michael Krancer, secretary of PADEP, whose teams of inspectors were already there.  ”This sense, all of a sudden, that DEP is not competent, not on the job, not doing enough, this seems to be a recent creature,” Krancer said in an interview last month.

The gas industry pushed back.  Kathryn Z. Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group, said Thursday that the industry was already “aggressively and tightly regulated” by the state, and that the EPA’s latest actions were redundant.

Myron Arnowitt, the state director of Clean Water Action, said the EPA should be even more assertive over the state.  ”They are signaling to some extent that EPA is not going to come in and do something over DEP, which we think they should,” he said.