Secretary of State Natalie Tennant approved the emergency rules set forth by the DEP last week, officially beginning a 15 month temporary regulation of Marcellus Shale gas drilling in West Virginia until legislators are able to complete the law making process.  One of the major criticisms of the temporary rule is the lack of protection for surface owners.  The West Virginia Association of Counties has its own list of grievances regarding the negative effects of drilling– enough so that it created a Marcellus Shale Study Committee when the group met in Charleston on August 16th.

At the same time that West Virginians are pushing their state senators to take action on regulation, US energy companies are pushing for increasingly better technology to treat contaminated wastewater.  Earlier this month, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (with offices in Morgantown, Wv and Pittsburgh, Pa) announced it will spend $10.3 million over the next three years on projects testing the performance of new water treatment technologies and evaluating well casings.  One of these funded projects, Obsorb, removes 99% of oil and greases and 90% of BTEX from wastewater.