Unconventional Natural Gas Operators – What You Need to Know about New Deadlines and Reporting Requirements under Pennsylvania’s New Regulations

Megan Haines and Heather Hurst authored "Unconventional Natural Gas Operators – What You Need to Know about New Deadlines and Reporting Requirements under Pennsylvania’s New Regulations" for Buchanan's Knowing Energy Law blog.

Final environmental regulations for unconventional natural gas wells (Chapter 78a Regulations) were published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin (Bulletin) and immediately enforceable on October 8, 2016. The Chapter 78a Regulations set performance standards and codify various Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (Department) interpretations of Act 13 of 2012 (also referred to as the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act) for surface activities associated with unconventional natural gas well operations. In addition to environmental standards, the Chapter 78a Regulations provide for a number of short-term deadlines and impose various reporting requirements. Contemporaneously with the publication of the Chapter 78a Regulations, two “interim final” Department Technical Guidance Documents were published in the Bulletin.