By Glenn Rolfe

TRENTON, N.J. — Environmental groups and opponents of fracking are claiming that data in a recent Delaware River Basin Commission report is flawed.

Fracking — a process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks to force open fissures to extract oil or gas — was banned by DRBC over a year ago.

However, the Delaware River Frack Ban Coalition is calling DRBC data about a four-month public comment period on proposed rulemaking regarding fracking “grossly undercounted.”

The comments were given in reference to regulations regarding the importing of fracking wastewater to the Delaware River Watershed and the export of water for fracking elsewhere.

“There is a huge disparity between the number of comment submissions that the DRBC announced it received and the actual number of individual comments that were filed,” said Sahana Reo, project attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, based in New York.

“DRBC staff has announced that 2,461 comment submissions were received, with a note that submissions may contain multiple comments. However, over the four-month comment period (ending Feb. 28), members of the public throughout the Delaware River Basin submitted at least 11,593 individual comments,” said Ms. Reo, also a member of the Delaware River Frack Ban Coalition.

“The DRBC statement effectively reduced the full count to only 21% or one-fifth of the true total. Discounting the full number of comments submitted undermines the importance of each individual who took the initiative to express their position and provide information regarding the proposed fracking regulation.”

Further, Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, said the “huge loopholes” in the draft regulations that “would allow toxic and radioactive fracking wastewater” to enter the watershed will cause pollution and “gravely endanger” public health.

“It will cause it (to escape) through other means of release, such as to the air and, in turn, to land, water and ecosystems. Fracking wastewater processing that uses evaporation, thermal oxidation, incineration and so-called zero-discharge treatment methods will be allowed,” she said. “Our watershed water can’t be wasted to frack other watersheds. This is why the public spoke up. This is why each person must be fairly counted.”

The Delaware River Frack Ban Coalition is calling for a correction of the inaccurate calculation of individual comments. The vast majority of the comments were from concerned individuals, environmentalists and related organizations, it said.

In response, Elizabeth Brown, DRBC’s external affairs and communications director, said “all written submissions received during the four-month public comment period are posted and available for review” on the commission’s website.

Also, DRBC held five public hearings during the comment period, and 73 individuals provided input during them. “Transcripts of these public hearings are available on our website,” said Ms. Brown.

“In most cases, each single submission represents several comments, each of which will be categorized and considered by the Commission’s review team,” said Ms. Brown. “The DRBC staff is focused on responding to all comments and all comments will be considered by the commission in its decision making.”

One thing the Delaware River Frack Ban Coalition specifically requested in its letter to DRBC is to not “count the comments that are submitted by lumping together multiple comments as one submission,” Ms. Carluccio said.

The letter further requests the commissioners change policy “so this undercounting will never happen again and that, with these particular comments, they go back in and properly count and accurately report it out,” she said.

The Delaware River Basin includes all land that drains to the Delaware River from four states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Exportation/importation

The DRBC is proposing amendments to its Water Code (Section 2.30) by clarifying the circumstances under which exportations of water, including wastewater, from the Basin and importations of water, including wastewater, into the Basin may be considered by the DRBC and the factors to be used in evaluating whether such proposed imports and exports of water may be approved.

New or increased exportations of water may be approved by the commission only if the project sponsor demonstrates as a threshold matter that the exportation: is needed to serve a straddled or adjacent public water system; is required on a temporary, short-term, or emergency basis to meet public health and safety needs; or is an exportation of wastewater.

Under the revised rule, the DRBC will evaluate proposed importations of water, including wastewater, using the factors set forth in the Water Code. These include, among others, effects of the importation on the health and safety of the Basin community and the findings of a requisite characterization of the wastewater and an analysis of its treatability.