WVDEP’s Office of Oil and Gas maintains a “general” permit for the land application of water produced by coalbed methane wells. The permit was issued in 2009 and was set to expire on December 31, 2014. The permit allows produced waters to be disposed of by discharging them to the land provided the discharger: samples the water for a number of pollutants; keeps the boundary of the land application area over 1,000' from a domestic water supply and avoids karst areas altogether.
By order dated June 27, 2013, WVDEP extended the general permit until the sooner of July 31, 2014 or until the permit is renewed in order to give WVDEP time to study the impacts of the permitted activities.
This article was authored by Robert McLusky, Jackson Kelly PLLC. For more information on the author, see here.
Comments