Exploratory Gas Drilling in the Delaware River Basin

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) has been preparing to defend the appropriateness of the commission to regulate any “exploratory” gas wells drilled in the Delaware River Basin (DRB). Instead, the gas industry, which was questioning DRBC’s right to oversee such matters, has withdrawn from the hearing scheduled for January 18, 2011. It is not clear yet whether the operator of one of the grandfathered well sites will continue to push for the right to drill exploratory wells in the basin without DRBC oversight.

Expert testimony was provided to the DRBC by Dr. Conrad Dan Volz and several others regarding the potential for exploratory drilling to negatively impact the DRB’s ecosystem.

Expert Witnesses for DRBC:

• Robert M. Anderson, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Danielle Kreeger, Ph.D., Partnership for the Delaware Estuary
• Patrick M. O’Dell, P.E., National Park Service
• Erik L. Silldorff, Ph.D., Aquatic Biologist, Delaware River Basin Commission
• Bernard W. Sweeney, Ph.D. and John K. Jackson, Ph.D., Stroud Water Research Center
• Conrad Daniel Volz, DrPH, MPH, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health

Their testimonies can be read online in the DRBC report.