Pennsylvania promises to be a political battleground for the natural gas industry in the upcoming election cycle. Tensions between the gas sector and clean energy transition goals of a Democratic gubernatorial administration have been on full display in a year already marked by national divisions on energy and climate. Below, Energy Intelligence examines some of the key areas to watch.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection doesn’t regulate private water supplies the way it does with public water utilities, the agency wrote Friday in a response to questions posed by PublicSource.

As a result, a DEP spokesperson wrote, the agency doesn’t typically determine the quality or safety of an individual’s private water supply, nor does it usually investigate the cause of a person’s complaint about their well.

DEP can, however, collect and evaluate data “to determine whether or not a causal relationship exists” between a water quality complaint and oil and gas activity.

In the case of the Lumber Pad frack out in New Freeport, the agency investigated, and did not identify a rapid worsening of water quality, according to the spokesperson. DEP provided PublicSource with partially redacted copies of letters to 13 water complainants, and in 11 of those cases the agency wrote that it “cannot conclude” that the water supply was adversely impacted by the incident. For the remaining two, which were spring water systems, the agency determined they were not impacted by oil and gas activity. The agency continues to investigate 10 additional complaints.

DEP outlined its general process for handling complaints of water problems when there’s a potential tie to oil and gas activity. The agency:

• Looks at any baseline information on water quality prior to the oil and gas activity
• Sends geologists to visually inspect the property, water supply and well site
• Where a release or spill of fracking fluids may be involved, tests for “constituents of concern” known to be associated with those fluids
• If warranted, conducts more testing, notably including reviews for other substances used in oil and gas extraction and for chemicals that naturally occur in the given area
• Sends the water user a detailed determination letter, plus a fact sheet meant to help people to understand the data.

If it determines that oil and gas activity affected water quality, the DEP and the drilling operator continue to investigate and sample, with an eye to understanding the extent of the impact.

On its website, DEP offers guidance to water supply owners to regularly test their private water supply https://www.dep.pa.gov/Citizens/My-Water/PrivateWells/Pages/default.aspx.

Rich Lord is the managing editor at PublicSource and can be reached at [email protected].

This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

A man was killed in Old City early Friday morning when Pennsylvania State Police troopers on their way to assist other officers struck his pick-up truck with their patrol car, authorities said.

The crash happened at Columbus Boulevard and Race Street shortly after 1:30 a.m., said Capt. Gerard McShea, commanding officer of Pennsylvania State Police Troop K. The two troopers were traveling south on Columbus Boulevard when the driver of the pickup truck, who was traveling north on Columbus Boulevard, made an illegal turn onto Race Street and the troopers’ vehicle hit his truck, McShea said.

The driver of the pickup truck, whom authorities did not identify, was pronounced dead at the scene. The two troopers — a man and a woman — sustained non-life threatening injuries and were released from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital after being treated.

It is unclear how fast either vehicle was traveling at the time of the crash.

The troopers were on their way to assist other officers who were pursuing a person they were trying to take into custody, said McShea. That pursuit ended when the person being sought crashed and was apprehended, he said.

The fatal incident Friday morning was the latest crash involving Pennsylvania state troopers.

In April, four people, including a pregnant 17-year-old girl, were killed in a car crash while fleeing state troopers who were pursuing the vehicle in which they were riding after a reported theft at a Lululemon store in Concord Township, Delaware County.

And in February, state troopers chased after four people who allegedly stole $5,000 worth of merchandise from the same Lululemon store and fled in a Subaru. That pursuit ended when troopers deliberately hit the vehicle with their own, bringing it to a stop. Nobody was injured.

Last year, 16 people died in chase-related crashes involving state police, agency data shows — the most since at least 2015, the last year the data was publicly available.