SOMERSET —
Pennsylvania wants Marcellus Shale jobs but hasn’t provided the funding for the timely approval of permits, an exasperated official of a company erecting a water recycling plant in Somerset said Wednesday.
Understaffing in the state Department of Environmental Protection is a prime reason the $35 million water recycling plant is now two months behind schedule, the official said.
Structural construction of the Somerset Regional Water Resources LLC plant, which was to have started about now, has been put off until October, said Ken Burris, chief operating officer.
“Everybody wants this industry to flourish,” Burris said. “Unfortunately, the DEP is understaffed. What should take 30 days is taking 90 days. The state can’t seem to find enough people to oversee this industry.”
He said the staffing shortage has created a bottleneck in getting projects approved as paperwork keeps growing.
“There ought to be the mechanism by which the state acquires the funds to oversee that industry,” Burris said.
A DEP spokesman said Wednesday that the delay in this project’s application was due to a change made by the developer. Because of the change, DEP had to back up and make a “first-use evaluation,” he said.
“We’re actively working to get this out the door,” the spokesman said.
Burris didn’t put all the blame for the delay on the DEP, and said the industry is on a “learning curve” in its dealings in the Northeast.
He said the company is “proceeding with detailed design” of the plant, and hunting around for a contractor.
The plant at routes 281 and 31 will employ about 65 workers with a startup date now pushed back to late fall 2011.
Workers will treat up to 1.5 million gallons a day of “frack water” trucked in from across the region. The polluted water is created through the hydraulic shale fracturing process, in which water combined with salt and other chemicals is shot into the rock to free the natural gas.
Burris has said his company wants to build four such plants in Pennsylvania, with Somerset being the first.
Local News
Related Photos
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This is the site where a $35 million treatment plant is to be built by Somerset Regional Water Resources to treat water used in Marcellus Shale drilling. Dave Lloyd
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Company faults DEP for Marcellus drilling delays
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