Environmental Sustainability and
Pennsylvania’s Laws Pertaining to the
Protection of Groundwater
Before, During, and After
Unconventional Shale Gas Development
Marcellus Shale Development and Pennsylvania:
What Lessons for Sustainable Energy?
Widener University School of Law
September 27, 2013
Elizabeth Ferrell Bjerke, JD
Environmental Sustainability:
Protection of Groundwater
Legal Methodology
 Identification of laws
 “Coding” of laws
 Applying analysis to scenarios
 Groundwater contamination from well failure
 Groundwater contamination from spills
 Groundwater contamination from wastewater storage
Major Federal
Environmental Laws
 National Environmental Policy Act (43 USC §4321 et seq.)
 Federal Water Pollution Control Act (“Clean Water Act”)
(33 USC §1251 et seq.)
 Safe Drinking Water Act (42 USC §300f et seq.)
 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (42 USC §6901 et
seq.)
 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation
and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) (42 USC §9601 et seq.)
Major Pennsylvania
Environmental Laws

Oil and Gas Act (58 P.S. §601.101 et seq.)

Oil and Gas Conservation Law (58 P.S. §§ 401-419)

Clean Streams Law (35 P.S. §691.1 et seq.)

Solid Waste Management Act (35 P.S. §6018.101 et seq.)

Act 14 – Section 1905-A of the Administrative Code (52 P.S. §3301et seq.)

Hazardous Sites Clean Up Act (35 P.S. §6020.101 et seq.)

PADEP Regulations (25 Pa. Code Chapters 78, 79, 91, 92a, 93, 95 and 96)

OMNIBUS AMENDMENT TO THE OIL AND GAS ACT (“ACT 13”)
(58 Pa. C.S. §2301 et seq.)
Waste from Unconventional Shale
Gas Development =
Residual Waste
Storage of Wastewater
Thank you!
Elizabeth Ferrell Bjerke, JD
Director, JD/MPH Program
Visiting Assistant Professor, Health Policy
and Management
Adjunct Professor, School of Law
Center for Public Health Practice
Graduate School of Public Health
University of Pittsburgh
schmidte@pitt.edu