Acting Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has announced that West Virginia environmental regulators need to create emergency rules for drilling natural gas.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection will form temporary rules, while lawmakers look into more permanent regulations for natural gas removal in the Marcellus Shale deposit in the state.
"This executive order is the first step in my long-term plan to ensure responsible development of Marcellus Shale," Tomblin said.
The rules will specifically focus on a process called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."
"Fracking is what you do to fracture rock that is underground in order to extract natural gas. At the Marcellus Shale site, there is compact clay that's about 70-80 thousand feet underground," said Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute.
The fracking process uses mass amounts of water and other chemicals to obtain natural gas from underground.
"About 2 to 5 million gallons of water are sent down within 24 hours; it creates very high pressure. When this water returns, it has to be disposed of in some way," Ziemkiewicz said.
Environmentalists share concerns about where the water goes once it returns to the surface.
"While rare, it can have significant, harmful effects on our citizens, streams, rivers and wildlife. The risk to our citizens, however slight, is too great to not act swiftly," Tomblin said.
Since the water contains various chemicals, it has the potential to be dangerous if it were to leak into sources of drinking water.
"If you don't pay attention to where that water goes when it comes back up, it can be bad. You have to be careful to manage the returning water because it can be harmful, as it is salty and has organic substances in it," Ziemkiewicz said.
The fracking industry has announced numerous times that the technique can be done safely.
Despite their reassurances, Tomblin has said there is a need for statewide fracking regulations.
"I agree with the governor in developing rules for where the water goes once it reaches the surface. It can cause lots of damage if it's not properly maintained," Ziemkiewicz said.
Tomblin has announced companies using fracking will now have to report all of the chemicals they use to obtain the natural gas.
In addition, companies will have to avoid dumping fracking water on the ground, and instead inject it into an underground well made for fracking fluids.
Industries that use fracking in West Virginia will be expected to disclose their source of water, how much water they used, when they withdrew the water and where it was disposed of.
Several areas of West Virginia, including Morgantown, Wellsburg and Lewisburg, have banned fracking within city limits because of the potential hazards to drinking water.
West Virginia is not the only state that has had issues with regulating natural gas extraction.
In Pennsylvania, gas removal has been blamed for contaminating drinking water.
Rules have recently been set in Michigan that require extensive information about materials used and their disposal during the fracking process.
So far, the rules in Michigan seem to be working as no incidents have occurred.
Tomblin and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said they hope to see similar results in the coming months.
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