Environmental activists fighting to stop an energy company from drawing millions of gallons of water a day out of Big Sewickley Creek for fracking say the driller has submitted an application to take water from an area that is a popular spot for fishing and swimming.
=Members of the Big Sewickley Creek Watershed Association say allowing any water to be removed from the creek or its tributaries runs the risk of causing permanent damage to its ecosystem.
In 2021 PennEnergy Resources submitted a request to draw up to 3 million gallons a water a day from a site along the creek and another 1 million gallons a day from the North Fork tributary.
In March 2022, after addressing a number of deficiencies called out by state regulators, the company resubmitted its application to only draw 1.5 million gallons a day from a single location along the creek near the Cooney Hollow Waterhole, a dog-leg in the creek at Cooney Hollow and Hoenig roads.
The “waterhole,” a roughly 70-foot area and the deepest pool in the creek, is a popular spot for fishing and swimming.
On March 9 of this year, PennEnergy submitted an application to move the water intake about 55 feet from the location proposed in last year’s application, according to the DEP.
Amanda Peterson, PennEnergy’s manager of investor relations, said the company “is committed to safe and responsible natural gas development utilizing industry best practices that meet or exceed regulatory requirements.”
“All water sourcing activities are highly regulated by the Pennsylvania DEP, with applications going through a rigorous permitting process to ensure that the withdrawal of water does not adversely impact the subject water sources.
“These regulations ensure the protection of fish and other species, their habitat and that our operations would not impede or interfere with other uses of the water source,” she said.
A copy of the company’s water management plan application for proposed operations along Big Sewickley Creek is available on it website.
In an April 19 response to PennEnergy’s most recent application that was obtained by the Tribune-Review, the DEP outlined deficiencies in its most recent application and called for:
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• A review of all previous applications to ensure they include “conservation/avoidance measures” to protect the northern long-eared bat, which was designated as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on March 31.
• Submission of new photographs to document the condition of the stream and the surrounding lands at the new proposed withdrawal site.
• Revised information about the size of the water intake system that will be submerged in the creek.
• Updates to the information about the flow rate of water being drawn and the depth of the pool from where it is being taken.
• Additional information about upstream and downstream discharge data collected since March 9.
PennEnergy’s application is still being reviewed by the DEP.
DEP spokeswoman Lauren Camarda said the agency has received the Watershed Association’s letter and is taking it into consideration as part of its technical review of PennEnergy’s application.
Rose Reilly, a retired Army Corps of Engineers aquatic biologist and a member of the Watershed Association, said stopping energy companies from removing any water from the creek and its tributaries remains its primary focus.
“We’ve suggested an alternative plan for the company to draw the water it needs from the Ohio River and then transport it by truck to its well sites,” she said. “We understand that there are people who don’t like that idea because of the damage to local roads that can occur.
“But you can always fix the roads. The damage to the creek could be permanent, but it’s something that can be prevented by simply not allowing millions of gallons of water to be removed each day,” she said.
PennEnergy’s plan calls for using the water for a new well pad in Economy Borough, but opponents of the plan say they already have demonstrated that the water need not come from the creek.
Watershed officials noted in their their letter to the DEP that the water the company uses for fracking operations at two other nearby wells is transported to the site by tanker trucks.
The water is used for hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a technique used to extract oil and gas from bedrock by injecting a high-pressure mixture of water, sand or gravel and chemicals.
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Several people along the creek who were fishing on May 2 also questioned how the waterway could handle so much water being removed each day.
Pete Grode, 62, of Bell Acres, who grew up fishing along the creek before moving away and then returning to the community, supports the effort to stop energy companies from using the creek for the water it needs for fracking operations.
“I don’t think the creek can support losing that much water,” he said while angling near the waterhole for trout on a chilly, rainy day in May.
He noted that even after several days of steady rain, the water level was still only ankle deep as he crossed the creek.
“In the summertime it gets so low that you can walk across on the rocks showing without even getting your feet wet,” he said. “I can see no way that this creek can handle what they are talking about doing.”
He said the extra expense for PennEnergy to truck the water it needs from the Ohio River to a well pad is worth protecting the environment.
Josh Ivancn, 38, of Economy, who works as a truck driver, said the alternative plan for getting water could help create work for people in his industry while at the same time protecting the environment.
Brian Ellis, 32, of McCandless, who studied aquatics conservation while in college and regularly fishes along the creek, thinks the water withdrawal plans that have been proposed are a bad idea considering there is an alternative.
“Creeks and streams have a delicate ecosystem that need to be protected,” he said. “This is a beautiful creek filled with wildlife. We should do whatever we can to keep it that way. Taking millions of gallons of water out every day doesn’t sound like a way to do that.”
Ellis and the other fisherman think the extra cost of ensuring the environment is protected is a cost of doing business energy companies need to accept.
The Big Sewickley Creek Watershed spans about 30-square miles across portions of 12 municipalities in three counties. Economy in Beaver County and Marshall in Allegheny have the largest percentage of land area in the watershed, according to the Allegheny Land Trust.
The headwaters reach as far east as Bradford Woods and Cranberry. The main creek is considered the boundary between Allegheny and Beaver counties for the majority of its course to its mouth at the Ohio River between Leetsdale and Ambridge.
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The creek and its tributaries support a stocked trout population and are home to the Southern Redbelly Dace, which is a threatened species in Pennsylvania, according to a biologist for the state Fish and Boat Commission.
Since PennEnergy set it sights on using the creek as the source for its fracking water, activists have opposed it because they say the waterway is notoriously shallow throughout the year and becomes particularly low when the weather is warm and dry.
The Watershed Association noted in a recent letter to the DEP that on the opening day of trout season, nearly 300 people were fishing along Big Sewickley Creek near the area where PennEnergy wants to draw water signed a petition opposing the plan.
The two pending applications to draw water are for sites near the Cooney Hollow Waterhole, which is a popular area for fishing and swimming.
Reilly said the company’s proposal to use the waterhole area is a bad idea because of its immediate impact on swimmers and anglers who are drawn there because it is the deepest part of the creek.
When PennEnergy first proposed operations at the “waterhole” site in 2021 it drew the ire of state Rep. Rob Matzie, D-16th, who asked the state DEP secretary to reject the plan.
Matzie, who supports natural gas drilling if it is done responsibly, said he grew up swimming and fishing along the creek and wanted to ensure that future generations to be able to enjoy the same activities.
He called the potential for the creek to dry up because of the amount of water PennEnergy wanted to withdraw each day “disgraceful” and called on the company to seek an alternative source for its fracking water.
Even with revision proposed by PennEnergy, Matzie opposed the company’s water withdrawal plans again last year.
His position hasn’t changed.
“It’s like Groundhog Day, yet another attempt to draw water from Big Sewickley Creek,” he told the Trib in an email. “I spoke out against it the first time; I spoke out against the second time, and I remain opposed this time. Plain English: get your water somewhere else.”
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Local environmentalists say they also are concerned because the proposal to draw water from the creek also will require a nearly 1-mile long piping system to transport it to the well site.
“The project requires two temporary road crossings; construction of a staging area; crossings of streams and floodways; and clearing and fragmentation of forest along the pipeline route,” the letter to the DEP said.
They noted that while the company’s application calls for only disturbing 5.5 acres for the pipeline, “the entire project area is located in mature forest and (there are) five wetlands totaling 0.065 acre and 10 streams totaling 2,596 linear feet.”
These streams include Big Sewickley Creek, an unnamed tributary to Big Sewickley Creek, Cooney Hollow and six other unnamed intermittent tributaries of Cooney Hollow, according to the associations.
”The forest ecosystem that supports wetlands and streams near the pipeline route will be negatively impacted by construction and operation,” the letter said.
Concerns include clearing and grading forested areas, recontouring the land, changing the natural drainage, soil compacting and noise.
“The trucks, tank pad and pumps will be literally feet away from the banks of Big Sewickley Creek, increasing the risk of toxic spills into the creek from trucks, pumps, and tanks at the terminal and runoff from the terminal pad,” the letter said.
Tony LaRussa is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tony by email at tlarussa@triblive.com or via Twitter .