Susquehanna River Basin Commission February 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission will hold its regular business meeting on March 15, 2012, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Details concerning the matters to be addressed at the business meeting are contained in the Supplementary Information section of this notice.

This document contains final rules that would amend the project review regulations of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (Commission) to include definitions for new terms and an amended definition; provide for administrative approval of interbasin transfers of flowback and production fluids between drilling pad sites that are isolated from the waters of the basin; provide for administrative approval of out-of-basin transfers of flowback or produced fluids from a Commission approved hydrocarbon development project to an out-of- basin treatment or disposal facility; insert language authorizing renewal of expiring approvals, including Approvals by Rule (ABRs); delete specific references to geologic formations that may be the subject of natural gas development using hydrofracture stimulation and replace with a generic category``unconventional natural gas development;'' broaden the scope of ABRs issued to include hydrocarbon development of any kind utilizing the waters of the basin, not just unconventional natural gas well development; memorialize the current practice of requiring post-hydrofracture reporting; and provide further procedures for the approval of water sources utilized at projects subject to the ABR process.