But the shale-gas industry, now moving rapidly from an exploratory to a production phase, has hardly missed a beat. Fracking continues, largely unabated.
The commission allows drillers to withdraw up to 98 million gallons per day at 142 locations, though in reality, the industry uses far less than what it is allowed, the SRBC says. The permitted amounts are based on elaborate computations tied to historical stream flows. When stream levels fall below a certain level, withdrawals must stop.
Anticipating the seasonal fluctuations, natural gas operators have built vast networks of impoundments - plastic-lined ponds - to store water from the rainy seasons.
"The natural gas industry is trying to capture some of the large spring flows because they know they can't take water all summer," said Paula Ballaron, the SRBC's manager of policy implementation and outreach.
But drillers can continue to pump water out of larger rivers even in the summer because the volumes the SRBC allows are small compared with the total flow.
Public confusion about where the drillers can legally withdraw water in the summer - and where it is banned - has caused an increase in complaints to the SRBC. The agency has three inspectors based in Sayre. They prowl the basin looking for violators.
"Since the drilling started, we get calls from some people who claim the river flows have never been lower than this," said Eric R. Roof, the commission's director of compliance. "People are very concerned."
Most complaints are unfounded, he said. Withdrawals that the public reports as suspicious turn out to be legal pumping by municipal road crews, garden centers, and nurseries that are allowed to withdraw small amounts of water. Gas drillers have sufficient, metered withdrawal points to meet their needs.
Complicated process
