TITUSVILLE, Crawford County — The Pennsylvania Independent Petroleum Producers will have a a new conference at 1 p.m., Tuesday at the Drake Well Museum to protest proposed state changes to oil and gas well water discharge.

Gary Hovis, PIPP’s president, said Friday the group is protesting proposed and and then there are the truckers and all the jobs its takes to get our product to two refineries that depend on our oil,” Hovis said.

The American Refining changes by the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Quality Board to sulfate and chloride levels in oil and gas well waste water.

Set to go into effect February 2013, the new levels would “bring sulfate and chloride level to less than a 10th of what can be in that water today,” Hovis said.

He said it is already hard to get this type of well water treated and discharged in Pennsylvania to the point that “there is a line of water trucks on Interstate 80 going into Ohio to discharge it.”

Hovis added that if these levels are changed, the petroleum industry in the state will collapse.

“It will reduce the amount of oil and gas being produced and that will lay off workers at the well sites and then there are the truckers and all the jobs its takes to get our product to two refineries that depend on our oil,” Hovis said.

The American Refining Group in Bradford and Ergon Oil Purchasing in Newell, W.Va., which refines about 10,000 barrels of Penn Grade Crude per day, are the two largest refineries for PIPP members.

Kevin Sunday, DEP spokesman, said Friday that the department advertised the changes in July with a 45-day comment period.

“We received about 200 comments in that period, but nothing from (PIPP),” Sunday said, adding that every three years, the DEP reviews the state’s water quality regulations to see if they need to be updated.

Despite the lack of contact with the DEP during the public comment period, Sunday said DEP representatives have met with PIPP members several weeks ago, and another meeting is scheduled for November.

“We will be discussing all of these issues,” he said.