100s Of Millions Of Gallons Of Saline, Toxic Drilling Wastewater Dumped In PA Rivers w/o Reporting

[hatrack]

As gas-drilling operations proliferated in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale over the past couple of years, most of the hundreds of millions of gallons of briny wastewater they produced was eventually dumped into the state's rivers. Much of the rest is unaccounted for. That news, from a detailed look <1> at the state's management of drilling wastewater by the Associated Press, should come as no surprise to readers of this site.

As we reported <2> in October 2009, Pennsylvania was largely unprepared for the vast quantities of salty, chemically tainted wastewater produced by drilling operations in the Marcellus, the gas-bearing shale formation that stretches under that state and into West Virginia, New York and Ohio. While the state Department of Environmental Protection called for the fluids to be sent through municipal treatment plants, those facilities are largely unable to remove the salts and minerals, also known as Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), from the waste. As our story noted, abnormally high salt levels in the Monongahela River in 2008 corroded machinery at a steel mill and a power plant that were drawing water from the river. The DEP suspected that drilling wastewater was the cause and ordered upstream treatment plants to reduce their output. But months later levels spiked again.

AP examined the DEP's first annual report of waste produced by drilling operations in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale area from July 2009 through June 2010. Among the AP findings:

* More than 150 million gallons were discharged into rivers after passing through treatment plants in the 12-month period. Enough, as the AP put it, “to cover a square mile with more than 8 1/2 inches of brine.”
* More than 50 million gallons, or about one-fifth of the total waste fluid, was unaccounted for because of “weakness” in the state's reporting system or incomplete filings from drilling companies.

The AP report says researchers still don't know whether high TDS levels are harmful to humans or wildlife. But the analysis found that some public water utilities had exceeded the federal limit for levels of cancer-causing trihalomethanes, which can form when chlorine in drinking-water treatment systems combines with bromide, which can be present in drilling waste.

EDIT

http://www.propublica.org/article/pennsylvanias-drilling-wastewater-released-to-streams-some-unaccounted-for

[jwirr]

1. When everything else comes crashing down around our heads I

hope we still have an environment to depend on but it seems like we are going to destroy it getting the last drop of energy out we can. Then we will not only be faced with oil/natural gas depletion but also a totally ruined environment.

[txlibdem]

6. don't worry, the wealthy have homes all around the world so they won't be affected

The plan is to destroy America on all fronts: families, our health, education, environment, government, and economically.

Once the wealthy have drained all the easily extracted cash they'll pack up and move to their villas in some pristine, unpolluted part of the world, leaving us with the consequences.

[Angry Dragon]

2. Citizens should start charging them for attemted murder

This has to stop, the government seems to not care
It is time to hold these corps to the wall

[Sinistrous]

3. ...and our newly minted republican governor

(backed by a fully republican legislature) doesn't give a damn. He won't even back an extraction tax/fee to pay for repair of the damage caused by the frackers.

He is, however, very grateful for the huge campaign donations from the oil and gas companies.

I find republicans nauseating.

[hootinholler]

4. I lived on the banks of the Mon river in the early 70's

I watched that river as a kid go from sulfur yellow to murky brown to a greenish haze and by 75 or so you could actually see a few feet through the water. I saw smallmouth bass populations begin to return, channel catfish and bullheads all come back to where fishing was getting good.

The Allegheny and Mon collect all the water from the west side of the eastern continental divide which runs through the shale field. The Potomac, Susquehanna and Delaware rivers drain the rest into the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, respectively.

This is a huge watershed not to be trifled with.

-Hoot

[Altoid_Cyclist]

5. Two links related to what you said.

This shows how much water the PA DEP is allowing them to take from the Ohio River Watershed Each Day!

Keep in mind that the PA DEP has no legal authority to approve any of this.

http://www.marcellus-shale.us/Water-Mgmt-Plan_SW-PA.htm


Link to the fish kill in Dunkard Creek which empties into the Mon.

http://www.marcellus-shale.us/Dunkard_Creek.htm

[Kolesar]

7. Did you know that steamboats would travel as far as Olean, NY on the Allegheny River?

There was a long period when open coal mines were capped to prevent the acid from running into the Monongahela River and her tributaries. Eventually, fish returned to the Youghiogheny River. I think that the Casselman River tributary was the last river that was too acid for fish.