PENNSYLVANIA
Marcellus wastewater dumped into waterways
By
Betsey Piette
Published Jan 17, 2011 10:08 PM
Natural gas industry giant Cabot Oil & Gas Co. is at it again. In January
it was reported that the company had illegally discharged 1.8 million gallons
of wastewater into the Neshaminy Creek, part of the Delaware River watershed.
This watershed is a source of drinking water for more than 300,000 residents in
17 communities outside Philadelphia.
In December Cabot agreed to set up a $4.1 million escrow account for rural
Pennsylvanians who suffered health problems in areas where the company earlier
had carried out hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” operations.
In other areas of the U.S. toxic wastewater from fracking is usually disposed
of by injecting it down deep well shafts. Pennsylvania, which has become the
center of the gas rush, remains the only state that allows fracking companies
to use waterways as the primary disposal site for huge volumes of fluids.
Contaminated with chemicals, wastewater from fracking operations was being
trucked from gas well sites in the northeastern part of the state to a private
industrial treatment facility in Hatfield Township, a Philadelphia suburb,
where some solids were removed before the wastewater was discharged into the
creek. The wastewater was polluted with strontium and barium, which can cause
high blood pressure if ingested. Fracking wastewater also contains radium, a
naturally occurring radioactive substance.
In late 2010 the Delaware River Basin Commission ordered the facility to cease
accepting the fluids. This acceptance constituted a blatant violation of
DRBC’s rules and regulations. No fines, however, were levied against
Cabot or PSC Environmental Services, the company that discharged the wastewater
into the sewer system.
The Delaware River Basin supplies water for 15 million people in four states.
Regulations that should have kept fracking wastewater out of the watershed were
circumvented for months.
An Associated Press examination of the Department of Environmental
Protection’s first annual report of waste produced by drilling in
Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale found that statewide “at least 150
million barrels of the waste were sent to treatment plants that empty into
rivers during the 12 months ending June 30, 2010 — enough to cover a
square mile with more than 8 1/2 inches of brine. More than 50 million gallons,
about one-fifth of the total waste fluid, was unaccounted for because of a
‘weakness’ in the state’s reporting system.” (Jan.
3)
People in impacted towns were repeatedly told that the watershed was free of
gas waste, even though their water contained contaminants known as
trihalomethanes. While not found in drilling wastewater, trihalomethanes are
created when chlorine used to purify drinking water reacts with bromide, which
is found in the wastewater that is several times saltier than sea water.
The Environmental Protection Agency says people who drink water with elevated
levels of trihalomethanes for many years have increased risks of cancer as well
as potential problems with their liver, kidney and central nervous system.
Water in a municipal authority water treatment plant in Beaver Falls, 27 miles
northwest of Pittsburgh, began flunking tests for trihalomethanes regularly in
2009. “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.” (ProPublica,
Jan. 5)
Protest against Toxic Tom
Gas Truth-PA, which is organizing a statewide protest in Harrisburg on Jan. 18
at the inauguration of incoming governor Tom Corbett, stated that Corbett is so
pro-drilling “he is failing to protect the Delaware River watershed or
any other watershed from drilling.”
Natural gas companies in Pennsylvania contributed more than a million dollars
to Corbett’s campaign. Corbett promised to rescind a recent gubernatorial
executive order against leasing 800,000 more acres of state forest for
drilling. He also opposes a tax on gas and backs legislation allowing companies
to drill even when landowners refuse to signs leases.
Shortly after his election, “Toxic” Tom reassured the gas industry
that he will protect their interests by appointing Christine Toretti, owner of
SW Jack Drilling, to his transitional team.
In a press release calling for the Jan. 18 rally, Gas Truth-PA wrote,
“People with few resources are left on their own to sue giant
corporations, and our beautiful natural treasures are being stolen. We need to
make it clear: Pennsylvanians don’t want gas drilling. Arrogant
corporations should not be running this show. We want clean water and air
— and we want it now!”
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