Legal Action

Gas Drilling Wastewater in the Monongahela River 11/10/09

http://www.earthjustice.org/our_work/cases/2009/gas-drilling-wastewater-in-the-monongahela-river.html

There is a gas rush in Pennsylvania. The PA Department of Environmental Protection ("DEP") issued more than 1,300 permits for gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale this year, up from 97 in 2007. Extracting gas from the shale involves the use of toxic drilling muds and a stimulation process known as "hydraulic fracturing," whereby millions of gallons of water and toxic chemicals are pumped at high pressure into horizontal wells to break up low-permeability rock and release trapped gas. About half of the injected fluids are recovered, along with high levels of total dissolved solids ("TDS"), heavy metals, and normally occurring radioactive materials that leach out of underground formations. The wastes from drilling muds, hydraulic fracturing fluids, and brines that emerge during the production phase cannot be discharged safely into the waters of the Commonwealth without extensive treatment.

Unfortunately, Pennsylvania does not have enough treatment capacity for all of the gas wastes. In fact, DEP has admitted that there is not enough water in the entire state to absorb all of the contaminated drilling wastes that will be generated over the next two years. Instead of reducing the pace of drilling, however, DEP is expediting approval of new and modified wastewater treatment plants ("WWTPs") without legally required protections for public health and the environment. Under heavy political pressure from the Governor and other elected officials, DEP is authorizing WWTPs to discharge inadequately treated wastes into both pristine cold water fisheries and rivers that already are impaired, in violation of the federal Clean Water Act and the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law.

On behalf of Clean Water Action, Earthjustice and the University of Pittsburgh Environmental Law Clinic have filed an appeal of an agreement between DEP and Shallenberger Construction, Inc., which plans to construct and operate a new WWTP for gas development wastes that would discharge into the Monongahela River -- the drinking water supply for approximately 350,000 people. The River has exceeded water quality standards for TDS repeatedly over more than a year, but the agreement would allow long-term discharges from the plant without any treatment for TDS or any limitation on TDS levels. The agreement also fails to impose any effluent limitations, or even mere reporting requirements, for a raft of toxic chemicals that DEP has identified as parameters of concern for Marcellus Shale gas wastes. CWA's appeal is the first challenge of any permit for a gas drilling WWTP in Pennsylvania, and its resolution may set the standard for dozens of permits currently in the pipeline

Rendell celebrates OK to water standards

Staff and wire writers
Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger:
"Sewage treatment plants that discharge into rivers aren't equipped to remove the sulfates and chlorides in the brine enough to comply with the proposed rule.
"Drilling wastewater is incredibly nasty wastewater," state Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger said after the vote at the panel's public meeting. "If we allow this into our rivers and streams, all the businesses in Pennsylvania will suffer ... all those who drink water in Pennsylvania are going to be angry and they would have every reason to be, and all of those who fish and love the outdoors are going to say, 'What did you do to our fish and our outdoors?'"

The Rendell administration on Thursday was celebrating a key approval of its strategy for protecting Pennsylvania's rivers and household water from a rapid expansion of natural gas drilling.
A state regulatory board voted 4-1 in favor of proposed new standards to deal with polluted drilling wastewater.

The rule is designed to take effect Jan. 1, but that could be delayed by the Legislature.

State environmental officials say too much of the pollutants can kill fish and leave a salty taste in drinking water drawn from rivers.

Sewage treatment plants that discharge into rivers aren't equipped to remove the sulfates and chlorides in the brine enough to comply with the proposed rule.
"Drilling wastewater is incredibly nasty wastewater," state Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger said after the vote at the panel's public meeting. "If we allow this into our rivers and streams, all the businesses in Pennsylvania will suffer ... all those who drink water in Pennsylvania are going to be angry and they would have every reason to be, and all of those who fish and love the outdoors are going to say, 'What did you do to our fish and our outdoors?'"

The vote comes at the beginning of what is expected to be a gas drilling boom in Pennsylvania. Exploration companies, armed with new technology, are spending billions to get into position to exploit the rich Marcellus Shale gas reserve, which lies underneath much of the state.

The rule would put pressure on drillers to find alternative methods to treat and dispose of the wastewater.

Myron Arnowitt, who is Pennsylvania state director for Clean Water Action, an environmental group that has been critical of the state's regulation of wastewater from gas drillers, said Thursday he was pleased that the new rules will be put into effect.

"We've been pushing for the state to adopt these rules for quite some time," Arnowitt said. "We're really happy to see that they're making it so (drillers) won't be able to put untreated water into our rivers."

The drilling industry, as well as a range of business groups and owners, opposes the rule, calling it costly, confusing, arbitrary and rushed during more than three hours of testimony before the regulatory review commission.

Consol Energy spokesman Joe Cerenzia said his company didn't believe the new rules would be helpful in achieving clean water. Consol's CNX Gas subsidiary is a major driller of coalbed methane gas as well as drilling horizontal wells to extract gas from the Marcellus Shale strata.

"We're not opposed to clean water, but we believe that what the commonwealth is proposing today is not going to achieve that," he said.

According to the Marcellus Shale Coalition, based in Southpointe, the drilling industry is taking issue with a regulation that it said would mandate an "end of pipe," 500 milligrams-per-liter cap on the concentration of total dissolved solids in the disposal of produced water from natural gas production.

"There is not a single water treatment facility in Pennsylvania that could meet this unreasonable benchmark, which will not provide any additional environmental benefit," said Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director of the coalition, in a statement.

"There is a need for commonsense regulations that encourage the production of job-creating natural gas throughout the commonwealth and aim to keep our water clean," she said, noting that improving water management pactices remains a top priority for the drilling industry.

"Unfortunately, these rules will make responsible shale gas development more difficult, and the jobs and economic benefits created throughout this process less likely, without positively impacting Pennsylvania's water quality."

Arnowitt noted that some drilling companies have already applied for permits to build wastewater treatment plants, which he said would be regulated by the state Department of Environmental Protection. According to Arnowitt, companies could either discharge the treated water back into the rivers, or use it for other hydraulic fracturing of horizontal gas wells.

Range Resources has said that it is now recycling nearly all of the water it uses in the hydraulic fracturing of wells. A Range spokesman was not available for comment late Thursday afternoon.

Cerenzia acknowledged that one option that has been discussed is for drillers to build their own treatment plants. Consol Energy Chief Executive J. Brett Harvey told shareholders last month that his company is considering investing between $200 million and $300 million to construct water treatment plants capable of processing mine and gas water for its Marcellus Shale operations.

Once the rule takes effect, a treatment plant would have to get state approval to process additional amounts of drilling wastewater beyond what it already is allowed, or ensure that it was pretreated by a specialized method that removes sulfates and chlorides.

Hanger said no other industry will be affected and he has worked to incorporate the concerns of business groups that have had more than a year to scrutinize the administration's plans. The companies, he said, are making more than enough money to pay for alternative treatment methods.

"There's plenty of money to do this the right way," Hanger said. "But, of course, if you let an industry do it the wrong way, the low-cost way, they will run with it, they will take it. They're not going to be volunteers."


http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/localnews/06-18-2010-NEW-DRILLING-WASTEWATER-REQUIREMENTS

6 comments
: 6/18/2010
It's about time, but this may lead to more illegal dumping.


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Get out of Pennsylvania : 6/18/2010
If the drilling companies don't like the efforts to keep our water safe, then they can move to another state.


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Is this Legislation just Political Posturing ? : 6/18/2010
I'm a simple man. I thought that introducing any form of pollution into the waterways was already illegal. Heck, if I pee in the river I'm going to be arrested. So why is this legislation needed to keep the drillers from allowing thousands upon thousands of gallons of water laced with heavy metals and salts from getting into our waterways ?

Maybe BP can help us out
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: 6/18/2010
Consol Energy spokesman Joe Cerenzia said his company didn't believe the new rules would be helpful in achieving clean water. If this is the case, then the laws are not strong enough.

Fracing = Death
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Part of the problem : 6/18/2010
I once spoke with an experience plumber and he assured me that Pittsburgh’s infrastructure has a great deal of raw sewage pipes draining directly into our rivers.


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wastewater from gas drillers : 6/18/2010
It realy does't matter how much it cost to the company they will just pass it on to the leasee and take it from his roylties

84 pa

EPA Watch

Hugh Kaufman has been at EPA since the Agency was created in the early 1970s, as an engineer, investigator and policy analyst. Prior to joining the EPA in the beginning of 1971, he was a Captain in the US Air Force. He helped write all the Federal laws regulating the treatment, storage, disposal, and remediation of solid and hazardous waste. He has been the Chief Investigator on numerous contamination cases, including Love Canal and Times Beach.

In 1976, when he was Chief Investigator on Hazardous Sites, he came up with the idea for a major Government Clean-up Program called Superfund, that was enacted in 1980. Beginning in 1997, he served as Chief Investigator for EPA's National Ombudsman. In that role, he investigated and conducted several public hearings around the country on EPA's clean-up and remediation at hazardous sites. In this role, he led the investigation that uncovered EPA and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cover-up of the environmental effects of the collapse of the World Trade Center after al Qaeda's terrorist acts in September 11, 2001.

He has testified numerous times before Congress. Mr. Kaufman is currently the Senior Policy Analyst at EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, and has held this position since the Bush Administration abolished the EPA Ombudsman Office in 2002.


EPA Decides Not to Remove Rocket Fuel from Drinking Water
by Stephanie Rogers

There's a toxic rocket fuel ingredient in drinking water across the country, and the Environmental Protection Agency doesn't care. Though the EPA is officially in charge of protecting the public from dangers such as this, they reached the conclusion that the ingredient, perchlorate, would not result in a “meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public-water systems.” So, despite the fact that perchlorate“ which has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states at dangerously high levels“ interferes with thyroid function and could pose developmental health risks, especially for babies and fetuses, the EPA doesn't think it's too important.

From The Huffington Post:

The Defense Department used perchlorate for decades in testing missiles and rockets, and most perchlorate contamination is the result of defense and aerospace activities, congressional investigators said last year.

The Pentagon could face liability if EPA set a national drinking water standard that forced water agencies around the country to undertake costly clean-up efforts. Defense officials have spent years questioning EPA’s conclusions about the risks posed by perchlorate.

The Pentagon objected strongly Monday to the suggestion that it sought to influence EPA’s decision.

Of course they denied pressuring the EPA there'd be public outrage if they admitted it. That's the Bush administration's way they make the decisions that are advantageous to themselves, and lie to everyone about their methods and motivations. The EPA's decision basically amounts to announcing that they don't care about public health. It's pretty sick, but not surprising given what the Bush presidency has put this country through for the last 8 years.

EPA to hold Marcellus Shale hearing at Southpointe

Staff and wire
http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/localnews/06-18-2010-Marcellus-Shale-EPA-hearing

The Environmental Protection Agency has scheduled a series of public hearings, including one in Canonsburg, over concerns the rapid increase in natural gas drilling work might be polluting drinking water supplies.
The July 22 hearing at Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe, will collect information on the process known as “fracking,” which injects large amount of water, sand and chemicals underground to tap into the Marcellus Shale.

The huge boom in the industry has resulted in economic development across Washington and Greene counties. The Marcellus Shale is a rock bed the size of Greece about 6,000feet beneath the state, and also New York, West Virginia and Ohio.

The hearings, which also will be held in Texas, Colorado and New York, follow concerns from the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee about the chemicals used in the drilling. Some of the chemicals are benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.

The hearing in Cecil Township will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. at the hotel at 1000 Corporate Drive.


EPA meeting addresses impact of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water
By Christie Campbell, Staff writer, chriscam@observer-reporter.com

As part of a two-year study on hydraulic fracturing and whether it has any impact on drinking water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is holding a public meeting in Canonsburg next month.
The EPA will take comments from citizens concerned about the drilling process as well as stockholders in the natural gas industry from 6 to 10 p.m. July 22 at Southpointe Hilton Garden Inn, 1000 Corporate Drive.

The meeting is being hosted as part of a study the EPA's Office of Research and Development is conducting to determine if hydraulic fracturing has any adverse affect on drinking water or the environment. Hydraulic fracturing is used to stimulate natural gas wells in the Marcellus Shale development and is used locally in gas wells.

An EPA spokesperson said Monday that the time frame to complete the study is late 2012. That should give the drillers plenty of time to destroy the county's drinking water supply and property values before any new EPA laws are legislated.

http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/washnews/06-29-2010-epa-hearings

Gas Well Accident Injures Two in Tioga County (VIDEO)

WENY-TV
Jane Park

June 18, 2010
GAINES, Pa.-- Two workers were injured at a western Tioga County gas well owned by Ultra Resources, Inc. Officials are denying an actual explosion. A DEP spokesperson said the two workers were connecting a pressurized pipe when it burst and injured them. They were flown to Guthrie Medical Center around 11o'clock this morning.
http://www.weny.com/News-Local.asp?ARTICLE3864=9154291

Grand jury indicts executives over workplace accident

http://dayton.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2010/06/14/daily22.html

A Butler County grand jury has indicted United Oil Recovery Services Inc. and several of its employees on criminal charges in the death of a worker at the company’s Middletown facility.

The indictments — an unusual move that worries some local attorneys — was announced Wednesday in a statement from the Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray’s office, which is prosecuting the case at the request of the Butler County Prosecutor’s Office



Read more: Grand jury indicts executives over workplace accident - Dayton Business Journal

Living Downstream

http://www.livingdownstream.com/

Reactions to the Film
See what audiences and reviewers are saying about Living Downstream…
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Handsomely photographed and powerfully argued… Steingraber's scientific cool and unflagging sense of mission make for an arresting portrait of a self-styled modern-day Rachel Carson.
- Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post (04/23/10)
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…an absolute must-see. Excuse my clichés, but Living Downstream is powerful, it is inspiring, it is moving, it is – quietly, like our hero – a tear-jerker. And, upon seeing it yourself, you are likely to make similar exhortations to your friends and family.
– Don Schwartz, CineSource Magazine (05/07/10)
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Director Chanda Chevannes’s Living Downstream is a convincing and necessary documentary. It’s also, despite its daunting subject matter, a movie you’ll want to watch…A few pitch-perfect moments provide all the emotional force you would expect from a “cancer movie,” minus the unpleasant tang of emotional manipulation.

Living Downstream does an excellent job of engaging the viewer’s curiosity and telling an inconvenient truth through the lens of interesting science and one fascinating woman.
- Ali Gadbow, Missoula Independent (03/04/10)
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Like the book, the full-length documentary Living Downstream tells the story of a woman who was first diagnosed with bladder cancer at age 20, having been raised in Tazewell, Ill…

Unlike the book, however, the film has a “visual quality” that is powerful, said Steingraber. “Films get into communities in ways that books can’t,” she said. Directed by Chanda Chevannes, the film is at times intimate, at other times shocking, and occasionally tragically humorous.
- Jamie Kelly, The Missoulian (03/05/10)
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“You cannot watch this documentary and fail to be alarmed… This documentary makes it impossible to hide behind the numbers and the verbiage and fail to see the big picture.”
– Ed Stermer, Instructor, Earth Science, Illinois Central College quoted by Clare Howard, Peoria Journal Star (04/12/10)
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[Sandra Steingraber] wages an impassioned fight against carcinogens…Living Downstream [is] part-memoir/part-scientific treatise about Steingraber’s battles with cancer, and the environmental roots of many cancers.
– Krisy Gashler, Ithaca Journal (04/02/10)