UK Ban Adds to the Tremors Taking Down the Fracking Industry
November 9, 2019
Proposed Battery Recycling Facility in Endicott, NY a Hazard
December 3, 2019PA Wants to Allow Dumping of Toxic Drilling Waste on an Unpaved Road Near You
Unpaved roads in PA
Published this year by PennState Institute of Energy and Environment this map shows all the unpaved roads in Pennsylvania. You can zoom way in.
A multitude of anti-environment, pro-oil and gas industry bills are moving through the PA legislature. One has passed the PA Senate, S.B. 790, and is now under consideration by the House as H.B. 1635. This is part of rolling back oil and gas drilling rules to basically those in place in 1984 (an auspicious year!). It would permit unpaved roads to become legalized dumpsites for millions of barrels of oil and gas wastewater with NO LOCAL CONTROL. The excuse is that the liquid waste, euphemistically labeled ‘brine’, would be used for dust suppression, or ice melting in winter. This toxic waste is neither effective as a dust suppressant, nor safe to be released into our communities (see original research supported by DCS). See our Toxic Frac Brine page for more information.
Here’s where this toxic waste was spread – dumped – on roads prior to the 2018 statewide DEP moratorium on road-spreading of ‘brine’:
It was an Environmental Hearing Board case that DCS participated in that forced DEP to stop giving permits for this practice. We have proof of the continued illegal use of public roads as toxic disposal areas.
Please see this OpEd on PA Environment Daily blog to understand some of the profound health consequences from ‘brine’, including radiation impacts. The article notes that one of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources tests, performed on wastewater from a Pennsylvania conventional well, “showed a radioactivity level of 3361 pico curies/liter— 672 times the EPA limit for safe drinking water.”
PA residents, contact your state representatives and Governor Wolf and tell them to fulfill their duty to protect our health by keeping oil and gas drilling waste off our roads.
If any unpaved road in PA could be targeted, there is nowhere in Pennsylvania to run or hide. We all live downstream.
This article in The Allegheny Voice has very rare actual measurements of the radioactivity in liquid frack wastes. Called ‘produced water’ or ‘brine’ as a propaganda ploy, the wastes are exempted from major federal protective laws and contain toxic chemicals and radioactivity. If your water comes from a public water source (not a private well), know that PA municipal water systems are only required to test for radioactivity in water sources once every 9 years.
Note: Ohio and Pennsylvania sit atop the same shale formation and, as detailed in the article, much PA drilling waste is shipped to Ohio.
13 Comments
Is it still true that the identity of all the components of “brine” are NOT required to be disclosed because they are “proprietary” business secrets so that we do not even know exactly what is authorized to be dropped on the road in front of our homes. If so, it is an incredibly irresponsible health and safety risk.
Yes, it is still true that the identity of all the components of “brine” are NOT required to be disclosed, but not because they are “proprietary” business secrets – it’s because the oil/gas industry has two layers of exemptions protecting them from liability for damages they knew they would cause. There are the 1980 amendments to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) that made the wastes from coal, and from oil and gas, “special” so they would not be covered by RCRA. As “special” they don’t have to be tracked cradle to grave and no disposal is specified (see Loopholes for Polluters, see page 2 of the pdf).
THEN the Cheney-Bush exemptions in the 2005 Energy Policy Act gave oil and gas exploration and production exemptions to major provisions of 7 protective federal laws (page 1 of the above link).
So YES, very true. We do not even know exactly what is authorized to be dropped on the road in front of our homes. You have it correct that it is an incredibly irresponsible health and safety risk.
It is bad enough PA has to take all the garbage from nearby states and now someone expects us to take the toxic brine from drilling. We have a beautiful state but keep it up and it’s going to be America’s number one TOXIC state where no human or animal can exist any longer!
I lived in Potter County in 1980s. Brine was put on my road. Cross Fork Rd.
Wonder if that is where my thyroid cancer, and lung cancer came from?
And my daughters Breast cancer.
Thoughts to ponder.
Remember that both the state house and senate are controlled by Republicans who support this nonsense. Most of these unpacked roads are in rural counties that traditionally vote Republican. Stop voting against your own interests and start voting for Dems that will not support bills like these. Duh!
Please do not dump brine or toxic drilling waste in any part of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is a natural treasure. Please don’t pollute it.
I think including a link to the contact forms for our representatives would be a fantastic addition to this article. Thank you for keeping us informed!
Yeah, I’d say the companies involved in containing and disposing these toxic waists love the idea that they can just drive down a country road and get rid of their problem, what an easy way to make it go away. Why not just pump it into a stream or lake, it would even be easier and thats where it’s going to go eventually. This is almost to stupid to be true. Mean while the companies that produce and sell these oil and gas products are raking in millions in profit and then want to dump the poison by products on you like someone taking a crap on your front porch like it’s ok.
How is this okay with ANYONE? Apparently in the US it’s fine to pollute, cause cancer, death, destruction of our environment, poison the air, land, water – anything as long as some corporation or billionaire can profit! enough! We, the people, demand that our government stands up against the polluters & the greedy irresponsible types, not be accomplices!
. There’s got to be a law that they have to filter the water and bring it back to safe criteria
The waste from coal, gas, and oil was exempted from Resource Conservation and Recovery Act or Superfund Law in 1980 by amendments to that law. The various wastes can be relabeled as “special”. The companies no longer have to track (cradle to grave). There is no way to dispose of them properly. It also removed their liability for damages created by improper waste disposal.
More information here.
Despicable
No. We have streams adjacent to our dirt roads, and I don’t want that crap in my water supply or that of my neighbors. Take your poison and make the drilling companies discard it in a environmentally safe manner. Wayne County doesn’t want it here.