Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Calls on Marcellus Shale Drillers to Stop Taking Wastewater to Treatment Plants
This post was written by Nicolle Bagnell and Ariel Nieland.
Last week, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Michael Krancer gave Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling operators a deadline of May 19 by which to voluntarily stop delivering wastewater produced from natural gas extraction to water treatment facilities. This request from the DEP comes as a result of concerns over increased levels of bromides detected in the Allegheny and Beaver rivers in western Pennsylvania. In August 2010, the prior administration implemented new regulations addressing the potential for contamination from "total dissolved solid" (TDS), a by-product of natural gas extraction. Bromides, which are also present in wastewater containing TDS, can become toxic when combined with chlorine used for water disinfection at treatment facilities. The 2010 TDS regulations imposed more stringent standards on publicly owned treatment works and centralized waste treatment facilities for the treatment of TDS discharges. However, the regulations included a "grandfather clause" allowing for facilities that had historically accepted drilling wastewater to continue to do so, provided that the total amount of wastewater they received did not increase. Out of the 27 "grandfathered" facilities, nearly half have voluntarily ceased accepting Marcellus Shale wastewater in the past year. DEP's request calls upon operators to stop delivering wastewater to the remaining 15 facilities in hopes that concentrations of bromides will "quickly and significantly decrease" as a result.
