What could possibly go wrong?
The Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority is seeking a permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection to treat up to 150,000 gallons per day of Marcellus Shale waste water in its sewage stream. DEP could allow some of the treated water to go into the Susquehanna River.
Frack Fluid Spill in Dimock Contaminates Stream, Killing Fish
Cabot company fined for drilling-site spills
Methane Contamination Linked To Drill Site In PA
Remember that the top brass of the WVSA covered up the theft of funds by one it's employees until the FBI found out about it so I really trust the judgement of these people.
Amazing how people seem to forget the real environmental damage done by the coal industry in this area. Somehow I think history is going to be repeating itself and our children and grandchildren will be paying the price...
ReplyDeleteThe New York-based Toxics Targeting went through the Department of Environmental Conservation’s own database of hazardous substances spills over the past thirty years. They found 270 cases documenting fires, explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination and ecological damage related to gas drilling. Many of the cases remain unresolved. The findings are contrary to repeated government assurances that existing natural gas well regulations are sufficient to safeguard the environment and public health. The state is considering allowing for gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale watershed, the source of drinking water for 15 million people, including nine million New Yorkers.
ReplyDeleteWatchdog: New York State Regulation of Natural Gas Wells Has Been “Woefully Insufficient for Decades.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/10/watchdog_new_york_state_regulation_of
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today with the latest developments on gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale watershed, potentially the largest natural gas reserve in the country and the source of drinking water for 15 million people, including nine million New Yorkers. On Monday, an environmental research group released government data revealing New York state regulation of natural gas wells has been, quote, “woefully insufficient for decades.”
ReplyDeleteThe upstate New York-based Toxics Targeting went through the Department of Environmental Conservation’s own database of hazardous substances spills over the last thirty years. They found 270 cases documenting fires, explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination and ecological damage related to gas drilling. Many of the cases remain unresolved.
The findings are contrary to repeated government assurances that existing natural gas well regulations are sufficient to safeguard the environment and public health.
Well, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation didn’t respond to our requests for comment. They told the Ithaca Journal, however, that spills from the oil and gas industry constituted a very small proportion of the total number of spills recorded in the past three decades, adding that such accidents are rare.
For more on this, I’m joined here in our firehouse studio by Walter Hang, the president of Toxics Targeting.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
AMY GOODMAN: Wait, wait, wait, wait. “It’s actually radioactive.” What do you mean?
ReplyDeleteWALTER HANG: Believe it or not, when the water gets drawn out of this deep rock formation, there’s radon, there’s uranium, so the water that comes out is radioactive, as well as toxic-contaminated. So, one of the key problems is, what do you do with all this wastewater? And that’s the issue that we investigated.
(gort: didn't you have some posts about this sort of thing?)
AMY GOODMAN: Now, for a national audience, let alone a New York audience, I think most people have never heard of what Marcellus Shale is.
ReplyDeleteWALTER HANG: That’s right. It’s this giant rock formation, very deep underground. It’s about a mile deep, and it stretches from just north of Syracuse, New York, all the way to Tennessee. This is very thick impermeable rock, but it’s got gas inside these tiny little pores.
So, up until now, there really hasn’t been any effective way to get the gas out of the rock, because it’s so deep and because it’s so impermeable. But now there’s a new technology. It’s called “slick water hydrofracking,” and it involves horizontal drilling. So they drill down, and then they drill through the rock layer, and then they force incredibly highly pressurized water that’s got a lot of additives, and this fractures the rock. This then lets the gas out, and then they retrieve it.
Unfortunately, it requires tremendous amounts of water, and it’s incredibly polluting. So the water that comes out of the ground has toxic chemicals, petroleum compounds, and it’s actually radioactive.
Holy crap!!!
A guy named Josh Fox has been putting together a film about gas extraction across the U.S. Interesting stuff...first heard about it on thestory.org:
ReplyDeletehttp://waterunderattack.com/
I came here via NEPAblogs, D.B.'s site, etc.
Cheers,
Dan (writing from Bolivia)