What will new fracking waste impoundments mean in our community?

Most people in our community, myself included, support drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. There are clear economic benefits that are impossible to ignore, which is why I have never supported a ban or a moratorium on drilling.

However, while most people support drilling, they are equally clear that they want to see it done “the right way”. The battle over who gets to define “the right way” has been a source of contention; drilling companies try to convince the public that their way is the only way, while many elected officials realize there is a need to protect the community from heavy industrial activity.

If you live in Smith, Mt. Pleasant or Midway, you need to be aware of some of the proposed industrial activity coming your way in the near future. This is even more alarming because freshwater impoundments weren’t designed or built for this use.

In March, Range Resources announced a new centralized impoundment dam to store wastewater in Cross Creek Township. Just this week, Range announced the construction of another new centralized impoundment dam in Smith Township, designed to hold 15.3 million gallons of wastewater. The impoundment is located very close to Midway and Mt. Pleasant, including Fort Cherry Schools.

One of the biggest battles has been over the disposal of the wastewater from drilling. The gas industry talks about ‘recycled’ water. This means the water has been reused many times; it does not mean the water is cleaner or safer when the process is done. In fact, the water would likely be dirtier because it has been reused so many times.

This wastewater is nasty stuff. The drilling companies themselves don’t know what’s in it. Last year, executives from Range Resources testified in a court case that they do not know the chemicals they are using in the fracking process. They typically purchase premixed combinations of chemicals from big companies like Halliburton with names like ‘Flo Stop P’ and list them on the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS).

The composition of those chemical compounds is usually kept secret by the industry by claiming they are trade secrets. A 2011 Congressional report found that, between 2005 and 2009, 14 leading oil and gas companies used over 2,500 hydraulic fracturing products containing 750 chemicals and components, some extremely toxic and carcinogenic, including lead and benzene. Overall, the 14 companies used 780 million gallons of hydraulic fracturing products between 2005 and 2009.

The report states the most widely used chemical in fracking fluids, methanol, is a hazardous air pollutant and is on the candidate list for potential regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Isopropyl alcohol, 2-butoxyethanol, and ethylene glycol were the other most widely used chemicals. The study noted that in some cases benzene (a known carcinogen), toluene, xylene, and ethyl benzene are used. Many of the hydraulic fracturing fluids contain chemical components that are listed as “proprietary” or “trade secret.”

In addition to the fracking fluid, the wastewater from Pennsylvania drilling sites often contains naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) that comes up as a result of the drilling process.

So what should be done with these millions of gallons of dirty, dangerous and in some cases potentially toxic water? It’s a huge issue that is largely misunderstood or ignored by the public.

The clear industry best practice is to use a ‘closed loop’ system that keeps all that wastewater contained. Companies like Shell, El Paso, Chevron-Texaco, Exxon and many others use these kinds of systems across the country. Unfortunately, the primary operators in southwestern Pennsylvania like Range Resources refuse to adopt these best practices. Instead, they simply dig a hole in the ground, put down a couple layers of plastic and dump the water in these ‘wastewater impoundments’ or ‘centralized impoundments’.

The hazards of using wastewater impoundments are obvious. The chemicals in the wastewater are just sitting in the open air, where winds can shift them towards homes, schools and businesses. The impoundments often leak and spills have occurred near them, which put our clean water sources in danger for both people and wildlife.

Despite industry claims, wastewater impoundments are not necessary for drilling to occur- they’re just cheaper for the drilling companies. Once in place, these impoundments have proven nearly impossible to remove; they become dumping grounds for drilling sites all over the place.

I pulled the DEP data on trucks coming in and out of the Worstell Impoundment in Cecil Township, and the list was over seventy pages long- single spaced- of trucks dumping water in and out of the impoundment years after it should have been closed down when nearby drilling was complete. Ask anyone living nearby and they can talk about the traffic nightmare the impoundments create.

The real problem is that despite improvements in technology to treat wastewater, companies like Range Resources are ignoring the new methods and creating more impoundments instead.

I have introduced legislation, which has Democratic and Republican co-sponsors, to ban these kinds of wastewater impoundments. They are unnecessary and dangerous, and you simply do not need them to drill. You can be pro-drilling but still not want to see our communities turned into hazardous waste dumps for drilling operations as far away as other counties.

Any definition of ‘responsible drilling’ cannot include the use of centralized wastewater impoundments, and any company using them needs to show enough respect for the people living here to stop using them forever.