“The DEC is rushing to start the permitting process when they have no capacity anywhere in this state to absorb the wastewater,” added Hudson. “There’s a lack of disposal capacity in this state, a lack of publicly operated treatment plants that could accept it.”
Hudson added that another concern at Riverkeeper is lack of manpower at the DEC to provide the needed regulatory oversight. “We have a completely understaffed agency. They need 140 new staff members in the first year of monitoring and regulating the industry … you wonder to what extent these regulations will be sufficient, which are not designed for fracking waste, but industrial wastewater.”
Hudson said the existing regulations don’t address “unique aspects of fracking waste, not the least of which is NORM and the extremely saline production brine. Are these generic programs going to be sufficient? You would have thought some lessons were learned across the border in Pennsylvania. Rushing before you’re ready and then playing regulatory catch-up is a recipe for disaster.”
Gutted regulations
Hang said the notion of using municipal sewage plants to dispose of the toxic fracking wastewater is indicative of the general laxness of regulatory oversight of the oil and gas industry. Whereas other industries, such as steel manufacturing, must abide by a carefully regulated “standard industrial classification code,” oil and gas — despite being one of the biggest industries in America — is the exception. “An army of lobbyists have effectively prevented strict pollution control standards being adopted,” Hang said.
Hang noted that a glaring example of the regulatory break the oil and gas industry is getting from the DEC is an exemption from the state’s GA effluent limitation, which are stringent groundwater discharge standards for groundwater that supplies potable drinking water. In its proposed regulations, “DEC decided not to apply those standards,” he said. “If they were applied you couldn’t pump one drop into the ground, because the benzene levels would be exceeded. And they provided an exemption with no technical or legal rationale.”
“It’s insane,” is how Howarth, who is particularly concerned about the massive amount of methane gas that could leak into the atmosphere when a fracking well is drilled, summed up the proposed DEC regulations. Noting that the price of natural gas is currently below the amount that’s profitable for the gas companies, he said it’s as clear as day the companies will “resist putting in the environmental regulations.”
“This whole regulatory proceeding is fundamentally flawed,” concluded Hang. “The bottom line is New York State does not have any capacity whatsoever to manage this gas drilling wastewater.”
The DEC is accepting public comment on the revised SGEIS, which was developed in response to the thousands of public comments on the original draft that came out in September 2009, through Dec. 12. The SGEIS is grafted onto the agency’s existing regulations pertaining to oil and gas mining. Once the full revised SGEIS is released, the DEC will issue its final review, which will be subject to public review for 60 days. To review the SGEIS and proposed regulations, visit www.dec.ny.gov.
I think this is BS – a story meant to scare people with poor facts. Try some actual journalism for a change…
Based on what? If you genuinely care to find the truth, take a ride down to Bradford county, PA. I did, and I saw for myself firsthand the aftermath of hydrofracking. People are being poisoned, robbed (of land equity), and gagged (gag orders in exchange for water from the perpetrators of the aquifer contamination). Thousands of people’s lives have been utterly destroyed by hydrofracking. It’s not too late yet for you to see this, and do something to protect yourself from the same fate.
Perhaps, Bobalo Smith works for a gas company who wants to drill.
This is not news. Any industrial waste water can be considered uber-toxic. Uber being borderline hysterical. So much for un-biased reporting.
Why does one have to be un-biased about facts? Why are you so biased against simple caution and common sense?
Congratulations to the Kingston times for this informative article. Do you want to end up like the impoverished landowners in Appalachia? This is as destructive as mountain top removal coal mining. Don’t believe the hype the gas companies are spreading. We have a lot to defend.
speaking and acting graphically to wake up a population that has been Resting In Peace(r.i.p.) for so long seems to be unavoidable. Thank you for this information. I think more of this sort of reasoning is highly necessary.
Bobalo Smith and Ed Leighton,
Please explain why you think my article is “BS” and biased. What is the basis for your insinuation that disposal of fracking wastewater is safe, and that it’s “borderline hysterical” to assume otherwise? I, and the Kingston Times, strive for accuracy so we would very much like to know why you think this article is inaccurate.
Good journalism.
And when, for goodness sake, are we going to stop these insane methods of getting energy from the earth?! When, oh, when, will we use solar for our needs?
When Mario Cuomo was NYS governor, and the Shoreham nuclear plant was about to go online, protests erupted and he actually heeded the warnings of the dangers to NY residents and land: It didn’t open. So, Andrew? Do what your dad did and pay attention to the people. Stop hydrofracking; stop nuclear plants; do something honorable and make it a law that buildings be “solarized”; do it for the next generations, would ya?
People in favor of this terribly toxic method of getting energy from the earth support it for the love of money, and the lack of imagination and vision, lack of respect for nature. They insult and degrade those of us with higher values for being truth-tellers, and questioners of authority. Horizontal fracturing is a monstrous proposal. Any morally and intellectually average fifth grader would agree. The waste of our water resources alone is reason enough to reject it. Millions of gallons of clean water per well. Sick! All the other problems, such as what to do with the toxic waste just make it more and more abominable. People who don’t acknowledge this are just ridiculous, and amoral, or perhaps immoral, at least on environmental stewardship issues. Who told them they can do whatever they want in life, regardless of the costs? They must learn to respect others and not just steamroll their way through life. We must stop them from destroying what most of us consider to be sacred and irreplaceable.
It seems Mr. Smith and Mr. Leighton would rather get their information from industry propaganda. Or maybe they are actually serving as paid industry propagandists. As with any battle over public opinion, I imagine the gas companies have a few people who are tasked with spreading misinformation and criticizing objective reporting on the most serious fracking issues. As a reasonable environmentalist, I used to accept natural gas as the so-called bridge to an alternative energy future. I used to think, well, at least it’s cleaner than coal and less risky than nuclear. I almost invested in natural gas equities, hoping to make a killing from the inevitable boom. But no longer. As I wade through the troubling facts and become educated about the impacts, it is more and more obvious that this industrial process is not worth it. I hope Gov. Cuomo comes to this realization soon–we need to speak up and help him realize that it’s just not worth it. Those who favor hydrofracking and who aggressively criticize its opponents are either uneducated about the facts, or paid off in one way or another, it’s that simple. Those who believe that an economic boom is inevitable as soon as the first new well is permitted are sadly naive. Get with it folks. Stick to the facts. Reject the propaganda. Before it’s too late.
THANK YOU, Kingston Times and Lynn Woods. The article represents impeccable journalism, and if anything it was understated in terms of the damage toxic, radioactive, produced frack fluid would do to the
Kingston Waste Water Treatment system.
1) The toxic chemicals are labeled “Hazardous Waste” when they are put into the wells. When they return to the surface they magically turn into “industrial” waste. The magic of the industry’s lobby efforts, that is.
2)Waste treatment plants use live creatures–bacteria–to process sewage. This fluid is full of biocides and other poisons which will destroy the bacteria.
3)World renown sewage expert, Al Appleton, says the fluid will go in and then back out into the Rondout without mitigation.
4)The fluid is super salty, beyond anything sewage plants can handle
5)The trucks, which would ruin our lovely Rondout neighborhood, would not be marked with specific contents because the compounds are proprietory, exempt from Clean Water laws and vary greatly from drill pad to drill pad.
6)Kingston might be tempted (for the hefty fees involved) but would be nuts to accept this stuff.
thanks again, Kingston Times.