Doom for wells
Dave Channon noted that “there’s no gas and oil drilling in Ulster County because it’s not corrupted yet.” He described the brine and flow water from the wells as “toxic waste. There’s no water treatment place that can handle this. The only place is a hazardous waste dump.” Claire Franck suggested that municipalities “produce Geiger counters to test everything before it goes on the roads.”
Hydrologist Paul Rubin, who wrote a technical report on the proposed dispersal of brine in Pennsylvania evaluating the impact on groundwater, said the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has defined wastewater brine as “very salty, therefore, injurious to plants and aquatic life.’ From a hydrologic and water quality standpoint, the certain dispersal of fracking waste brines into our waterways, reservoirs and freshwater aquifers from intentional brine dispersal is analogous to running a small secondary line from an oil tank … close to a drinking water well,” he said. While it may take time for the well to be unusable, it will happen. “Contaminant-laden fracking brine dispersed on our roadways will move into our finite water resources and degrade them.”
“Once released, there’s no way to get the chemicals back,” said speaker Peter Lamerson. “The cumulative and biological effects are forever.”
