Corbett Drops 4 Pollutants from Fracking Regulations After Frackers Ask Him Nicely for It

[JPZenger]

Last edited Sun Apr 21, 2013, 08:15 PM - Edit history (1)

http://tomwilber.blogspot.com/2013/03/pa-eases-water-standard-update-after.html

"In the face of industry opposition, PA. officials have backed away from proposed standards that would limit certain kinds pollution that drilling and fracking operators can discharge into the Commonwealth’s waters.

Specifically, the agency has removed proposed standards for molybdenum, sulfates, chlorides, and 1-4 dioxane, because the restrictions “raised the concern of the business community,” according to a recent DEP report. The constituents were originally included in proposed updates to Chapter 93, which regulates water quality under the Clean Streams Law. The revised proposal is now pending approval by the Dept. of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Quality Board.

The most acutely toxic of the chemicals excluded from the proposed standards is 1-4 dioxane, a manufacturing solvent that can cause illnesses ranging from cancer to organ failure, and for which there is no current water quality standard in PA. Chlorides and sulfates, also eliminated from the revised regs, are less acutely toxic than dioxane but can cause ecological and health problems, especially when discharged in quantity over time in water bodies already stressed by high levels. Chlorides and sulfates are principal waste components of the shale gas and mining industries. They are measured as Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), or, more simply, things that dissolve in water. Water with high TDS, often deceptively clear, can wreak havoc on fresh water systems. Chlorides can also be a flag for other possible pollution that comes deep in the ground with flowback, including undisclosed mixtures of chemical solutions and naturally occurring metals and hydrocarbons that can foul fresh water."

[Buzz Clik]

1. Ok. You don't want these chemicals regulated? Don't put them in the fracking fluids.

Asshats.

The chlorides and sulfates cannot be excluded from state law because they are regulated under federal, but these guys are up to something. They have an agenda and must be cut off at the knees on this one. If the regulations back off on chlorides and sulfates, the companies would be able to discharge their "brackish" (understatement) waters into fresh water or maybe inject it into aquifers.

I find some of the reaction to fracking to border on hysteria, but this one is huge. Pennsylvania needs to stand firm.

[Lugnut]

2. Of course he did.

His pocket was nicely lined for his efforts I'm sure.

[malthaussen]

3. Eh, well, you know, we're all gonna die anyway.

I for one am proud to think that my death from toxic water will contribute, however indirectly, to increasing shareholder equity for whichever fracking company poisons me.

-- Mal

[blue neen]

4. Oh, when will we be rid of Canker Sore Corbett?

"The story of Dunkard Creek and the Mon (chronicled in Under the Surface) represents a broader concern about the health of Pennsylvania waterways that lead to revisions in the Pa. Clean Streams law under governor Ed Rendell and his DEP secretary John Hanger in 2010. The Chapter 95 revision (not to be confused with the Chapter 93 revisions now on the table) restricts new treatment plants from accepting high TDS waste from drill operators, although it allows the practice to continue at old plants. Environmental watchdog groups are concerned about plants that continue to discharge high levels of chlorides into the watershed, including Waste Treatment Corp., in Warren County, Hart Resources Technologies, in Indiana County, and two plants run by Pa. Brine, one in Venango County and one in Indiana County. The plants are discharging effluent with chloride concentrations more than two times greater than seawater, according to Myron Arnowitt, Pennsylvania state director with Clean Water Action."

It's hideous. He's hideous.