"Authority: Discharge met its regulations"

By Rich Pietras, Intelligencer, January 5, 2011:

The Hatfield Municipal Sewer Authority said it did nothing wrong in accepting treated wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling operations.

Wastewater used for Marcellus Shale gas drilling was treated by the Hatfield Municipal Sewer Authority over a one-year period starting in April 2009, but the water was treated twice and met authority regulations for discharge into the Neshaminy Creek, the authority's director said Tuesday.

The authority stopped handling the water, however, because of regulations restricting trucking wastewater from one watershed into another.


The Hatfield Authority's handling of the water was part of an Associated Press story published Tuesday that looked at how Pennsylvania regulates wastewater generated as part of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Cabot Oil & Gas hired PSC Environmental Services to truck nearly 1 million gallons of wastewater to PSC's facility in Hatfield.

PSC then delivered the water to the authority, which treated it a second time before discharging it into the Neshaminy.

The wastewater from Marcellus Shale is a byproduct of the "fracking" process where a water mixture is used to break through rock to release natural gas.

There has been a fierce debate over whether the wastewater that returns to the surface is hazardous.

It can contain high levels of some toxins, like barium, strontium and radium, but the treatment plants handling the bulk of Pennsylvania's gas drilling waste remove most of those substances before discharging the water, The Associated Press reported.

State officials and industry participants say the amount of waste put back into waterways, while significant, is also safely diluted by the massive volumes of water in the rivers, reducing both any residual toxins and the salt to safe levels.

Researchers are still trying to figure out whether Pennsylvania's river discharges, at their current levels, are dangerous to humans or wildlife. Several studies are under way, some under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Faced with opposition to river dumping and tightening state regulations, all of the state's biggest drillers say they are now recycling a majority of the wastewater produced by their wells in new fracturing jobs, rather than sending it to treatment plants.

John Hanger, the outgoing secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, says he believes new regulations are adequate to protect water supplies and he's confident that wastewater discharged into rivers and streams hasn't degraded the state's drinking water. He said no river used for drinking water has exceeded the EPA standard for dissolved solids for an extended period, although there have been some instances of seasonal spikes that can last for a few days.

In Hatfield, it was the fact that the water came from another watershed that raised a red flag from the EPA and DEP, which contacted the Delaware River Basin Commission.

Commission spokesman Clarke Rupert said new requirements are aimed at preventing future problems.

Cabot spokesman George Stark told The Associated Press that the company was aware that its waste shouldn't have been going to facilities in the Delaware River Basin, but it's unclear if it knew where PSC was taking the water to be treated.

DEP spokesperson Jamie Legenos said Tuesday that PSC is permitted to accept wastewater and Hatfield's authority had a pre-treatment agreement with PSC that is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"We have had a relationship with PSC for probably 30 years," said Hatfield Municipal Sewer Authority Director Pete Dorney. "They pre-treat everything they send to us based on criteria by the (Department of Environmental Protection). Everything we get, all wastewater, has to meet that criteria."

Dorney said about 900,000 gallons of Marcellus Shale wastewater was treated and released over the one-year period.

Dorney said after the authority was told by the Delaware River Basin Commission early in 2010 it would need new permits and new standards to dispose of the wastewater in the Neshaminy, it decided to stop on its own.

"Did it come here? Yes. We can't deny it. But we were not told by the DEP or anyone else to stop taking it. We voluntarily stopped. + We decided it would cost too much and didn't want to deal with the added scrutiny."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.