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NYT on drilling wastewater. Part 2 of 3

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Gas Drillers Recycle Wastewater, but Risks Remain

About Sharon Wilson

Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    From James Northrup, retired Gas industry pro, now living in Cooperstown NY and Dallas TX:

    This "industry response" comes from a Pa. gas booster group.
    Hardly credible.
    Some of their responses are flat lies.

    1. NYT "Pa. is the only state that allows frack waste to be dumped directly into rivers"

    So far as I know, this is not only true but extraordinarily irresponsible for a state agency. The reason why is simple = there is no other place to get rid of that much polluted water in Pa. Because Pa.. has no EPA permitted disposal wells to take it.
    Whereas Texas has almost 12,000 disposal wells. (NY has 8, four active, none take frack waste flowback)
    So the NYT is right and the "industry" is lying. "Recycling" consists of adding more water to dilute frack flowback = polluting more water. And removing contaminated solids = which are concentrated with contamination = and dumped in Pa. rivers. Closest permitted disposal wells are in Ohio. If all of the frack waste or recycled residue from Pa. does not end up there – it has been dumped.

    2. NYT "Spills are self-reported and operators left to do their own clean up"

    That's true. Most drilling operations do not have an on-site state inspector. If the crew can make the spill go away, they will.
    The fact that Pa. may have added some inspectors does not alter that dynamic.

    3. NYT "Horizontal hydrofracking of shale is relatively new and can cause more problems than previous methods"

    That's a certainty – as the report demonstrates. The "industry response" plays with nomenclature = hydraulic fracturing vs hydrofracking And erroneously asserts that horiontal hydrofracking has been done for 60 years. When the first horizontal hydrofracks were done in Texas in the '80s – in the Austin Chalk – for oil, not shale gas.I was there. Ground zero was Giddings, Texas. Next to Northrup, Texas. Look it up.

    4. NYT "Marcellus permits are up"

    Duh

    5. Bonus Fact Check . .

    The new governor was bought off by the gas industry – about $600K So no severance tax in Pa. No environmental safeguards
    A Texan's dream come true.

    Kindly forward to your groups .

  2. TadGhostHole says

    Finally the Times gets their shit together and starts doing some research! Maybe they realized that their fair city's water supply is at stake.