they are starting to listen!

[bikerfish]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110420_Pa__drillers_told_to_stop_sending_wastewater_to_treatment_plants.html?viewAll=y

 

[CodorusTUTom]

OK, but where will all that water go now, if it can't be sent to the treatment plants? I can guess where some of it will end up.

 

[pcray1231]

It can't go to 15 treatment plants. We have more than 15 treatment plants in the state.

Treatment plants have been treating the same stuff for years with shallow gas. There's a few differences, though.

First, is not all of the treatment plants are able to handle all of the contaminants, some are better than others. The ones that were poor just treated through massive amounts of dilution, which was acceptable with low volumes of fluid from shallow gas but may not be with the higher volumes of Marcellus.

I'd assume/hope that the treatment plants that remain available are capable of handling more contaminants. But, due to less available plants and the restrictions on dilution, the industry will have to simply create less wastewater, which likely means more recycling of frack fluid.

From an environmental standpoint, it helps alleviate water quality degradation from treated frackwater. But it also is likely to lead to considerably more truck traffic as fluids have to be tranported farther, and onsite storage of frack fluid (which is dangerous for leaks), etc. Always trade-offs...

 

[jjsjigs]

yes even politicians are starting to listen:

http://www.markwsmithblog.com/2011/04/my-letter-to-tom-corbett-concerning.html

 

[pennsangler]

Keep in mind that sewage treatment plants are currently treating industrial wastewater that is often times worse than any of the flow back or produced waters.

With new regs in place and this recent governmental decision, none of this water is going to be treated as sewage treatment plants anymore. This water is either going to go to injection wells in Ohio, be blended with fresh water and reused in new fracks without any treatment or else sent to plants specially designed to treat frack water.

In the future, you will see a trend toward on-site or localized treatment. The water will be cleaned to a level where it is reusable by the gas companies.

At some point, when they aren't fracking anymore, you will see a second stage of treatment through thermal processes that will result in distilled water that will be discharged to streams.

 

[jeff]

pennsangler wrote:
Keep in mind that sewage treatment plants are currently treating industrial wastewater that is often times worse than any of the flow back or produced waters.

With new regs in place and this recent governmental decision, none of this water is going to be treated as sewage treatment plants anymore. This water is either going to go to injection wells in Ohio, be blended with fresh water and reused in new fracks without any treatment or else sent to plants specially designed to treat frack water.

In the future, you will see a trend toward on-site or localized treatment. The water will be cleaned to a level where it is reusable by the gas companies.

At some point, when they aren't fracking anymore, you will see a second stage of treatment through thermal processes that will result in distilled water that will be discharged to streams.

I hope that this kind of treatment of waste water begins to happen. Forgive me if I am a little skepticle. I am however encouraged by recent discussions involving said treatments......... We'll see.

 

[pennsangler]

There are already plants like this across Pennsylvania and in other states where companies are shipping PA water.

The idea that companies can just discharge it to a stream is wrong. The only time anything close to this could occur was the 15 sewage treatment plants listed above that were essentially "grandfathered" under old rules. Even these plants had to meet effluent limit requirements.

 

[pcray1231]

The idea that companies can just discharge it to a stream is wrong. The only time anything close to this could occur was the 15 sewage treatment plants listed above that were essentially "grandfathered" under old rules. Even these plants had to meet effluent limit requirements.

Correct. But what was happening is that while each individual plant met requirements, because of the increase in volume all of them were essentially pushing their requirements simultaneously, and the cumulative effects on the waterway began to be measurable.

 

[Maurice]

The thrust of the water treatment of fracking waste water is that;

1. the chemicals in the frac water are not being tested or are not part of the NPDES permits because they were not present when the standards were created.

2. The chemicals that ARE tested for in the Frac water are only monitored in 7-10 year intervals. Or rather have not been tested for in 10 years.

Its not the regulations or the tests (remember the radiation tests were fine....) that pointed out the imperfections in the NPDES permits it was the "everything is wrong with everything about drilling" tree huggers that threatened legal action against the municipalities, the state and alerted the EPA that these trucks were coming in at night, discharging in the last stages of the process and bypassing the the bulk of the testing.

Chalk one up for the loud mouths....

 

[Chaz]

Can you say radioactive!
Can you imagine the flack if Corbett didn't protect out water? He's be in deep do do fast. It probably has as much to do with the sheer volume of the water being dropped at the treatment plants as anything. NPDES permit is good only for the amount of discharge permitted, if the discharge is exceeded then a new permit has to be issued.
Most treatment facilities aren't set up for treating industrial chemicals like the gas companies use and therefore shouldn't be accepting frack water. But they have been, and whats worse is the haulers are opening up tanks and just dumping the crap on the ground according to reports.