PA State Agency Admits: Maybe Letting Fracking Companies Dump Wastewater On Roads Not A Good Idea
The state Department of Environmental Protection has conceded it erred in allowing the spreading of hundreds of thousands of gallons of salty “brine” wastewater from gas and oil well drilling on dirt roads in Farmington Township, Warren County last year.
And that could mean that rural roads in Farmington and throughout the commonwealth will be a lot more dusty this summer and icier in the winter. At least 188 municipalities in 22 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties use free or low-cost drilling brine for road dust suppression and de-icing.
The DEP’s admission was made in a state Environmental Hearing Board case appealing the department’s 2017 approval of the rural township’s plan to control dust. The appeal, filed by Farmington resident Siri Lawson, contended that spreading the drilling wastewater on dirt roads pollutes the air and water along the 44 miles of township dirt roads where Amish families walk and ride in open buggies.
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Farmington is one of 21 municipalities in Warren County, in northwestern Pennsylvania, that used brine on their roads in 2017. Other counties with large numbers of municipalities using brine last year were Tioga with 32, Potter with 29 and Crawford with 20.
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http://www.post-gazette.com/news/environment/2018/05/22/DEP-brine-prohibited-roadways-pennsylvania-warren-county-gas-oil-drilling/stories/201805220114