Feds Ban Treatment Of Fracking Waste At Public Treatment Plants

Public sewage plants will not treat waste from fracking operations under a new ban imposed by the federal government.

The practice was already curtailed by voluntary codes in the oil and gas industry, but the new regulatory ban by the U.S. EPA makes those standards enforceable.

The EPA rule, passed last week, “is designed to prevent the entry into public water systems of contaminants such as heavy metals, chemical additives and high concentrations of salt that are associated with fracking, and which public water systems are typically not equipped to treat,” NPR reported.

The rule “protects human health and the environment by preventing the discharge of pollutants in these wastewaters. The rule also protects publicly owned treatment works from disruptions in their operations that can be caused by these wastewaters,” according to the EPA.

“Clean water and public health advocates, along with more than 30,000 Americans, had submitted comments in favor of the EPA rule,” EcoWatch, an environmental news site, reported.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, called for companies to stop disposing of waste at public plants five years ago, but not every firm had complied, according to Myron Arnowitt, Pennsylvania director for the environmental group Clean Water Action. Arnowitt said compliance with the request was “not 100 percent,” according to NPR.

Still, the new rule is “not going to affect tons of sources right this second,” Arnowitt said.

“It’s important that EPA put this protection in place prior to what are extremely likely future gas rushes in Pennsylvania,” Arnowitt said. “We still have only drilled about 10 to 15 percent of what is expected for the Marcellus and that is not even considering the Utica.”

Research indicates that treating fracking wastewater at public plants may not remove dangerous contaminants from the water.

“The problem is these plants don't do a good job at removing halides. While there is no evidence yet, there is concern that halide-contaminated surface water subsequently treated for drinking purposes with conventional methods, such as chlorination or ozonation, could lead to the formation of toxic byproducts," Science 2.0 reported, citing a study published by Environmental Science & Technology.

To read more about fracking wastewater visit Water Online’s Produced Water Treatment Solutions Center.