Energy Industry Slams EPA Fracking Wastewater Plan
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
The EPA’s plan to ban the processing of fracking waste at municipal treatment plants is drawing heated criticism from the energy industry.
Fuel companies are calling it “a short-sighted measure that ignores its long-term needs and violates the Clean Water Act,” according to NPR. “The Independent Petroleum Association of America argued that the EPA had overstepped its bounds by proposing an outright ban on the practice rather than requiring that municipal treatment plants use technology to remove contaminants from fracking wastewater.”
The practice is not currently used, but it was used in the past. “Some plants continue to receive such requests from gas companies, so the rule is designed to prevent any resumption of that practice, the EPA said when publishing the rule in March,” the report said.
The environmental community applauded the EPA effort. Rachel Richardson, director of Environment America’s Stop Drilling program, weighed in favorably.
“It’s crazy that highly toxic, radioactive wastewater can still be treated at the same place as dirty bath water, then released into the rivers and lakes we drink from,” she said. “Preventing this practice is a critical step toward protecting our water and our health from the dangers of fracking.”
The Houston Chronicle provided background on the rule:
At issue is the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to block companies from sending that drilling wastewater to municipal treatment facilities ill equipped to remove the naturally occurring radium, bromide and other toxins carried with the fluid out of the ground. When salty bromide mixes with chlorine at treatment plants, it can produce trihalomethanes linked to bladder cancer and miscarriages. Pennsylvania officials concerned about that toxic combination and facing pressure from the EPA blocked oil and gas companies from delivering their wastewater to the state’s treatment facilities in 2011, but federal regulations still allow the practice.
For more fracking stories, visit Water Online’s Produced Water Treatment Solutions Center.