Tag: Fracking Waste

DEP Halts Drilling Waste Disposal in Bridgeport

West Virginia regulators want to know how drilling sludge rejected by a landfill in Pennsylvania wound up in a landfill in Bridgeport.

Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Kelley Gillenwater says the agency ordered the Meadowfill Landfill to stop accepting the sludge until the agency determines why the Arden Landfill in Chartiers, Pennsylvania, rejected it.
 
The sludge came from a Range Resources natural gas drilling operation in Pennsylvania.
 
Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella says the Pennsylvania landfill found  the waste contained radioactive materials slightly above background levels. He says the levels weren’t unsafe.
 
Waste Management owns both landfills.
 
Waste Management spokeswoman Lisa Kardell says a new West Virginia law requiring radiation monitoring of drilling waste at landfills doesn’t go into effect until Jan. 1, 2015, allowing the Bridgeport site to collect the waste.
 

Work Underway to Close Fayette Fracking Waste Pit

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection says materials from a pit holding waste of the oil and gas industry, including fracking waste, is being taken to the Raleigh County landfill. The DEP says work is underway to reclaim above ground waste pits months after the state agency ordered it shut down.

The pits were used to remove sediments from the oil and gas waste before injecting underground.

The DEP ordered the pit closed after the operator failed to submit a plan to bring it up to code. Although the DEP did not find the pit to be leaking, officials say it needed to be upgraded.

James Martin, chief of the DEP’s Office of Oil and Gas says work to reclaim or close the above ground waste pits began earlier this month, three months after the order.

Martin says sediment control has been installed while the work is being conducted.  Workers are removing pit liners, fluid and sludge material.

So where will the waste end up?

  • Fluid (mostly from precipitation):  Pumped into tanks at the location. Martins says the fluid will eventually be injected into one of the underground of UIC wells, which of course don’t currently have an approved permit in place.
  • Sludge: Martin say it’s still being removed and will eventually end up at the Raleigh County landfill.

Martin says after the waste is removed, the pits will be back filled with dirt/soil.
As the efforts to reclaim the pits continue, residents are concerned about the potential for leaks. One resident even sent a picture of what they say is from the site. The picture shows what appears to be some sort of liquid shooting from the ground.

We sent the picture to the DEP to see what liquid was being released, but we’re still waiting on that reply.

Groups Appeal

In February, the same DEP order that issued the aboveground waste pit closed, renewed the UIC or undergroun injection well permit.

That didn’t bode well with the Natural Resource Defense Council, the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, the Plateau Action Network or resident Brad Keenan. Tom Rist is representing the groups to appeal the order.

Rist filed the first letter of appeal on March 3. The DEP revoked the UIC permit March 4.  

The underground permit first expired in October 2012. During the renewal process, the operator still collected waste.

“How are they still injecting into it and putting waste into it during that time period and we challenge that and take issue with it because we do think it violates state law,” Rist said.

The March revocation required “resubmittal for permit coverage which may result in a new draft permit followed by a public notice and comment period.”

Based on email responses from the DEP is appears that the state agency has revised the UIC application but Danny Webb Construction still needed to submit a new application to comply as of last week. The DEP says once they receive that revised application, a draft permit will go out for public notice.

I’m still waiting to see a copy of the new application.

There is no time limit on how long the company has to resubmit the application. In the meantime, residents like Brad Keenan fear that efforts to save Wolf Creek from contamination could be too late.

Rist says a pre-hearing conference to discuss the process of permitting this UIC is scheduled for May 29.

A hearing before the Quality Control Board is set for June 12 at the Charleston DEP office.

Danny Webb Construction did not return our request for comment.

W.Va. DEP Orders Fayette Co. Frack Waste Permit Revoked

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has ordered a permit for an underground injection well in Fayette County to be revoked.

The DEP renewed the permit for a class two (UIC), or underground injection control disposal well owned by Danny Webb Construction on February 6.

The permit allows the company to accept fluids from oil and gas exploration, development drilling, and production fluids for another five years. 

Since then, the Rist Law Office in Fayetteville filed an appeal requesting the D.E.P. to reverse the permit.

Tom Rist is representing the Natural Resource Defense Council, the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, the Plateau Action Network and citizen Brad Keenan.

“I think this is very important especially for this area,” Rist said. “Fayetteville is near and dear to the hearts of a lot of people in West Virginia.” 

On March 4, the DEP issued an order to revoke the permit. In an email James Martin with the Office of Oil and Natural Gas said the office made the decision after the permit “received significant public interest.”

Martin went on to say, “Consequently, as we were verifying information associated with the issuance we discovered procedural issues regarding certain notices and felt that the prudent direction would be the revocation of the permit and a re-start of the process.”

The company’s original permit expired in October 2012, still the operator continued to collect waste.

Groups say that’s against state and federal law.

In a public hearing in June 2013, several residents and even former employers expressed their concerns about the site, especially the open above ground waste pits which the DEP admitted were at risk of leaking.

The DEP found that the pit above ground does not meet the minimum pit and impoundment standards. So when the DEP granted the underground (UIC) permit on February 6, the office ordered the pit shut down.

The Natural Resource Defense Council says the problem with this site in Fayette County is the same for fracking disposal systems across the country. Federal law that governs hazardous materials has a loophole for oild and gas waste, exempting it from regulation as hazardous waste. That exemption was created in 1980’s with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

“These chemicals are toxic and radioactive,” Fayetteville resident Mary Rahall said. “They should be regulated just as the coal industry’s regulated there’s no reason in the world they shouldn’t be. I think it comes back to public health people should be more focused on public health instead of dollars.”

Studies have found dangerous levels of radioactive material in both solid and liquid waste streams from  ‘fracking’ sites, as well as alarming organic contaminants like benzene.

The NRDC is supporting the `CLEANER Act’ or the `Closing Loopholes and Ending Arbitrary and Needless Evasion of Regulations Act of 2013′ that would eliminate the loophole.

Rahall requested her county officials to enact an ordinance that would ban fracking waste. She was disappointed to receive a memo from the Fayette County prosecuting attorney’s office stating that the county has no authority to control matters that fall under federal or state laws. 

States across the country are continuing to adapt and choose directions for regulatory oversight. A recent article published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology examined how three states were developing with fracking policies.

Texas, a state with deep ties to the oil industry, is cited as having successfully created local ordinances while Pennsylvania is more prone to develop state policies. According to the article, Colorado’s policies falls somewhere in the middle.

The journal concludes that industry relationships and political climate along with sheer attention to the matter influence regulatory decisions.

Tom Rist says he plans to file another appeal because the language of the DEP’s new revocation order is somehow almost exactly like the granted permit allowing the operator to continue to collect waste unpermitted.

Danny Webb Construction did not immediately return our request for comment.

Bill to Regulate W.Va. Gas Drilling Waste on Hold

A bill to regulate the disposal of waste produced by gas-well drilling will likely be introduced by the governor in a special session.
 
Lawmakers who negotiated a version both sides could agree on were unable to get the measure passed before midnight Saturday, the deadline for the regular session.

Earlier in the session, the House of Delegates held a public hearing on the issue. But members could not agree on the terms of the bill and late Saturday evening it ended up in a conference committee.

The bill would only allow seven landfills in the state that have already applied to do so to create a separate area on their properties where they could store the waste. Those landfills are located in the Northern Panhandle and Northwest portion of the state.
 
The measure calls for the waste to be separated from municipal waste and monitored for radioactivity. It also requires drilling companies to pay an extra $1 per ton of waste. The first $750,000 will go toward a scientific study of the drill cuttings, the rest to road repairs in drilling counties.  
Senator Herb Snyder said the bill was good news for the environment.
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO2XlXyhFTA

Senate Approves Bill for Frack Waste

Members of the state Senate unanimously passed a bill Friday allowing for the drill cuttings from natural gas fracking sites to be disposed of in county or privately owned landfills.

Currently, the drill cuttings can either be disposed of by burying them on site or deposited in landfills, but Senator Herb Snyder said landfills are the most environmentally friendly option.

The bill adds provisions that require the sites to monitor for heightened levels of radioactivity in the drill cuttings. It requires that landfills accepting the material separate it from any municipal waste and that a $1 fee be assessed for every ton.

Snyder said the first $750,000 of that fee will go toward conducting a scientific study of the materials themselves. Money collected after that mark, which Snyder expects to reach the millions, will go toward repairing roads in the drilling counties.

“Without this bill there are very little or no environmental regulations,” Snyder said. “There is no requirement for landfills to have these detectors at the gate.”

Counties that have a karst topography- meaning they have limestone- are prohibited from applying to accept waste.

The bill also says fracking filters which filter the water used on sites must be disposed of in an industrial landfill.
 

Fayette Fracking Waste Permit Granted, National Group Reacts

The Natural Resource Defense Council is disappointed with the state Department of Environmental Protection’s decision to renew a permit for an underground…

The Natural Resource Defense Council is disappointed with the state Department of Environmental Protection’s decision to renew a permit for an underground injection well in Fayette County.

The permit allows Danny Webb Construction to accept fluids from oil and gas exploration, development drilling, and production fluids for another five years.

The DEP renewed the permit earlier this month for a class two UIC, or underground injection control disposal well owned by Danny Webb Construction. The permit had expired in 2012. Residents and even former construction workers testified at a public hearing in June 2013 strongly opposing the site.

Upon evaluation DEP workers found a pit filled with fracking water and other waste from oil and gas drilling. The pit was used to help remove sediments from the waste before injecting underground.

The DEP found that the pit or pond above ground does not meet the minimum pit and impoundment standards.

Although the DEP did not find the pit to be leaking, officials say it needs to be upgraded.

Underground Injection Control Permit Reviewer for the DEP Office of Oil and Natural Gas James Peterson told West Virginia Public Radio that the pit needs a leak detection system and a new liner. Peterson says the operator was told to submit a plan to fix the issues with the pit, but never did. Still while the DEP waited on the plan, the operator could continue to accept and inject waste underground in the well.

The Natural Resource Defense Council sent a letter to the DEP the same day our original story aired last month. In the statement, the council urged the department to shut down the wells since Danny Webb Construction was not operating with a valid permit.

Amy Mall is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Natural Resource Defense Council, a national environmental advocacy group.

“This is a site that should already have a plan,” Mall said. “The DEP, its inspectors have determined that there have been multiple violations for years at that site and it’s just unacceptable that they don’t have a plan now. That’s just laughable, really. It’s no way to protect public health and the environment.”

In an email, Peterson said the site has only been issued 5 citations or violations in the past 10 years.

Still a permit was granted for the injection well with the condition that the company close the above  ground waste pit.

Residents have spoken out against this well and the waste pond near the well for years.  The NRDC is not the only group that has spoken out in opposition of this site; the Plateau Action Network, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, and the Sierra Club have also sent letters to the DEP.

Mall says the issues the NRDC takes with this pit in Fayette County is the same for wells across the country. Mall says federal law that governs hazardous waste has a loophole for oil and gas waste that was created in 1980’s through an amendment to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Mall says a bill introduced this past summer in Washington could help close this loophole. The NRDC is supporting the `CLEANER Act’ or the `Closing Loopholes and Ending Arbitrary and Needless Evasion of Regulations Act of 2013′.

Danny Web Construction currently has another UIC permit under consideration for renewal. It’s currently in the public comment period.  

In the meantime, the DEP is asking the operator to submit an engineered plan to properly close the above ground pond. 

This pit and the well have received waste from Pennsylvania, Virginia and other parts of West Virginia.

The DEP says there are 54 non-commercial and 17 commercial disposal wells in the state as of late last year.

Danny Webb Construction did not immediately return our request for comment.

Jessica Lilly can be reached at 304.384.5981, or by email jlilly@wvpublic.org. You can also follow her on twitter: @WVJessicaYLilly.

For updates from West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s statewide news team, follow @wvpubnews.

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