PA taking action on disposal of wastewater from fracking

Fracking Wastewater Disposal Process To Be Altered In Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Amid criticism from environmentalists and growing concern from scientists, Pennsylvania on Tuesday asked the state's booming natural gas industry to halt disposing of millions of gallons of contaminated drilling wastewater through treatment plants that discharge into rivers and streams.

The plants are ill-equipped to remove pollutants from the wastewater – which is intensely salty and tainted with chemicals. The state Department of Environmental Protection said recent water tests suggest the discharges could harm drinking water supplies and, eventually, human health.

The DEP set a May 19 deadline for drillers to stop bringing the waste to the treatment plants. It did not say how the wastewater should be disposed of in the future.

The announcement was a major change in the state's regulation of gas drilling that has swept Pennsylvania since 2008, when energy companies began swarming the state for the vast riches of the Marcellus Shale formation, the nation's largest known natural gas reservoir. It came the same day that an industry group said it now believes drilling wastewater is partly at fault for rising levels of bromide being found in Pittsburgh-area rivers...