Residents question frack wastewater treatment in valley
http://citizensvoice.com/news/residents-question-frack-wastewater-treatment-in-valley-1.1044925
Residents question frack wastewater treatment in valley
By Erin Moody (Staff Writer)
Published: October 7, 2010
HANOVER TWP. – With the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority exploring the possibility of treating natural gas drilling wastewater at its Hanover Township plant, issues that have concerned residents in the Back Mountain are now becoming a concern for residents in the Wyoming Valley.
About 30 people attended an information session Wednesday night at the Hanover Township municipal building regarding drilling and possible treatment facilities.
Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition member Scott Cannon opened the meeting with a showing of his short film, “Frack to the Future: What Luzerne Co. Needs to Know About Gas Drilling.” Fellow member Janine Dymond followed up with a presentation on the natural gas drilling process and information about the size of the water tankers and the contents of the wastewater.
For wells to supply natural gas, they must be hydraulically fractured, which involves blasting millions of gallons of chemically treated water thousands of feet underground to crack the shale rock and release the natural gas.
As to the WVSA treating the wastewater, she listed pros that included the possibility of more jobs, increased revenue to local businesses because of trucks passing through, increased tax or other revenue for the sewer authority and the opportunity to pilot better treatment methods.
The trucks will be carrying 5,000 gallons of water with toxic chemicals through residential areas, roads face damage from those heavy trucks, drilling companies are from out-of state and have “questionable integrity,” solid waste could be radioactive and there are already issues with sewage and storm water drainage, Dymond said.
By her estimations, wells in the Marcellus Shale region could create 4.3 million truckloads of wastewater.
“And even over a five-year period, that’s a lot of heavy trucks,” Dymond said.
John Minora of PA Northeast Aqua Resources attended as a representative from the WVSA and said the authority is looking into the possibility of treating 50,000 to 100,000 gallons a day, or the equivalent of five to 10 trucks.
The water could possibly be cleaned and reused for fracking, and Minora said it would not be dumped into the Susquehanna River. Another option the WVSA is looking into is selling the water it takes in for treatment to drilling companies for use in fracking. Revenue could offset the cost of plant improvements for residents, he said.
“We want to do it in an environmentally responsible way. We’ve always been good neighbors down there,” Minora said.