NORWICH – A Chenango County law imposed in the early 1990s that prohibits radioactive waste disposal at the county’s landfills needs to be amended to allow the intake of – and profits from – wastewater resulting from drilling natural gas.
Not to be confused with shale rock formations, which contain higher radon concentrations, the sandstones that the region’s primary driller, Norse Energy, is targeting contain low levels of radioactivity. County supervisors calling for the law to be changed compared the levels to the naturally occurring radiation found in all of the rocks and dirt in Chenango County.
Because of the restriction, contractors for Norse are forced to haul drilling wastewater from wells in Smyrna, Plymouth and Preston to the Village of Sherburne or further south to wastewater treatment facilities in Broome and Chemung counties, or in Pennsylvania.
Sherburne Village Mayor Bill Acee said Norse spent about $15,000 per quarter last year to have formation wastewater treated there. The new source of revenue generated $9,800 in the first quarter of this year.
Natural gas drilling results in salty wastewater, called brine, and sediments, called tailings, from the subsurface. Contractors store the tailings in an open pit at the well site and recycle the brine for reuse in the drilling process. Once gas is reached and the drilling is completed, the brine is trucked out.
In most states, the preferred disposal method is to store the tailings and brine in injection wells. Town of Smyrna Supervisor James Bays said his board has a one-year moratorium on drilling injection wells, however.
“Even though geologists say it is a safe method, that’s something we don’t want any part of,” he said.
Members of the Chenango County Natural Gas Advisory Committee this week agreed to initiate the process of amending existing law to include a specific level of radioactivity. It now has none. The local law was created back in the early 1990s when the county battled the siting of low level radioactivity waste dumps here.
Chenango County Public Works Director Randy Gibbon said the fluid may indeed set off the landfill’s Geiger counter.
The matter was also taken up at a meeting of the Public Works Committee this week where Chairperson Linda E. Natoli, R-City of Norwich, referred it to the Health and Human Services Committee to “determine a safe level of radioactivity within our landfill.”
“It could be a possible revenue source and cover for the landfill,” she said.
“It’s my recommendation to establish a threshold. The law does not define a level; it just says none. ... What about rocks and dirt from Chenango County? Everything’s got some radioactivity. I think we need to look at perhaps establishing a definition of radioactivity,” said Natural Gas Advisory Committee Chairman Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston.
Members of both committees discussed the safety of using brine to keep roadway dust down and in place of salt/sand mixes spread on the roads in wintertime. Both applications have been tried in Preston and McDonough to little success, town supervisors said. Chenango County Natural Gas Consultant Steven Palmatier suggested adding components such as calcium into existing brine to make it more userworthy.
“But as a township, don’t we have the responsibility of knowing what we are putting on the roads?” Schlag, pointing out that different strata result in different formulations of brine
Palmatier suggested some companies were certified to provide an analysis of the brine.
Troy Irwin, owner and president of Al-Kleen of Earlville, said his four-year-old business has expanded due to water hauling for Norse. “It’s definitely opening up some other opportunities for us,” he said.