ITHACA –Toxics Targeting, Inc., an environmental database firm in Ithaca released government information Thursday documenting that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation authorized millions of gallons of natural gas drilling wastewater to be spread on thousands of miles of roads in New York, including in Chenango County, for dust control, winter de-icing or roadbed stabilization.
The dumping involves gas drilling brine or produced water, that, according to the company’s president Walter Hang, is documented to be contaminated with high levels of chloride and other Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), including toxic metals, as well as petroleum hydrocarbons and radionuclides.
"This gas drilling wastewater dumping should have been banned decades ago when spraying waste oil on dusty roads was outlawed along with burying garbage in open pits," he said. "It is inconceivable that DEC still authorizes spreading potentially toxic and radioactive gas drilling wastewater on roadways in watersheds all over the Central, Southwestern and Leatherstockings regions of New York.”
Hang’s release included a county-by-county map showing areas where spreading applications were approved. Areas in Pitcher, German, McDonough, Preston, Otselic, Smyrna and Columbus were highlighted. Toxics Targeting made available a free Internet map that allows concerned citizens to type in their addresses or town names to see if gas drilling wastewater has been approved to be spread near their homes or drinking water sources. See Overview Map at: http://toxicstargeting.com
In response to the release, DEC spokesman Michael Bopp said he was unaware what sources Hang used for assessing the toxicity level of the brine that haulers and municipalities have been authorized to use.
“His characterization of the materials in it is not something that we would agree with,” he said. “Has he tested it? How does he know? It is a non-issue as far as we are concerned.”
Bopp said the disposal of production water from gas and oil wells and from former salts mines on roadways, for the purposes of dust-control and de-icing is a long standing practice in New York State that is evaluated by the DEC’s Division of Solid Waste Management like other industrial activities that generate waste.
“It’s been studied as a class,” he said, based on the source of production fluid, analysis of its chemical composition, spreading methodology and equipment, and the designated road or area for spreading.
Under the DEC’s Beneficial Use Determination guidelines, designated spreading locations must avoid environmental impacts to areas like forest areas and wetlands and surface water bodies. In addition, use of this water for road spreading reduces disposal through wastewater treatment facilities and, in some cases, lowers costs for municipal road maintenance, Bopp said.
Chenango County Planning Department Planner Rena Doing said she knew of some town highway departments that had tried the high salt concentrated material “once or twice a couple years ago,” but said it would have come from the vertical, sandstone wells that have been drilled in county. She concurred with Bopp that Hang’s claims regarding toxicity didn’t apply here.
“We have vertical wells in the Herkimer and some horizontal in the Vernon, but none have the brine concentration in respect to high volume hydraulic fractured wells that I think he is referring to,” she said.
Chenango County Public Works Director Randy Gibbon said some towns had used brine on dirt roads for dust control, but even if the county’s roads were dirt he wouldn’t apply it due to cost.
“It is acceptable, but it’s too specialized. You just can’t mix it into your sand. You need spray bars and other equipment,” he said.
Town of German Highway Superintendent George Raymond III said his town applied for permission to use brine to keep dust down in the summer, but the town board ended up deciding against it.
Town of McDonough Supervisor Arrington Canor said his town spread brine on the roadways last year, but found it unsatisfactory. “Seemed to be more water than salt, then it dried out and we had the dust back. It didn’t do anything for us,” he said.
Highway superintendents from the other towns highlighted on Hang’s website were unavailable by press time. Doing said she suspected towns may have applied for DEC approval to have it on hand, but, like in German, didn’t actually apply the drilling wastewater.
There are approximately 6,800 natural gas production wells in New York State. Hang said those wells typically generate brine that is documented to be contaminated with a wide array of pollutants that can pose persistent environmental and public health threats, including petroleum hydrocarbons such as benzene, a known human cancer-causing agent, chloride, arsenic, cadmium and other toxic metals, as well as radionuclides.
According to BUD documents that Toxic Targeting obtained from DEC under Freedom of Information, wastewater generated by hundreds of natural gas production wells as well as brine generated by gas storage facilities and gas pipelines have been approved to be spread on roadways in Chemung, Broome, Tompkins, Tioga, Chenango, Steuben, Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Genesee, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Wyoming and Otsego counties.
Hang said his concerns are not limited to Marcellus Shale drilling, but are “absolutely across the board for all of the gas drilling.”
“Some of the formations are more problematic than others, but there’s no reason to believe that any brine from any well can be spread or disposed of in public water treatment facilities because petroleum and radionucleids are very persistent,” he said.