Community Environmental Defense Council
Industrial Impacts
Industrialization is coming to our rural landscapes even before large scale drilling begins. Schlumberger has started work on its 72 acre facility in the middle of the Village of Horseheads. A metering station has been approved for siting on a steep hillside in a residential neighborhood in the Town of Vestal. Wells ultimately destined to become Marcellus Shale wells are being permitted as “exploratory” or with original targets in other formations, such as the Cook 1 well proposed for the Village of Dryden. The Chemung County landfill and other New York landfills are accepting drilling waste from Pennsylvania. Pipelines such as the Laser Northeast pipeline are proposed to extend from the Pennsylvania state line to the Millennium Pipeline in the Town of Windsor. Municipal waste water treatments plants, such as plants in Auburn and Watertown, are accepting liquid waste from natural gas wells – waste that sewage treatment plants are not capable of treating. This waste travels through the “treatment system” with the only real treatment being dilution before this waste flows into our lakes and rivers.
Some proposed industrial projects have been beaten back. A disposal well was proposed for the shores of Keuka Lake in the Village of Pulteney and then withdrawn. A wastewater treatment plant that was proposed for location within the Town of Owego, along the banks of the Susquehanna River, was similarly withdrawn after significant public opposition. The Village of Cayuga Heights stopped accepting drilling waste into its municipal waste water treatment plant. Community Environmental Defense Council, Inc. has provided advice to citizen groups, attended permitting meetings, written comments and worked to stop or mitigate these projects. But the roll out of the plans industry has for our region has barely begun.
TOXICS TARGETING
Wastewater may not have met standards
Ithaca Journal
Krisy Gashler
April 29, 2009
download pdf version
Cayuga Heights says there was no violation
Cayuga Heights may have violated its own law in accepting gas-drilling wastewater that exceeded standards established to protect its treatment plant and Cayuga Lake.
Meanwhile, a regional engineer from the state Department of Environmental Conservation told the village it was OK to continue accepting the waste without a completed study of what kinds of wastewater came to the plant. DEC policy - reaffirmed in a December 2008 memo - requires such analyses before a plant accepts gas-drilling waste.
According to tests on wastewater coming to the plant, the village accepted material exceeding standards for metals such as copper and lead, and greatly exceeded standards for "Chemical Oxygen Demand" and "Total Suspended Solids."
Walter Hang, whose company compiles such information and obtained the data, said Cayuga Heights' experience shows that the understaffed DEC has not been enforcing its own regulations. "This whole program has been a backwater," he said. "No one has paid attention to it."
Mayor Jim Gilmore and Superintendent of Public Works Brent Cross responded that the gas-drilling wastewater was 3 million gallons of 540 million processed during the period. Monthly tests showed no violations of the village's DEC permit while accepting the waste, Cross said.
Gilmore emphasized the village's desire to protect Cayuga Lake, noting the $2 million phosphorus removal
project to be online by year's end. Cayuga Heights began accepting wastewater from conventional, vertical gas-drilling operations in May and temporarily stopped March 31 to complete the loading analysis. A January 2009 sample of drilling brine water found chemical oxygen demand at 6,880 milligrams per liter and total suspended solids at 884 milligrams per liter, more than 30 percent higher than 600 milligrams per liter village law allows.
Cross said the village's law was written when the plant accepted only residential sewage and may need to be changed. Municipal wastewater plants are required to conduct loading studies every five years or whenever they consider a new source of wastewater, said Joe DiMura, director of the DEC Bureau of Water Compliance in Albany. DiMura's bureau oversees enforcement of water quality standards related to state pollution discharge permits.
Cayuga Heights should have completed its study before taking the drilling wastewater and required the
drilling operation to disclose its the chemicals and characteristics, DiMura said. If a company is reluctant to fully disclose its drilling chemical mixture, the DEC likely wouldn't require the company to disclose the chemicals to the public, but they must still be shared with the DEC, DiMura said.
"If you can't tell us what's in the wastewater, you're not going to get approved," DiMura said. This guidance was reiterated in a Dec. 8, 2008 DEC memo to all wastewater plant operators, but in a March 19, 2009 email between Cross and DEC regional engineer Fred Gillette, Cross explained the headworks study was not complete and asked if it was "still OK to keep accepting" drilling wastewater.
Gillette responded, "Yes, it's OK." The e-mail was provided in response to a FOIL request from the Journal. DEC spokeswoman Lori Severino said the guidelines "are not new." but Cross said that was not his impression.
"That only came into existence as a guideline by the DEC as a directive from them to all (wastewater plants) in a letter dated Dec. 8, 2008. Prior to December 8 of '08 they had no such policy," he said.
Ithaca Journal
Krisy Gashler
LAW OFFICE OF GARY A. ABRAHAM
170 No. Second Street
Allegany, New York 14706
716-372-1913; fax is same (please call first)
September 8, 2010
Concerned lawmakers and policymakers
Disposal of low-level radioactive Marcellus shale drilling waste in New York
landfills
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recently completed an
issues conference on an application to expand landfilling at the Chemung County Landfill, leased
to and operated by a subsidiary of Casella Waste Systems of Rutland, Vermont. The purpose of
the conference was to determine whether further evidence should be considered regarding issues
proposed by an intervening party, Residents for the Protection of Lowman and Chemung
(RFPLC).
I represent the environmental organization RFPLC, which has raised the issue, whether it
is legal to dispose of low-level radioactive Marcellus shale drilling waste in the landfill, because
the waste is 25 to 1,000 times more radioactive than background, and because the radioactivity in
the waste originates mainly from Radium-226 (Ra-226), which can be fatal when ingested or
inhaled. An administrative law judge within DEC has issued a decision rejecting the issue, with
the result that there will be no hearing on evidence of the harmfulness of this waste. This memo
summarizes the arguments and evidence offered in support of this issue made by RFPLC. Details
are provided in submissions to DEC provided by RFPLC, Casella, and DEC Staff, posted on my
website1 and referenced further below.
Although DEC has yet to finalize its analysis of the environmental impacts of Marcellus
shale gas development, including the impacts associated with managing drilling wastes from
such development, in January 2010 regional DEC Staff approved disposal of Marcellus shale gas
drilling wastes in the landfill, without any analysis of its radioactivity or the manner in which the
waste is generated. Months before the approval, Casella began accepting such wastes at three
New York landfills it operates (Hakes C&D in Painted Post, Hyland Landfill in Angelica, and
Chemung County Landfill). In fact, today Casella has diverted most municipal solid waste away
from the Chemung County Landfill in order to devote most of its permitted disposal limit, or
about 2,000 tons per week, to shale drilling wastes. It’s application to DEC seeks to expand the
disposal limit by another 50 percent to take in even greater volumes of such wastes.
DEC regulations prohibit disposal of low-level radioactive waste in a landfill if it is also
“processed and concentrated.”2 In that case, the waste must be managed at a licensed low-level
radioactive waste landfill. If not processed and concentrated, DEC Staff’s position is that it does
not matter how radioactive the waste is; in that case it may be transported to and disposed in any
New York landfill.
Disposal of low-level radioactive Marcellus shale
drilling waste in New York landfills
Drilling wastes produced by developing a Marcellus shale well site include drill cuttings
(pulverized rock), naturally occurring brine, and drilling fluid.3 The radionuclide of concern in
the waste is Ra-226, a decay product of Uranium-238 which occurs naturally in the shale.
Radium in Marcellus shale is about 25 times more radioactive than the level of radioactivity in
the surface environment, which is naturally occurring and historically elevated primarily due to
atomic fallout.4 Because Ra-226 is highly water-soluble, the brine and drilling fluid can be 500 to
1,000 times more radioactive than background, having leached Radium from the shale.5 Ra-226
has a half life of 1,600 years.6 As a practical matter, therefore, the surface environment will host
this newly introduced radioactivity forever.
Drilling wastes from a Marcellus shale gas well site are dewatered by means of a “shale
shaker,” an industrial centrifuge, or by discharging the wastes into a sloped separation pit that
allows the solids to collect at one end.7 However, the dewatered waste continues to contain a
substantial amount of liquid, and may look like sludge. New York regulations governing the
landfilling of waste allow sludge to be disposed if it is “dewatered to 20 percent solids.”8 The
Chemung County Landfill permit prohibits disposal of non-municipal wastes containing “free
liquids, sludges, slurries, chemical or industrial wastes which are less than 20% solids.”9 Thus,
up 80% of the volume of landfilled sludge or industrial waste can be liquid.
“Ra-226 is a carcinogen10 and, when ingested or inhaled, concentrates in the bone and can
cause leukemia.”11 At the current rate of disposal in the Chemung County Landfill, Casella could
be disposing 312 trillion picocuries (pCi) of radium per year in the landfill.12 Ra-226 decays to
radon gas. “As an inert gas, the landfill gas combustion device cannot control radon.”13 EPA has
set a recommended radon action level of 4 pCi per liter of air in residences.14
EPA has set a soil concentration limit for Ra-226 of 5 pCi per gram in the first 15
centimeters of soil and 15 pCi/g in deeper soil.15 This limit assumes that control of land cannot
be assured for more than 1,000 years and, because of the long life of Ra-226, eating radium
contamination in food grown on the land 1,000 years from now would result in substantial excess
cancer.16
In the present, transport trucks can be expected to leak radioactive liquid. “The leaking
liquid is particularly radioactive and, over time, can be expected to contaminate local roadways
and roadways inside the landfill.”17 Inhalation of dust contaminated with Ra-226 is of most
concern because internal exposure can result in leukemia.
In addition, because Ra-226 is highly water-soluble, it will be present in the landfill’s
leachate.18 In the event of a catastrophic failure of the landfill’s containment system, large
volumes of contaminated liquid and waste could be discharge to the Chemung River, a few
hundred feet downslope from the landfill. Under normal conditions, several thousand gallons of
leachate per day are sent to the Elmira water treatment plant, which discharges treated waste
water to the Chemung River. However, the plant is not equipped to (and is not permitted to)
remove radioactive contaminants from waste water. All the radioactive contaminants in the
leachate will therefore be discharged into the river.
Gary A. Abraham, Esq.
September 8, 2010
Disposal of low-level radioactive Marcellus shale
drilling waste in New York landfills
Gary A. Abraham, Esq.
September 8, 2010
1. See < under “Documents & Blogs”.
2. 6 N.Y.C.R.R. §§ 360-1.2(e), 382.1(c)(5), 360-1.1(a).
3. Chemung County Landfill, DEC No. 8-0728-00004/00013, Issues Conference transcript (I.C.
Tr.) at 84:1-19.
4. Resnikoff, memo to Gary A. Abraham, Esq. (June 30, 2010), p. 1.
5. Resnikoff, memo to Abraham (April 7, 2010), p. 3; included as Exhibit B to Intervenor’s
Petition, Matter of Chemung County Landfill, DEC No. 8-0728-00004/00013 (DEC 2009 Draft
SGEIS reports Marcellus rock cuttings are about 25 pCi/gram, drilling fluid is about 12,000
pCi/gram); Resnikoff, “Radioactivity in Marcellus Shale,” op. cit., p. 3 (citing DEC 2009 Draft
SGEIS, which reports brine from Marcellus shale is 15,000 pCi/gram).
7. Marvin Resnikoff, Ph.D., Radioactive Waste Management Associates, “Radioactivity in
Marcellus Shale: Report prepared for Residents for the Preservation of Lowman and Chemung”
(May 19, 2010), p. 2.
8. 6 N.Y.C.R.R. § 360-2.17(n).
9. Chemung County Landfill, DEC Permit No. 8-0728-00004/00013-0 (February 21, 2006),
Special Condition 31(b).
10. Cancer is a delayed response to exposure to radiation. There is therefore no safe threshold for exposure. Instead, risk of cancer resulting from radiation exposure is estimated over a lifetime. Cf. EPA, “User’s Guide: Radionuclide Carcinogenicity,” available at < (“Radionuclide Carcinogenicity Slope Factors: HEAST”).
11. Resnikoff, “Radioactivity in Marcellus Shale,” op. cit., p. 2.
12. Id., p. 7.
13. Id.
14. U.S. EPA, “A Citizen’s Guide to Radon,” <
15. Resnikoff, “Radioactivity in Marcellus Shale,” op. cit., text at note 9 (citing 40 C.F.R. §192.12).
16. Id., text before note 9.
Gary A. Abraham, Esq.
September 8, 2010
Watertown, NY Votes to Accept Shale Wastewater in City’s Water Treatment Plant
The City of Watertown, NY has voted to continue accepting wastewater (flowback) from hydraulic fracturing—but it’s not wastewater from the Marcellus Shale. This wastewater comes from a driller in Central New York—Gastem—who is drilling Utica Shale gas wells using hydraulic fracturing. Utica Shale is much deeper than Marcellus Shale and uses much less water to frack the well because it is vertical and not horizontal as it would be with a Marcellus well.
The city’s water treatment plant accepted 35,000 gallons of wastewater from Gastem last summer and discharged the treated water into the Black River. Gastem wants the city to treat an additional 80,000 gallons this summer.*
The volume of wastewater being treated in Watertown is miniscule compared to what is generated from a Marcellus well. But it is interesting that the city council has decided there is no hazard for the citizens of Watertown from treated frack fluids.
*CNYcentral.com (Apr 7) – Watertown to dispose of gas well fracking fluid
Related posts:
New Marcellus Wastewater Treatment Plant Coming to Elk County, PA
Patriot Water Decides Not to Build Marcellus Wastewater Treatment Plant in Owego, NY
New Wastewater Treatment Plant Approved in Central PA
CNYcentral.com
Watertown to dispose of gas well fracking fluid
Posted: 04.07.2010 at 7:12 AM
WATERTOWN (AP) -- Watertown will be disposing of wastewater produced by the controversial hydro-fracking process used to get natural gas wells flowing.
The city council voted Monday night to continue accepting flowback fluid from Quebec-based Gastem, which is drilling in the Utica Shale formation in central New York. Drilling in the Marcellus Shale region of the Southern Tier is on hold while the state revises regulations to address concerns raised there.
Watertown Mayor Jeffrey Graham and Councilwoman Roxanne Burns opposed treatment of Gastem's wastewater in the city, but they were outvoted.
The city's water treatment plant accepted 35,000 gallons of wastewater from Gastem last summer and discharged the treated water into the Black River. Gastem wants the city to treat an additional 80,000 gallons this summer.
Finding treatment plants able and willing to take millions of gallons of fracking wastewater is a major stumbling block for gas drilling in the Southern Tier.
As drilling debate heats up, a city revenue stream cools
Christopher Caskey The Citizen AuburnPub.com | Posted: Sunday, August 1, 2010 3:30 am
Auburn doesn’t accept wastewater from horizontal hydraulic fracturing gas wells at its sewage treatment plant, and it doesn’t take water from horizontal drilling sites on the Marcellus Shale.
Yet, the issue of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the geological formation rich in natural gas is as local as it is statewide and beyond.
Public officials, private citizens and drilling companies across New York are currently engaged in a fight over where and how to explore for natural gas. A central piece of that debate is the controversial drilling and extraction process known as horizontal hydrofracturing, in which high volumes of chemically treated water are pumped into the earth to extract the gas.
While Auburn officials say the city’s wastewater plant does not accept the wastewater from those wells, which are plentiful in Pennsylvania, they do say they are seeing effects from the ongoing debate surrounding the horizontal hydrofracturing process.
The city does accept natural gas well wastewater and processes it at the plant, and it’s been doing so for about a decade. That water mostly comes from vertical gas wells in a handful of geologic formations around the state, according to permitting documents.
For the city, the well water is easy money. It brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.
But as the state mulls over what to do about the billions of dollars in natural gas they say is sitting under New York’s rural lands that cover the geological formation known as the Marcellus Shale, traditional gas exploration has slowed.
That means fewer trucks are stopping at the Auburn plant to bring in the water, which contains high levels of salts and lower levels of heavy metals.
It also likely means less money coming in at a time when public funds can be hard to come by.
At the same time, the 2010-2011 city budget includes a 60 percent fee increase from last year for accepting gas well water – from $50 per 1,000 gallons to $80.
City Manager Mark Palesh said last week that the fee was set to remain competitive with other plants that offer the same services.
He attributes the fewer trucks to less activity in the natural gas field right now, something he says the city has expected. But he said the city also hopes the higher fee will help “make hay while the spirit lingers,” allowing the city to make up for the decreased activity.