Staff Writer. Gas wells’ leftovers may wash into Ohio. 11 Jan 2010. The Columbus Dispatch.
A boom in natural-gas drilling in Pennsylvania could bring millions of barrels of salty toxic waste into Ohio.
That’s a warning Ohio’s oil and gas industry and environmentalists are sounding as hundreds of deep wells are drilled into Marcellus shale.
Tom Stewart, vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, and Jack Shaner, lobbyist for the Ohio Environmental Council, predict that Pennsylvania companies will soon truck their well wastes to Ohio, where brine is injected into 159 privately owned, state-regulated disposal wells. It is illegal to dump brine in Ohio streams and rivers.
Stewart said, “I have a big problem that that (well) capacity isn’t overloaded by out-of-state water.”
Shaner said, “We’re looking at a wave of toxic brine headed into this state.”
That’s why both support a bill in the Ohio legislature that would create a 20-cent-per-barrel disposal tax on brine shipped in from other states. That’s four times as much as a proposed 5-cent-per-barrel tax on Ohio brine.
Staff Writer. Gas wells’ leftovers may wash into Ohio. 11 Jan 2010. The Columbus Dispatch.
Reusing flowback is not without its problems. There are concerns that even diluted flowback water may adversely impact a well’s production capabilities.
Also, reusing flowback cannot be done indefinitely – a time will come when the wastewater is no longer fit to be used, or there may not be another well ready to be fracked. At that point in time, the waste is taken to a facility where the solids are separated out and the water can be reused for hydraulic fracturing. Wastewater use is expected to increase to 19 – 20 million gallons/day in 2011
(Source: PA Department of Environmental Protection. April 11, 2009. “Permitting Strategy for High Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Wastewater Discharges.”
See: Buried Secrets
