GreenHunter Could Store Toxic Water Next to Ohio River, Concern Grows Following Spill In Kanawha

The GreenHunter facility in New Matamoras Ohio, which also sits immediately adjacent to the Ohio River, stores almost 3 million gallons of frack waste in three tanks built in the 1960s, now painted blueNo permits were required for the facility because it’s “temporary storage” [sic].

GreenHunter Water Announces Commencement of Operations at Ohio River Barge Transloading and Bulk Water Storage Facility Press Release by GreenHunter, July 17, 2012

Takeover of Green Hunter Facilities Feb 19th by Appalachia Resist, 2013 Over one hundred supporters gathered at the facility, protesting Greenhunter’s plans to increase capacity for toxic frack waste dumping in Ohio. Greenhunter is seeking approval from the Coast Guard to ship frack waste across the Ohio River via barge at a rate of up to half a million gallons per load. The Ohio River is a drinking source for more than 5 million people, including residents of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Test results from multiple frack waste samples reveal high levels of benzene, toluene, arsenic, barium, and radium, among other carcinogenic and radioactive chemicals.

“Our governor, legislature, and regulatory agencies have all failed in their obligation to protect Ohioans from the predatory gas industry,” said Ebert. “Greenhunter wants to use our water sources as dumping grounds for their toxic, radioactive waste. We are here to send a message that the people of Ohio and Appalachia will not sit idly by and watch our homes be turned into a sacrifice zone!” [Emphasis added]

GreenHunter Could Store Toxic Water Next to Ohio River, Concern Grows Following Spill In Kanawha by Casey Junkins, January 19, 2014, The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register
When GreenHunter Water opens its planned frack water recycling facility in Warwood later this year, up to 23,000 barrels of possibly contaminated and toxic water and related materials will be mere yards from the Ohio River – and about 1 mile upstream from the city’s water plant. Following this month’s Freedom Industries spill in the Elk River in Kanawha County that left about 300,000 West Virginians without water for days, many local officials are looking with increased concern at the GreenHunter project. The Freedom Industries location was about 1.5 miles upstream from West Virginia American Water’s intake.

Locally, the fracking wastewater that will be stored at GreenHunter – the company estimates 30 trucks a day will deliver to the site – could contain chemicals such as arsenic, barium, bromides and radium, among others, some of which produce low levels of radioactivity. GreenHunter Vice President of Business Development John Jack insists the company will exercise caution to prevent any type of spill. The problem local officials have is that no state or federal agency appears to be in charge of monitoring liquid storage facilities such as GreenHunter – the same issue those in Charleston have found with Freedom Industries. One thing that’s been learned since the Freedom Industries spill is what’s known as “chemical storage facilities” have little to no oversight from either the state or federal government.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t regulate aboveground chemical storage for many industries, and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has said they would only regulate the facility if it drilled into the earth or discharged a pollutant into the air or the Ohio River. … “As long as they are not drilling – and are not going to discharge anything into the air or into the water – they don’t need any permit from us,” former DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco said in July. “Companies come up with new technologies all the time. Until the plant is running, we don’t know what they are going to be doing.”

Just what chemicals will be stored at the GreenHunter site also is a point of contention. As with the Freedom Industries chemical, MCHM, no one seems to really know enough about what will be in the wastewater stored by GreenHunter.

According to the GreenHunter site plan provided by Tom Connelly, assistant director of the Wheeling Economic and Community Development Department, the company plans to construct 23 separate 1,000-barrel tanks on the 2.35-acre site at the former Seidler’s Oil Service on North 28th Street in Warwood. Some of these tanks will hold clean rainwater, while others will hold reusable fracking water, drilling waste fluid and flowback water, the plans show. The site will feature a dike that is slightly more than 2 feet high to prevent any spill from leaving the area, while there also will be surface drains leading to underground storage tanks. [Emphasis added]

[Refer also to:

Freedom Industries, company behind W.Va. chemical spill in drinking water for 300,000 people, files for bankruptcy, faces at least 24 lawsuits

Kathleen Kane Wins Criminal Charges Against Exxon for Illegal Dumping of Frack Waste; Judge Rules Exxon Must Face Criminal Charges Over 50,000 Gallons waste dumped

‘Naturally Occurring’ Pollutants From Fracking Called ‘Serious Concern’, could be very harmful to environment and human health

BP, Chevron Accused Of Illegally Dumping Toxic Radioactive Drilling Waste Into Louisiana Water

First criminal case against a Shale firm opens for toxic frac waste spill/leak/dumping; XTO Energy Inc., subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp. hires three law firms to defend itself

What to do with all the oil field dregs, some of it radioactive, some of it toxic, and there’s more and more of it

Pa. well site will be focus of fierce legal battle; Criminal charges for toxic frac waste spill/leak/dumping stun drilling industry

Youngstown man admits dumping toxic fracking waste into Mahoning River

WATCH: Illegal Frac Waste Dumping Pollutes Big Sandy River

Lupo has history of brine dumping; repeat violations stretch back to 1970s, Lupo fights off the law, dumps unabated with no convictions and small fines

Hagan criticizes two state agencies over dumping cleanup; shameful disservice to the public for whom the agencies were established to protect

Joe Bezjak, 76 yr. old jailed for kicking oilfield workers off his property for illegally dumping waste a second time, Fayette County, PA

Loophole Lets Toxic Oil Water Flow Over Indian Land

Trio charged with illegal frack water dumping

Beaumont co. Pemco Services Inc. fined $1.5 million for illegal dumping

DA office dismisses dumping charges

Dozens of illegal waste dumpers arraigned in Jim Wells County

‘Fracking brine’ Gas-well waste full of radium

Wyoming DEQ cites Cheyenne business for illegal oil dumping

Toxic Wastewater Dumped in Streets and Rivers at Night: Gas Profiteers Getting Away With Shocking Environmental Crimes, Allan Shipman was found guilty of illegally dumping millions of gallons of natural gas drilling wastewater. But he’s part of a much bigger problem

Illegal waste dumping needs to stop

Worker indicted on felony charge

Firms accused of dumping sewage in North Dakota oil patch ditches, fields

North Dakota Turns Blind Eye to Dumping of Fracking Waste in Waterways and Farmland, Releases of drilling and fracking waste, which is often laced with carcinogenic chemicals, have wiped out aquatic life in streams and wetlands ]

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