PA Sen. Muth, Public Herald Hold Press Briefing on Workers Injured at Oil & Gas Wastewater Treatment Plants by David E. Hess, PA Environment Digest Blog, December 11, 2023
On December 11 at Noon, Sen. Katie Muth (D-Chester) and investigative journalist Joshua Pribanic from Public Herald will join oil and gas industry workers at a press conference at the State Capitol talking about the dangers to workers treating the oil and gas industry’s radioactive wastewater and new evidence of pollution entering waterways in the Commonwealth.
The press conference will take place in the Capitol Media Center.
The press conference will also be streamed live at www.SenatorMuth.com/live, www.Facebook.com/SenatorMuth and through the Public Hearld’s X account [Twitter].
This media advisory from Senator Muth is being sent on behalf of Public Herald by the Better Path Coalition.
Background
On December 10, the Public Herald posted a podcast and article sharing the experiences of five workers– Eric Steppe, Quinn Aughenbaugh, Brandon Barrett, Dalton Trahan and Alijah Kibler– who work with radioactive oil and gas wastewater at the Eureka Resources wastewater treatment plant in Williamsport.
In this article, Eric Steppe related his experience cleaning up multiple spills at the plant and having to be taken to the hospital as a result of his exposure to oil and gas wastewater being treated at the plant.
Click Here to listen to the podcast and read the entire article.
A study released in May 2022 by Penn State University by many of the same authors as the new research article found conventional drilling wastewater spread on roads in Pennsylvania contains concentrations of barium, strontium, lithium, iron, manganese that exceed human-health based criteria and levels of radioactive radium that exceed industrial discharge standards. Read more here.
In fact, 25 out of the 31 chemicals and pollutants found in the wastewater exceeded, and in many instances far exceeded, established health or environmental standards, including radioactive radium. Read more here.
“Combined radium activities in the three OGPWs when applied to the roadbeds ranged from 84 to 2,500 pCi/L, within the anticipated range for OGPWs from western Pennsylvania. Combined radium activities in runoff from the OGPW-treated roadbeds exceeded 60 pCi/L, the effluent standard for industrial wastewater discharges.” Read more here.
NewsClip:
— Public Herald: I Turned Blue – Workers Share Horrifying Experiences Treating Oil & Gas Wastewater
Related Article:
— New Penn State Study Finds Runoff From Conventional Oil & Gas Wastewater Dumped On Unpaved Roads Contains Pollutants That Exceed Human-Health, Environmental Standards [PaEN]
PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:
— PA Oil & Gas Industry Compliance So Far In 2023 – It Isn’t Pretty
— PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment – December 9 [PaEN]
— DEP Sets Jan. 23 Hearing On Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Frazer Compressor Station In Chester County [PaEN]
— DEP Posted 68 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In December 9 PA Bulletin [PaEN]
Related Articles:
— Marcellus Drilling News: Senate Republican Leaders Urge DEP To Withdraw Environmental Justice Policy Saying They Lack Statutory Authority, And Out-of-State Groups Not Actual Residents Express EJ Concerns [PaEN]
— PA Business Report: Senate Republicans Urge DEP To Withdraw Updated Environmental Justice Policy
— DEP Expects $44 Million To Plug Conventional Wells Leaking Methane; $76 Million For 2nd Year Of Federal Conventional Abandoned Well Plugging Program [PaEN]
— DEP Plugs 132 Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Wells So Far; DEP Issued 499 NOVs For New Conventional Well Abandonments So Far In 2023 [PaEN]
— Roulette Oil & Gas LLC Withdraws Oil & Gas Wastewater Injection Well Application In Potter County [PaEN]
— Independent Fiscal Office Reports 3rd Quarter Natural Gas Production Down 0.5% Over 3rd Quarter 2022, But Increased Over Last 12 Months [PaEN]
— PA Senate Hearing Focuses On Minimizing Risk And Harm In Development Of PA’s Hydrogen Infrastructure [PaEN]
— House Environmental Committee To Hold Dec. 11 Hearing On Bill To Expand Renewable Energy Mandates In Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards [PaEN]
— Hydrogen Tax Credit Changes, Riparian Buffers, Light Pollution On House Environmental Committee Agenda For Dec. 13 [PaEN]
— PennEnvironment, Three Rivers Waterkeeper Sue Styropek USA To Stop Plastic Pollution In Raccoon Creek, Ohio River In Beaver County [PaEN]
— Susquehanna River Basin Commission: Low Stream Flows Trigger Shutdown Of 4 Shale Gas Drilling Water Withdrawals In Bradford, Tioga County [PaEN]
Refer also to:
Science be damned, EnCana wants to inject waste into drinking water aquifer
BC OGC orders closure, drainage and remediation of Talisman’s leaking toxic frac waste water pit, Talisman says tests show soil and groundwater contaminated with chemicals How many frac waste pits leak in Canada? How many pastures and croplands poisoned by oil and gas companies “landspreading” / “landspraying” their toxic radioactive waste? Who is looking, other than the harmed (that our authorities ignore and or violate our rights, with judges lying in rulings to protect law violating authorities and denigrate the harmed seeking justice)?
Nova Scotians think for themselves, say no to Triangle’s plan to dump millions of litres of 7 year old frac waste into Amherst water treatment system on Tantramar Marshes So it goes into cement instead!
Triangle Petroleum fracking radioactive waste water cleanup target missed in Nova Scotia
Frac’ers’ Friends in High Places: Past Greene Co President Judge Farley Toothman (let criminal frac waste dumper Allan Shipman walk) violated state Constitution: “engaged in misconduct so extreme that brought the judicial office into disrepute”
Argentina: “Trail of Impunity” Toxic frac waste scandal exposed
New York Senate Passes Hoylman Bill to Ban the Use of Fracking Byproducts as Highway De-Icing Agents Some jurisdictions are smart and respect the rule of law when it comes to oil and gas industry harms; most are not, including most in Canada.
2003: Alberta Landspraying While Drilling (LWD) Review One of the companies doing the waste dumping during this review, was, you guessed it: Encana/Ovintiv
… Mudpacks from poorly conducted land spray operations kill native prairie and take years to ameliorate.
Problem land sprays have been left with inadequate clean up.
… Industry has failed to meet mapping and record keeping requirements. Mapping has been non-existent or completely inaccurate with examples of company maps with incorrect GPS coordinates and sites that have received double spray applications over the same land base.
… In the scope of the last eight years, average precipitation to severe drought conditions have been experienced. During this period, staff have observed more evidence of LWD materials persisting on rangeland vegetation for prolonged periods. Drought conditions exacerbate the problem of residue build up.
… The AEUB[after hiring PIs to spy on innocent Albertans and breaking the law, gov’t changed it to ERCB; after my lawsuit went public, gov’t changed it to AER]had conducted drilling waste audits on 51 LWD sites throughout the Province. The information (paper) audit consisted of a review of information supplied from companies on disposals conducted between 2001 and 2003. Of the 51 audits, eight passed….
…
Discussion and Summary
The review of the LWD file paper trail and of field inspection reports from the Medicine Hat office highlighted a number of failures and problems, which were common to both review components. The most common problem was that of LWD projects being applied outside of the approved area. … Finally, siting problems were common to both review components with LWD materials being applied through watercourses, on high wildlife habitat like sagebrush cover and on fragile sand dune sites. … The file review and field observations revealed that on a high percentage of sites, LWD is not being conducted according to the guidelines and is having a negative impact on native range. [Lots of galling data tables included in the review]