States Fail to Properly Manage Fracking Waste, Says Groundbreaking Report

[RiverLover]

States Fail to Properly Manage Fracking Waste, Says Groundbreaking Report
4/2/15

...The fracking boom has brought oil and gas operations into states and communities that never dealt with them before. Elected officials in those states are often beholden to those oil and gas interests, especially as the amount of money flowing into elections has multiplied exponentially. Basically, the fox is guarding the henhouse.



A new study, Wasting Away: Four states’ failure to manage oil and gas waste in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, conducted by Earthworks, explore just how inadequate state oversight of drilling operations is today. It specifically looks at four states that sit on top of the lucrative Marcellus and Utica shale deposits—New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia—to discover exactly how well they are doing in overseeing the identification and handling of the potentially hazardous waste materials left behind after the shale has been fracked.

Not very well, it found.



...“Thirty years ago the Environmental Protection Agency exempted oil and gas waste from federal classification as hazardous, not because the waste isn’t hazardous, but because EPA determined state oversight was adequate,” said report lead author and Earthworks’ eastern program coordinator Nadia Steinzor. “But our analysis shows that states aren’t keeping track of this waste or disposing of it properly. States must take realistic, concrete steps to better protect the public.”



It found all four states lacking. While it pointed out that West Virginia has adopted some new regulations and Pennsylvania is currently revising its regulations, it cited numerous shortcomings in how those states handle fracking waste. Of Ohio it said, “Even as shale gas development surges in Ohio, the state has done little to strengthen regulations and procedures related to waste management. HB59, passed in 2013, directed Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to adopt rules for waste storage and disposal—but critical regulations have still not been put forward for public review and adoption. As a result, operators and disposal facilities have wide discretion to decide whether waste is contaminated and how to dispose of it.”

“Ohio’s land and water are at great risk from improper and under-regulated disposal of fracking wastes,” said Melanie Houston, director of water policy and environmental health at the Ohio Environmental Council. “As this report details, regulations in Ohio remain woefully inadequate when it comes to protecting human health and the environment from the radiological and chemical risks associated with fracking waste.”...

http://ecowatch.com/2015/04/02/fail-manage-fracking-waste/

[rhett o rick]

1. Notice that the Conservative Dems refuse to debate fracking. Pres Obama and HRC both

support fracking.

[RiverLover]

2. When I learned that Hillary as SoS was pushing fracking around the world,

that was when I knew she was republican(D). Much like her husband, the great deregulator & keystone fan... I started paying closer attention to her & nothing she's done since proves otherwise. But hey, she's (now) for gay marriage & she's a woman with a (D). That's all that matters!

[rhett o rick]

5. What I don't understand about her supporters is that they say she

advocates for women and social issues which I will agree with, but she also favors big business like Goldman-Sachs, probably the worst of the worse. Her foreign policy makes the neocons ecstatic. She is ok with the strong NSA/CIA Security State. What I want to tell her supporters is that we should seek someone that advocates for social issues AND wants to control Wall Street, limit our wars, is against the damage to our environment that fracking will do, and support controls on the NSA/CIA.

WE CAN DO BETTER THAN H.CLINTON.

[MisterP]

3. in the Ecuadorean Amazon they tried to pass it off as "roadbuilding asphalt" and horribly sickened

the indigenes

[Bill USA]

4. fracking proceeding at break-neck pace without adequate studies as to environmental effects - insane