Triumph Township in Warren County published an advertisement in the Warren County Guide on May 8 soliciting bids for approximately 100,000 gallons of salt brine to dump on township roads.

The ad specified the salt brine must not be “regulated by Pa DEP” and must be “at least 25% chlorides.”

The ad did not specify what time of year the 100,000 gallons of salt brine would be spread on roads, except to say “as directed by the township.”

100,000 gallons is about 25 truck loads of brine.

Triumph Township has been listed by DEP as one of 84 municipalities considered “waste facilities” because they accepted wastewater from conventional oil and gas operators for dumping on its dirt and gravel roads as a dust suppressant.  Read more here.

In May 2022, DEP wrote letters to more than a dozen municipalities to advise them that the road dumping of conventional oil and gas drilling wastewater is illegal and considered waste disposal.  Read more here.

The practice remains illegal, unless approved under DEP’s Residual Waste Regulation, but it has not yet been banned.

Dr. William Burgos, lead author of a Penn State study of conventional oil and gas wastewater released in May of 2022, also expressed environmental concerns about road spreading commercial salt brine generally.

In a presentation to DCED’s PA Grade Crude [Oil] Development Advisory Council in August of 2022, Dr. Burgos repeated a recommendation in the study saying DEP should look at regulating commercial products using calcium chlorides-- salts-- to treat roads because their concentrations of pollutants is often higher than even the conventional drilling wastewater.  Read more here.

Several commercial salt brines were analyzed for comparison purposes in Penn State’s May 2022 study and those results are available in the report.  Read more here.

According to DEP’s eFACTS database, Triumph Township is home to over 1,000 registered conventional oil and gas wells.

Background On Conventional Wastewater

Conventional operators produce over 200 million gallons of wastewater from their wells every year-- more or less.  We don’t really know.  Read more here.  

Wastewater is produced from the time a well is drilled through its entire lifecycle, which can be decades.  It can be a real problem with abandoned and orphan wells with no operator.

Because over half the conventional operators have a practice of failing to file production and waste generation reports-- 57% at last count covering 61,655 wells  [Read more here]-- we can’t really account for where as much as 118 million gallons goes for treatment, reuse or disposal.   Read more here.

We do know that millions of gallons were reported by operators themselves as being spread on dirt and gravel roads since records have been kept.  [Read more here]

The practice has not only been proven to break up dirt roads and cause more dust [Read more here], it affects the health of people who live along those dirt roads by spreading contaminated dust and running off the roads into gutters and streams after a rain.

 The counties where road dumping has been reported include-- Butler, Cambria, Clarion, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, Greene, Jefferson, Mercer, Potter, Venango and Warren.

A Penn State study-- one of several over the years-- released last May found the wastewater contains at least 32 chemicals and parameters which exceed health and environmental standards.  [Read more here]

The chemicals in the wastewater include lead, arsenic, barium, strontium, lithium, iron, manganese, radioactive radium and many more.

While this practice for the moment is illegal because it doesn’t meet DEP’s Residual Waste Regulations, it has not been banned.

There are continuing reports from the field that the practice is still going on.

In fact, DEP’s oil and gas waste database continues to show reports from conventional operators who said they road-dumped their wastewater in 2022-- in spite of the fact it is illegal.

Unfortunately, we don’t know the true scope of the problem because so many reports are missing and the waste reports filed by both conventional and unconventional operators have never been audited.

Wastewater from unconventional shale gas wells is prohibited from being dumped on roads. Conventional wastewater should be too, because it is essentially the same thing.

To Report Illegal Road Dumping

Take Photos and Videos And Call DEP at 1-800-541-2050 to report this illegal activity or Click Here to report online and upload photos. 

Be very careful not to put yourself in danger reporting this illegal activity.

Related Articles - Road Dumping:

-- Penn State Study: Potential Pollution Caused By Road Dumping Conventional Oil & Gas Wastewater Makes It Unsuitable For A Dust Suppressant, Washes Right Off The Road Into The Ditch  [PaEN]

-- Ohio Research Confirms Health, Environmental Hazards In Conventional Oil & Gas Drilling Wastewater Dumped On Roads, Just Like In PA  [PaEN]

-- Conventional Oil & Gas Well Owners Failed To File Annual Production/Waste Generation Reports For 61,655 Wells; Attorney General Continues Investigation Of Road Dumping Wastewater  [PaEN]

-- Conventional Oil & Gas Drillers Reported Spreading 977,671 Gallons Of Untreated Drilling Wastewater On PA Roads In 2021  [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Public Notice Dashboards This Week:

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - May 6 to 12; Equitrans Gas Storage Area Issued New NOVs  [PaEN]

-- DEP: Seneca Resources Ignores NOVs On DCNR Shale Gas Well Pad Cleanup For 7 Months & Counting; Citizen Complaint Finds Homeowner Well Venting Gas; Multiple Tanker Truck Spills  [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment May 13   [PaEN]

-- DEP Posted 61 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In May 13 PA Bulletin  [PaEN]

Related Articles This Week:

-- DEP: Widespread Presence Of PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ In Fresh Water May Have Led To ‘Inadvertently’ Using Contaminated Water For Fracking Gas Wells In Washington County   [PaEN]

-- PA General Energy Announced It Will Plug Proposed Oil & Gas Waste Injection Well In Grant Twp., Indiana County  [PaEN]

-- Triumph Township, Warren County Advertising For 100,000 Gallons Of ‘Salt Brine’ To Dump On Township Roads  [PaEN]

-- Penn State Shale [Gas] Network Workshop Features Acting DEP Secretary Richard Negrin May 18-19 In State College  [PaEN]

-- Harrisburg University Research Cited By 2 Federal Agencies In New Regulations To Fight Methane Pollution From Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities  [PaEN]

-- Guest Essay: PA Conventional Oil/Gas Operators Blog: More Carbon Dioxide Is Good, Less Is Bad - By Gregory Wrightstone, CO2 Coalition  [PaEN]

-- Groups File Federal Lawsuit Against Shell Petrochemical Plant In Beaver County For Air Pollution Violations  [PaEN]

[Posted: May 10, 2023]

5/15/2023