Fracking Waste Not Regulated As Hazmat - Like The Road Salt Distilled From It, NYT Reveals

[hatrack]

Over the past nine months, The Times reviewed more than 30,000 pages of documents obtained through open records requests of state and federal agencies and by visiting various regional offices that oversee drilling in Pennsylvania. Some of the documents were leaked by state or federal officials. Here, the most significant documents on wastewater recycling are made available with annotations from The Times. Previously published documents relate to natural gas waste.

"Under federal law, hydrofracking enjoys a number of important regulatory exemptions or exclusions that are not applicable to most other heavy industries. While it is not exempt from all federal environmental statutes, some of the rules in these laws do not apply to the industry. For example, the waste produced by hydrofracking is not categorized as hazardous material under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (R.C.R.A.), the law governing hazardous waste. This series of e-mails, sent between September 2009 and February 2010, concern this point. Industry representatives ask state regulators whether their waste would still be exempt if they distilled it and sold the resulting salts for road application. State and federal regulators confirm that, no matter how it is handled, waste from the oil and gas industry cannot be classified as hazardous material.

Asked about this e-mail exchange, a spokesman for the E.P.A. said in an e-mail, “Yes, gas brine road salts are exempt under R.C.R.A., which was passed by Congress in the 1980s. Currently, wastewaters associated from exploration and production of natural gas are exempt from federal hazardous waste regulatory requirements under R.C.R.A. These wastewaters are regulated under state waste management programs. The federal exemption extends to salts derived from these wastewaters.” Asked about the R.C.R.A. exemption, Jamie Legenos, a spokeswoman for Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, declined to comment."

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/01/us/natural-gas-documents-2.html#document/p81/a10113

[madrchsod]

1. every time i read the word "fracking"...

i think of battle star galactica...i wonder if the writers even thought of that.

[blue neen]

2. Who knows what the hell now passes as drinking water in Pennsylvania.

You can be sure this "fracking" water is in our public water supplies.