Group Files Appeal on Plant Now Under Construction

Washington, PA Observer-Reporter
16 October 2009

An environmental group has appealed an agreement between the state Department of Environmental Protection and a company now building a plant along the Monongahela River in Masontown to treat Marcellus gas drilling wastewater.

The plant, being constructed by Shallenberger Construction, will be allowed to discharge into the Monongahela River before it has the treatment technology needed to remove total dissolved solids from its wastewater, said a release issued Thursday by Clean Water Action.

"The Mon already has more pollution than our drinking water standards allow," said Myron Arnowitt, the state director for the group. "We cannot allow more pollution sources to discharge into the Mon until there is a plan to cleanup the river," he said.

More than 350,000 Pennsylvanians rely on the Monongahela River for drinking water. In both 2008 and 2009, and most recently last month, TDS levels in the Mon exceeded federal drinking water standards.

The plant proposes to discharge 500,000 gallons a day of wastewater from Marcellus Shale gas drilling operations.

The company's original proposal for a wastewater treatment plant includes only rudimentary treatment systems that would not be able to remove TDS, the group said.

DEP's agreement will give the company more than three years to upgrade its treatment technology to meet TDS removal standards; however, discharges will be allowed from the plant prior to these upgrades, it said.

"From our perspective, since the plant is a new plant it should be able to treat (for TDS) from the beginning," Arnowitt said. "DEP should require that any new wastewater plant meet water quality standards from their first day of operation," he said.

The appeal was filed Tuesday with the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board. A DEP spokesman could not be reached late Thursday for comment.