Environmental Law Firm Joins Suit


Washington, PA Observer-Reporter
4 November 2009
By Bob Niedbala, Staff writer
niedbala@observer-reporter.com

A nonprofit environmental law firm has joined an appeal challenging a permit agreement that will allow a plant being built along the Monongahela River near Masontown to treat Marcellus gas drilling wastewater without removing total dissolved solids and other chemicals from the wastewater.

Earthjustice joined an appeal filed last month with the state Environmental Hearing Board by Clean Water Action challenging a consent agreement between the state Department of Environmental Protection and Shallenberger Construction Inc., the plant owner.

Clean Water Action claims the agreement will allow the plant to discharge into the Mon before it has the treatment technology needed to remove total dissolved solids (TDS) from its wastewater.

The agreement gives the company three years to upgrade its treatment technology to meet TDS removal standards; however, discharges will be allowed from the plant prior to these upgrades, the group said.

Earthjustice raises additional issues in its filing with the hearing board, said Deborah Goldberg of Earthjustice.

Goldberg said the original permit granted to the company by DEP failed to include effluent limits required by federal law for a number of chemicals.

The consent agreement includes limits on some chemicals but only on a "limited set," Goldberg said. Among those it fails to limit are some known to be generated by natural gas drilling, she said.

DEP is requiring other proposed treatment plants that expect to handle gas well wastewater to limit or monitor the amounts of toxic chemicals they discharge into drinking water sources. Not so with the Shallenberger plant, the group said.

The agreement will allow dumping of untreated fluids into the river without any testing for most of the dangerous chemicals common in gas wastes, including known carcinogens such as benzene, it said.

DEP issued a discharge permit to Shallenberger in September 2008. After TDS levels in the river exceeded water quality standards last fall, DEP entered into negotiations with Shallenberger to amend the permit. Earthjustice also maintains negotiations were conducted privately and the outcome was never subject to public review.

DEP spokeswoman Helen Humphreys could not be reached Tuesday but said earlier that the department issued a permit to the company prior to any problems with TDS on the river. A consent order was then approved in August 2009 modifying the permit because of water quality issues on the Mon, she said.

The plant, which is now being built, will be able to discharge wastewater without treating for TDS; however, it will only be allowed to discharge when levels of TDS and sulfates in the river are low, she said.