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.