State Plans Regulation of Total Dissolved Solids
Groups say waste polluting waterways
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
15 December 2009
By Don Hopey
Environmentalists say a state proposal to regulate discharges of
dissolved solids into streams, rivers and lakes is long overdue, but
industry and pro-development groups have labeled it ill-advised and too
expensive.
Larry Emerson, of Alpha Natural Resources Inc., the second largest
mining company in the state, said the state Department of Environmental
Protection's proposal to limit total dissolved solids, or TDS, by
mining and natural gas drilling industries and power plants isn't
supported by adequate research.
"The proposal is not based on sound science and economic realities,"
Mr. Emerson said at a state Environmental Quality Board public hearing
on the proposal in Cranberry last night. "And it will work against the
rebound of the Pennsylvania economy."
But Myron Arnowitt, state director for Clean Water Action, said the
proposal is a much-needed first step to control TDS discharges from
mining and the fast expanding Marcellus shale drilling operations
across the state.
"Clean Water Action is pleased to see DEP set a discharge standard for
TDS that will go a long way toward ensuring that our rivers and
drinking water supplies will not face dangerous levels of these
pollutants as they have in the past," Mr. Arnowitt said, adding that
TDS will also affect fish and other aquatic species.
High TDS levels in the Monongahela River last year and this fall have
raised concerns from industries that cannot use the contaminated water
and affected the taste of drinking water provided by public suppliers.
Seventeen suppliers draw water from the Monongahela for more than
350,000 people.
Underlining the need for the new regulations, environmentalists say,
was the high concentrations of TDS from mine discharges that have been
blamed for creating conditions in Dunkard Creek that killed thousands
of fish, mussels and other aquatic life in 43 miles of the stream along
the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border in Greene County.
TDS causes toxicity in streams and rivers by increasing salinity, and
water analyses of the state's major watersheds show that many rivers
and streams have "a very limited ability to assimilate additional TDS,
sulfates and chlorides," according to the Pennsylvania Bulletin notice
announcing the proposed rule making.
Another source of TDS is wastewater from hundreds of gas drilling
operations that use hydraulic fracturing to release natural gas from
Marcellus shale, a rock layer located 5,000 to 8,000 feet below the
surface under two-thirds of the state. Each well can use 4 million to 8
million gallons of water and discharge up to half that amount.
Deborah Goldberg, managing attorney for Earthjustice, said the gas
drilling industry will need to dispose of millions of gallons of
wastewater a day in the state's waterways by 2011.
"Pennsylvania waterways can't dilute that amount of pollution," she
said, "and the problems industry dismisses as extreme will become the
norm if the industry continues to expand and this regulation isn't
adopted."
The proposed new rules would limit discharges of TDS to concentrations
of 500 parts per million, and also set discharge limits on sulfate,
chlorides, barium and strontium that would take effect Jan. 1, 2011.
The hearing in Cranberry was the first of four the Pennsylvania
Environmental Quality Board will hold across the state this week. The
comment period on the proposal closes on Feb. 12. The full text of the
rule making was published in the Nov. 7 issue of the Pennsylvania
Bulletin and can be read at http://www.pabulletin.com.
Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.