DEP: Analysis Of Brine Leak Liquid Wasn’t Required

5 November 2010
By Shelley Hanson, Staff Writer

WELLSBURG - West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Kathy Cosco said she was mistaken - the DEP does not require brine water spilled on roadways to be sampled and tested.

Cosco previously said the DEP was waiting for samples from an Oct. 13 truck leak on 2 miles of roadway in Wellsburg to be analyzed by a certified laboratory. At that time, she said it was up to the company that spilled the substance - not the DEP - to collect a sample and have a lab analyze it.

On Thursday, however, Cosco said she has learned the DEP does not require such analysis of spills. She noted, though, had the brine water entered any nearby streams, DEP officials would have sampled that stream and attempted to take a sample of the brine water from the roadway.

"If brine water gets into a stream it can impact aquatic life. ... Unless you ingest it ... brine water does not pose any health hazards" to humans, Cosco said.

Brine water, she said, is water that is naturally produced by active gas drilling wells. Frack water, however, is water that is used during the well drilling process that contains various chemicals used to help break up rock. The water being hauled from a Pennsylvania drill site through West Virginia - on W.Va. 27, also known as Washington Pike, between Brady's Ridge Road and W.Va. 2 - was brine water, not frack water, she said.

The spill was cleaned up by a crew hired by the company that was hauling the water, Stallion Construction. Bob Fowler, Brooke County director of emergency management, called the DEP's spill telephone line to report the leaking truck. In his call, according to the DEP, he noted about 500 gallons of a substance containing "brine, oil and lubricant" leaked from the truck on 2-2.5 miles of road.