Possible Landfill Worries Some
Bruceton plan is 1 1/2 years from now
Morgantown Dominion Post
23 May 2011
By Michelle Wolford
KINGWOOD — Harry Lewis worries about what a landfill might bring to
Bruceton Mills.
Lewis’ in-laws live on Benson Road, near the 250-acre tract purchased
by CCS Midstream Services. The company, with headquarters in Houston
and Canada, plans to construct a landfill for waste from the oil and
gas industries.
“They don’t really have to let people know what’s in it,” Lewis said.
“There could be carcinogens. There could be things we may not know are
harmful now but may find out 10 to 20 years from now are harmful.”
Lewis said his wife’s parents, John and Jane Frankenhouser, “own
200-plus acres up there that have been in the family for a long time.”
He said he’s upset that a landfill could move in right next door.
And then there’s the permitting process. Lewis said he has attended
meetings of the Preston County Solid Waste Authority, but isn’t
reassured by what they say.
“They always tell us ‘they have to go through us first.’ That’s how
things are supposed to happen.”
The Public Service Commission has verified that information.
Spokeswoman Susan Small said the company cannot apply for a certificate
of need for the landfill without documented approval from the PSCWA. If
they do, “we would kick it back,” she told The Dominion Post.
So why the concern?
“Because money talks,” Lewis said. “I’m afraid someone is going to come
along and flash some money” to circumvent the permitting process.
Scott Herbst, manager of engineering projects for CCS Midstream told
The Dominion Post that the facility will only accept oil and gas waste,
that the material will be “solid, nonhazardous and nondangerous.”
Though the facility will not accept fracking water — waste from the
fracturing method used in Marcellus shale gas drilling — Friends of the
Cheat Director Amanda Pitzer said the facility will take “the dried
solids removed from flowback water — which is frack water plus whatever
else comes back.”
“I’m skeptical about the modeling they’re using to determine the
waste characteristic,” she said. “Because it’s the first of its kind in
the region, there’s no way to know what’s coming. There’s no track
record.”
Sudhir Patel, permitting supervisor for the DEP, said the permitting
process takes time and involves not only the local SWA, but the state
Solid Waste Management Board, the DEP and the Public Service
Commission. He said it is possible someone from the DEP would inspect
one of the 24 such facilities CCS has in Canada.
The multi-tiered permitting process does begin with the PCSWA, Patel
confirmed. Before the company applies to the DEP, there will be a
public hearing if the facility falls into Class A — handling 10,000 to
30,000 tons of waste per month.
Once SWA approval is in place, and if necessary, a public hearing is
complete, the company files a site evaluation application with the DEP.
That’s followed by a design application to the DEP’s Division of Water
and Waste Management. Then comes a public comment period.
Patel said an application for a new facility would require a public
hearing to be held locally. There would be a 10-day comment period
after the hearing.
He said the process could take a year to a year and a half from SWA
approval to a permit being issued. Any appeal process could go on
another six months, he said.
Still, Lewis worries.
“We have nice rivers around here,” he said, “and they worked so long to
clean it up. I’m afraid Bruceton Mills will turn into a dumping ground.”