Settlement prohibits unconventional wastewater, reduces discharge and protects Allegheny River
(Pittsburgh) – Clean Water Action and Waste Treatment Corporation (WTC) of Warren, PA agreed upon a settlement today of a federal lawsuit filed by Clean Water Action in October 2013. Clean Water Action alleged in its lawsuit that WTC violated the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and the state Clean Streams Law through their continued discharge of up to 200,000 gallons per day of gas drilling wastewater into the Allegheny River in western Pennsylvania.
The settlement requires WTC to install advanced treatment technology in the next 8 months that would remove well over 99% of contaminants in gas drilling wastewater that they are currently discharging (chloride levels would go from about 70,000 mg/L to 200 mg/L). While the treatment technology is being installed, the company has agreed to not discharge unconventional drilling wastewater, such as from the Marcellus Shale, and will reduce its discharge of conventional drilling wastewater by 35% from permitted levels.
“From the start our goal has been to protect the Allegheny River and the health of people who use it,” said Myron Arnowitt, Pennsylvania State Director for Clean Water Action. “This settlement creates a long lasting solution that will greatly improve our water quality.” The settlement represents the first time an existing industrial treatment plant discharging gas drilling wastewater in Pennsylvania agreed to install effective treatment technology to protect local rivers.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) proposed a separate settlement with WTC in November of 2013 following a study it conducted which found high levels of salts, metals, and radioactive compounds just downstream of WTC’s discharge pipe. The levels were over 100 times the levels upstream of the plant. While DEP’s proposed consent decree would also have required WTC to install treatment technology, it would have allowed the company to continue to discharge gas drilling wastewater at current permitted levels for approximately the next two years. Most significantly, the agency never followed through on their proposed consent decree and took no action to compel WTC to take any steps to reduce their pollution.
“Part of the reason we continued to pursue our suit was that DEP was dragging its feet and we couldn’t wait for them to actually follow through and address this contamination,” said Arnowitt. “While we didn’t get a perfect agreement, we came away with a settlement that is better than DEP's proposal, which fell short of what needed to be done to protect the public and environment.”
Clean Water Action is represented by Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services, a non-profit law firm incubating the growth of environmental legal services for modest means clients.
More information on the agreement is available here.
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Clean Water Action has more than 100,000 members statewide in Pennsylvania and is the nation's largest grassroots group focused on water, energy and environmental health. Clean Water Action's 1 million members, including 100,000 in Pennsylvania, work for clean, safe and affordable water, prevention of health-threatening pollution, and creation of environmentally-safe jobs and businesses. Clean Water Action's nonpartisan campaigns empower people to make democracy work.