PA Environment Digest Blog: House Hearing IV: We Should Not Be Trying To Find New Ways To Dump More Contaminated Water From Conventional Oil & Gas Wells On Our Roads, It’s Obviously Not A Solution; We Need Safe Disposal Options

By David E. Hess, Former Secretary, Department of Environmental Protection

The following article was adapted from testimony presented to the House Environmental and Natural Resource Protection Committee on October 5 during a hearing on Safely Managing Contaminated Water From Conventional Oil & Gas Wells. Read more here.

On October 5, the House Environmental and Natural Resource Protection Committee held a hearing on safely managing contaminated water from conventional oil and gas wells. Read more here.

The 105,000 conventional oil and gas wells we have today reported producing 42.6 million gallons of contaminated water in 2025, although well owners failed to report any information on waste for 81,000 wells so that number is probably closer to 100 million gallons a year. Read more here.

DEP said at the hearing, backed by Penn State science, contaminated water from all types of conventional wells-- oil, gas and “mineral brine” wells contains the same chemicals-- hydrocarbons, salts, heavy metals and other pollutants-- that are “potentially harmful to the environment and can threaten drinking water.”

A 2022 Penn State study funded by DEP found contaminated water from conventional wells contains at least 25 chemicals that exceed environmental and health standards. Read more here.

DEP also said, again backed by Penn State science, that studies show contaminated water from conventional wells is no more effective than rainwater at controlling dust on dirt and gravel roads-- the one primary job most townships use it for.

DEP now regulates contaminated water from conventional oil and gas producing wells as a waste with disposal and management restrictions in regulations.

DEP told the Committee one conventional oil and gas well owner dumps millions of gallons of contaminated water on roads (2.4 million gallons last year) as a dust suppressant with no restrictions.

The company has done that since 2007 because its permits say its three wells are conventional oil and gas “mineral brine” wells drilled into the same oil and gas geologic formations as other conventional wells.

More Penn State science sampled the “mineral brine” from these wells specifically and found chloride levels of 182,000 mg/L, when the drinking water standard is 250 mg/L-- 700 times higher.

Sampling also found radioactive radium levels in this contaminated “mineral brine” water was 1,900 pCi/L, when the standard is 15 pCi/L in drinking water.

DEP issued a new permit to another company to drill another conventional oil and gas “mineral brine” well to do the same thing with no restrictions, even though a conventional oil and gas well just 500 feet away owned by the same company has to handle contaminated water from that well as a waste.

The same contaminated water-- but a piece of paper makes them different kinds of wells.

More science from Penn State has also shown there is essentially no difference between contaminated water produced by conventional oil and gas wells and unconventional shale gas wells, except DEP banned road dumping of contaminated water from shale gas wells in 2016 because of the threat it poses to the environment.

DEP announced at the House hearing it is now trying to find a way to put restrictions on the users of the contaminated water from the conventional oil and gas “mineral brine” wells because it says the water “is potentially harmful to the environment and can threaten drinking water.”

I respectfully suggest DEP is trying to answer the wrong questions.

We shouldn’t be trying to find new ways to dump more contaminated water on our public roads or anywhere else to dispose of this waste.

We should be trying to find ways of safely disposing of contaminated water from conventional oil and gas wells of all types.

I believe the solution is to treat contaminated water as a resource and to take advantage of the capabilities Pennsylvania’s oil and gas industry already has to deal with this issue.

We already have a sophisticated network for reclaiming and reusing contaminated water from conventional and shale gas wells in Pennsylvania.

In fact, Pennsylvania’s shale gas industry pioneered “world class” methods of reclaiming and reusing contaminated water in its operations that is the envy of the industry.

Thousands of trucks, miles of pipeline, storage and reclamation facilities are already here dedicated to this purpose in the same areas conventional oil and gas wells are located.

The result has been up to 93% of all shale gas wastewater recycled and/or reused in its operations.

I propose we develop a Good Neighbor Conventional Oil & Gas Contaminated Water Recycling Program that requires the recycling and reuse of all the contaminated water produced by conventional wells by the shale gas industry at no cost to conventional well owners.

The up to 100 million gallons of contaminated water produced by conventional well owners is a drop in the bucket (3.3%) of the over 3 billion gallons produced annually by the shale gas industry from other contaminated water and fresh water sources.

The details can be worked out by the industry, the public, and other stakeholders working together in a special task force convened by DEP.

Pennsylvania’s shale gas industry has the opportunity to be a Good Neighbor using its expertise to solve the contaminated water problems for an entire sister-industry.

In 1999, the General Assembly passed and Gov. Ridge signed the Environmental Good Samaritan Act to encourage third party reclamation of abandoned coal mines and plugging abandoned oil and gas wells.

Today, the shale gas industry has an unprecedented chance to show real leadership and be a Good Samaritan in a way that will benefit the environment, public health and worker safety.

(From a video taken by Shannon Smith, Executive Director of FracTracker Alliance, in June 2025 on a dirt road in Erie County identified by a township supervisor as a BCD Properties truck. The road dumping occurred two months after DEP notified BCD Properties it was illegally dumping contaminated water from its conventional oil and gas wells on roads.)

Resource Links:

-- Conventional Oil & Gas Industry: DEP Decision To Approve Unrestricted Use Of Contaminated Water From Oil & Gas ‘Mineral Brine’ Wells Clears The Way For Uncontrolled, Free Disposal Of Contaminated Water At Public Expense And Risk [PaEN]

-- FracTracker Alliance Appeals DEP Conventional Oil & Gas Mineral Brine Well Permit Due To Concerns The Permit Creates A New Loophole For Disposing Of Contaminated Groundwater Without Testing Or Restrictions On Its Use [PaEN]

-- Briefing: DEP Issues A New Type Of Conventional Oil & Gas Well Permit Allowing Groundwater Contaminated By Oil & Gas Formations To Be Dumped On Roads, Used In Consumer Products Without Restrictions [PaEN]

Resource Links - Conventional Contaminated Water Dumping:

-- House Committee Moves Bills To Prohibit Road Dumping Contaminated Groundwater Released By Conventional Oil & Gas Well Drilling; Setting Minimum Standards For Power Plant Community Benefit Agreements; Encouraging Native Insect Habitats [PaEN]

-- House Committee To Consider Bills To Prohibit Road Dumping Oil & Gas Wastewater, Set Minimum Standards For Power Plant Community Benefit Agreements, Encourage Monarch, Native Insect Habitats On June 8 [PaEN]

-- New Penn State Study: Brine Water Pumped From Played-Out Conventional Oil & Gas Wells And Used As Dust Suppressants, Winter Road Treatments Exceed Environmental, Health Standards, Just Like Conventional Oil & Gas Brine Water [PaEN]

-- Late Night Road Dumping: Conventional Oil & Gas Wastewater Continues To Be Dumped On Dirt, Gravel, Paved Roads; DEP Expected To Provide Update At April 24 Meeting [4.9.25]

-- Late Night Dumping II: Conventional Oil & Gas Wastewater Dumping Continues On Roads, This Time With Bigger Trucks; New Research On Harmful Wastewater Impacts [5.22.25]

-- Senate Hearing: Penn State Expert: ‘No More Research That Needs To Be Done’ To Justify A Ban On Road Dumping Conventional Oil & Gas Wastewater [4.17.24]

-- House Hearing: Penn State Expert Says ‘Pennsylvania Should Ban Road Spreading Of Oil & Gas Wastewater;’ Contaminants Exceed Health, Environmental Standards [6.10.24]