PA Environment Digest Blog: Conventional Oil & Gas Well Owners Continue To Push DEP To Legalize Road Dumping Their Wastewater

On April 24, conventional oil and gas well owners continued to push DEP for ways to legalize the road dumping of their wastewater during a meeting of DCED’s PA Grade Crude [Oil] Development Advisory Council.

The discussion of road dumping was prefaced with a report by Council chair David Hill that GCI Water Solutions in Titusville, Crawford County shut down April 3 in a dispute with the City of Titusville over treatment of the effluent coming from the GCI oil and gas wastewater treatment plant.

Hill also noted the company has been under investigation by the Office of Attorney General for possible state Solid Waste Management Act violations over road dumping of their wastewater under the co-product determination process in DEP’s Residual Waste Regulations. Read more here.

Hill said, “One thing that could help this situation is if we ever got approval to use the reclaimed water [from GCI Water Solutions] for ice and dust control [road dumping], which we've been working on that for several years, but that's about the only thing that could help us now.”

[Widespread, illegal road dumping of conventional oil and gas wastewater continues throughout areas with conventional drilling. Read more here.]

Kurt Klapkowski, DEP Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management, responded by saying, “In terms of the use of the effluent [from GCI Water Solutions] for road spreading for dust suppression, road stabilization, that would go through our Waste Management Program.

“I understand that there have been conversations between the Waste Management Program and GCI, but I don't think that there's been any kind of a formal submission saying, please consider this for approval,” Klapkowski explained.

“And the thing I think I would say is, along those lines, we've been having some conversations lately around the waste management requirements for road spreading. Or generally, not just about the GCI treated effluent, but generally under the co-product determination requirements in Chapter 287 [Residual Waste Regulations].

“And I think from my perspective, the good news about GCI is that rather than be a situation where you've got relatively heterogeneous [diverse] materials coming from Venango County, maybe shallow oil wells, or deep wells or different formations, different construction, different whatever, because of the sampling analysis that has to be done, it has to be statistically significant [consistent chemically and physically] in order for Waste Management [Program] to prove that co-product determination.”

“If you're talking about a treated effluent waste stream, that's a lot easier than saying, "Okay, I've got brine [wastewater] from this well. I've got brine from that well." Because [effluent] is going to be relatively consistent.

“When I think about the co-product requirements and the Residual Waste Regulations, [they are] really designed for manufacturing facilities where you've got... you know what the inputs are and you know what your outputs are.

“And then you can say that the output is going to be constant over time and it's only going to change if the inputs change because of the manufacturing processes.

“So, it doesn't fit quite as well for heterogeneous waste streams, like from oil and gas waste,” said Klapkowski. “But I think that there's a willingness of the Waste Management Program to have those conversations.

“I did reach out to our water programs to try to see if there were any low interest loan or grant programs that might be out there to fund additional treatment capacity, and apparently, wastewater treatment facilities can receive low interest loans from our PennVEST program,” said Klapkowski.

“I think if we can get to a place where there are additional treatment options, from my perspective, that would be the ideal outcome here, so that we're not just relying on a couple of facilities to provide that sort of capacity in these areas.

“And I think having it be something that can be very local to particular producing regions is going to be important. Because as I understand it, the biggest cost of properly managing brine [wastewater] is the transportation.

“So, if you have to drive it to Ohio to be injected into an injection well, that's very expensive.

“So, I think what we really should be trying to think about is how do we increase the treatment capacity in those areas where the oil and gas is being produced and the brines are being produced.

“So, wherever in the state that would end up being, I think that that would be something that would be worth pursuing,” said Klapkowski.

In reaction, David Hill said, “Yeah, I think that's a great idea. And the people at GCI, they do want to expand. They can get investors, they want to expand, but we got to get something going then.”

Road Dumping Untreated Wastewater

Arthur Stewart, from Cameron Energy and the PA Grade Crude Oil Coalition, again raised the issue of road dumping untreated conventional oil and gas wastewater and the DEP work group announced in December that is working to develop a position on the issue. Read more here.

Klapkowski said the work group had not finished looking at the issue because “shifting priorities” have those individuals working on other issues.

[Note: The Shapiro Administration has already taken a position that it supports legislation to ban the road dumping of conventional oil and gas wastewater like it does for unconventional, shale gas wastewater, which is very similar chemically and physically. Read more here.]

Stewart again raised the issue of how a played-out conventional gas well owned by Seneca Mineral in Erie County got permission from DEP to use brine water from their wells as the commercial product-- LS-25-- for de-icing and dust control in 2007.

“Obviously [there is] an administrative procedure that DEP used to sanction Seneca Minerals' movement of the Oriskany well to a product. That same administration or same administrative procedure is theoretically available to us,” said Stewart. “But you have to say what that procedure is. So how does Seneca Minerals do it and how do we do it? And can we do that through CDAC?

Klapkowski said the decision on Seneca Minerals was made by DEP’s Northwest Regional Office and the Waste Management Program at the time. He said he would have to get any background available on that process from them and forward it to CDAC.

[Click Here for DEP’s 2007 Seneca Mineral letter.]

Kris Shiffer, Director of DEP’s Bureau of Oil and Gas Planning, pointed out a 2023 study released by Penn State specifically on the toxicity and chemical composition of brine water from played-out conventional wells found it significantly exceeded environmental and health standards for 11 major chemical contaminants, including radioactive radium, just like wastewater from conventional oil and gas wells regulated by DEP. [It’s the same stuff.] Read more here.

Conventional well waters tested by Penn State included waters from Seneca Mineral’s conventional wells-- the so-called LS-25.

[Note: In 2022, conventional well owners like Arthur Stewart tried to use a “co-product” determination process in DEP’s Residual Waste Regulations comparing their conventional wastewater to the Seneca Mineral LS-25 as a “commercial product” saying it was the same thing so they could dump their untreated wastewater on roads. Read more here.

[DEP evaluated the co-product determinations of 27 conventional well owners and found none of them complied with the Residual Waste Regulation requirements. Read more here.]

Stewart then raised the issue of having the Environmental Quality Board and DEP regulate all materials put on roads for de-icing and road dust control.

Klapkowski said, “I have not seen anything in terms of DEP where this would be a rulemaking we would advance at this point.”

Next Meeting

The next meeting of DCED is set for August 21.

Visit DCED’s PA Grade Crude [Oil] Development Advisory Council webpage for more information and available handouts from this group.

(Photos: Top four photos from road dumping conventional wastewater as recently as March 21 late at night in Warren County. The practice continues unabated. Read more here.)

Resource Links:

-- 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 [PaEN]

-- Daily Grind Living Next To Oil & Gas Industry: Spills, Polluted Water Supplies, Smells Like Gas, Noise, Air Pollution, Explosions, Truck Traffic, Erosion, Radioactive Waste, Gas Flares, Dust, Lights, Road Dumping Waste, Abandoned Wells [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - April 26 to May 2: Contaminated Livestock Water Supply; Ruptured Gathering Pipeline; Failure To Comply With Shale Gas Well Plugging Order [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices, Opportunities To Comment - May 3 [PaEN]

-- DEP Received Air Quality Permit For 4.6 Gigawatt Homer City Generation Natural Gas Power Plant For Data Center In Indiana County [PaEN]

-- DEP Posted 77 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In May 3 PA Bulletin [PaEN]