|
|
Our look at the
|
| Municipal authorities like the extra income
created by accepting Marcellus Shale gas drilling wastewater.
One 4,000 gallon tanker truck often pays 6½-cents per gallon, or $260
per load, adding greatly to a facility's bottom line. However, due to problems with high-TDS (total dissolved solids) in Pennsylvania waterways, the number of waste treatment plants permitted to accept gas drilling wastewater has decreased since the early days of Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling. Toward the end of 2008, new limits were imposed by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that only allow sewage treatment plants to accept 1% of their daily flow as gas drilling brine. Further restrictions were put into place by the PA DEP in late summer 2010, further affecting the TDS levels that could be discharged into Pennsylvania waterways. In 2010, the Clairton Municipal Authority was accepting an average of 39,500 gallons (about ten 4,000 gallon loads) of gas drilling wastewater per day under a contract with Greene Disposal LLC of Mt Morris, Pa. Below are photos of the municipal sewage treatment plant located in Clairton, Pennsylvania, and discharging into the Monongahela River. |
|
|
Clairton
Municipal Authority
|
 |
|
4,000 gallon Residual Waste tri-axle tankers lined-up in the driveway waiting to dump |
 |
|
Clairton Municipal Authority Water Pollution Control Plant |
 |
|
Tanker truck backing into the facility to discharge its load |
 |
|
Clairton Municipal Authority |
 |
|
Residual Waste tanker waiting in line |
 |
|
Clairton Municipal Authority Clairton, Pennsylania |
 |
|
Municipal Authority outflow into Peters Creek |
 |
|
Treated water flows down Peters Creek a short distance and then into the Monongahela River |
|
|
|
|
