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Unlike the major river basins in eastern Pennsylvania (Susquehanna River & Delaware River) the Ohio River basin lacks a true river basin commission that regulates a full spectrum of watershed issues. The closest thing to it for the western part of Pennsylvania is a commission known as ORSANCO, which stands for Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission. The commission was established in 1948 “to control and abate pollution in the Ohio River Basin.” As an interstate commission, ORSANCO represents the federal government and 8 states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.
In light of all the Marcellus Shale wastewater being dumped into the upper tributaries of the Ohio River since 2005, it is rather alarming there is no mention of Marcellus Shale or gas drilling wastewater disposal in the PDF files shown below from 2010. This is in stark contrast to many of the problems reported in the upper tributaries of the Ohio River, with trihalomethane issues and ongoing concerns in early-2011 about bromides and radioactive wastewater disposal in the Monongahela River and other Ohio River tributaries in Pennsylvania. As the old saying goes, “Everyone is downstream from someone.” In this case, 5 states are downstream from Pennsylvania along the Ohio River. That should merit new concerns with Marcellus gas drilling activity in the 21st Century. RECENT ORSANCO DOCUMENTS
JUNE 2010 MEETING MINUTES
POLLUTION CONTROL STANDARDS FOR DISCHARGES
SAMPLING DATA: JANUARY - JUNE 2010 |
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With
its beginning at the confluence of the Allegheny River and
Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, the Ohio River is 981-miles long
with a river basin in 14 states. The Ohio River is the largest tributary of the
Mississippi River, and the two rivers meet in Cairo, Illinois. 