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Our look at
BRINE AND WATER TANKER TRUCKS
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If you know
NOTHING ELSE about Marcellus Shale gas wells here is your
4-step Short Course on Marcellus wells and drilling wastewater..
1.
Marcellus wells are
very thirsty for water -- an
average of 4 million gallons of water
is needed per well, each
time that well is 'fracked.'
2. Twenty to forty percent of that fluid comes back out of the abyss,
with Mother Nature's contaminants added
to the tens of thousands of gallons of chemicals that went down.
These fluids need to be disposed of properly without endangering
public health or the environment.
3. This "flowback"
and "produced water" contains frac fluids and natural
contaminants (often including NORM -- naturally occurring
radioactive materials). This salty, high-TDS (total dissolved
solids) brine is transported in trucks and temporary pipelines, with
pipelines extending for miles.
4. This
hazardous waste needs to be disposed of properly
in deep injection wells instead of rivers. Trucks hauling this
wastewater are marked only with 'RESIDUAL WASTE'
placards instead of NFPA diamonds
-- National Fire Protection Association placards.
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Below are photos of brine tankers and water
tanker trucks involved with hauling water to frack jobs on Marcellus
Shale, as well as hauling the produced water (flowback) from separation tanks
(condensate tanks) to huge wastewater pits, POTW's (Public Owned
Treatment Works aka sewage plants) and processing facilities.
These tanker trucks also drain the green condensate tanks you see at gas
wells sites. While the green tanks are marked with hazardous
placards, these trucks have no placards, being unmarked other than
the standard "RESIDUAL WASTE" lettering.
This trucking aspect of horizontal gas drilling greatly increases
the strain on water resources, drinking water purity,
road wear and
air quality issues from added
diesel fumes.
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No hazmat placards appear on any of these
trucks like
the placards you see on the tanks they haul fluids from
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Hazmat markings on green condensate tanks
(above)
Battery of green condensate tanks (below)
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State police Maj. Harvey Cole Jr. said that in response
to significant increases in truck traffic, the
department had conducted 5,800 roadside inspections of
industry trucks since January 2010 and found 13,000
driver and vehicle safety violations, including 2,800
serious enough to put the driver or truck out of
service. In all, 42% of the inspections resulted in
pulling drivers or vehicles out of service, he said. The
national average for all truck inspections is 24%.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
June 22, 2011 |
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