Part 3 of 3 Parts (Please read Parts 1 and 2 first)
Poor enforcement of regulations is part of the reason that wastewater spills are so common across the country. Between 2009 and 2014, over one hundred and eighty million gallons of was spilled as reported by the Associated Press. The Press added up the quantity of wastewater spilled in the twenty-one thousand six hundred and fifty-one accidents that had been reported to state or federal authorities during that period.
The naturally occurring radioactive materials in fracking wastewater are especially troublesome. This is partly because of their longevity in the environment. It is also partly due to loose regulatory standards that the shale industry has with respect to hazardous waste when compared to other industries.
Last January, North Dakota regulators lowered their standards for dumping radioactive materials again. They now permit many landfills in the state to take drilling wastewater that is more radioactive than was previously allowed. Economic difficulties for the shale industry were given as the reason for lowering the standards. Environmentalists are critical of these looser standards because they believe that dangerous radioactive materials are not being handled properly.
Darrell Dorgan chairs the North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition. He said in a recent interview “If people think this study points to a building tragedy, just wait. The new rules allow radioactive waste that is 10 times more dangerous.”
The spills investigated by the Duke team often were the result of a failure to properly maintain infrastructure including pipelines and storage tanks. About half of the spills came from pipelines that burst. Next most common were leaks for valves and pipeline connectors. These were followed by tank leaks or overflows.
Recent floods in the Texas Eagle Ford shale region showed that natural disasters pose a serious danger for shale drilling operations. Regulators in Texas have photographs of plumes of wastewater contamination around submerged drilling sites. There were also similar incidents in Colorado. Dr. Walter Tsou is the former president of the American Public Health Association. He said in an interview that “That’s a potential disaster.” Some federal agencies have taken note of risks associated with fracking in flood zones. However, this attention has been of little benefit to the locals in affected areas.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is a program designed to help people move away from areas subject to recurring floods. In 2012, the program encountered a series of conflicts over oil and gas leases on properties that would have otherwise been eligible for buy-outs. Some homeowners in Pennsylvania were unable to participate in the Grant Program because there were oil and gas leases or pipeline leases on their properties. This means that it may be more difficult for people whose property has been frequently flooded and who have signed oil and gas or pipeline leases to obtain assistance from FEMA.
The new report from the Duke team indicated that the less visible wastewater brines might be a more long-lasting problem that that of spilled oil. The Duke researchers only sampled and tested sites that had been reported to state regulators. They warned that very little is being done to clean up spill sites or to even track smaller spills, especially if they are on reservation lands which produce a quarter of the state’s oil.