Ohio EPA tries to limit brine dumps in rivers
February 15, 2011
Paul Novak, an Ohio EPA Surface Water Division manager said dumping brine should be “an option of last resort.”
“Sewage plants in Pennsylvania dumped so much brine in 2008 that state officials said it fouled the Monongahela and Susquehanna rivers with too much salt,” according to the Columbus Dispatch.
There seems to be agreement that there is money to be made for the city coffers. But at what cost? Metals, minerals, salt, and industrial chemicals all are a part of the brine and flowback water from drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Discharging it into rivers and streams, even if it can be treated, seems to be asking for environmental pollution problems.
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