GVEDC Advocates Wind and Marcellus Shale

I was amazed by the GVEDC last night when they advocated wind development and drilling in the Marcellus shale as means to economic advancement for our area. I sent this reply today:
Dear Ms. Cruise:
The notion that wind mills erected by cooperation by groups of farmers is somehow better than windmills erected by a corporation or single land owner is a difference without a meaning to me. I believe that Pocahontas County can not be all things to all people. This is a uniquely beautiful and yet pristine area of the United States and to my thinking it is best left in the condition it is without erecting wind mills and drilling gas wells into the marcellus shale. The traditions and culture of a rural farming community are more valuable and lasting than sale of them for dollars quickly had and quickly gone. The lasting value to the United States is that areas such as this remain a refuge and reminder to the country as a whole that these irreplaceable things actually yet exist and have not been reduced to photographs of scenes long past or passages in history books. I suggest you read just the first chapter of "Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas as a reminder of the critical importance of our place and connection in the natural world. The security and national interests of the Untied States of America depend on maintaining a viable farming community. I am disappointed that your organization does not grasp the notion that economic prosperity depends on more than industry and extraction of minerals and gas and being generators of energy. Where is your emphasis on creating a work force and community which is well education, skilled and drug free? Where is your emphasis on quality of life and attainment of spiritual balance?
Martin Saffer

I do not see how it is possible to argue a "takings" when the activity which is sought to be prohibited endangers health and safety. What we have here is the sharp point of the question? Do property rights trump rights of the public to health and safety???

So the Commission must take action under its authorized mandate:
§7-1-3kk. Authority to provide for the elimination of hazards to public health and safety; penalty.
In addition to all other powers and duties now conferred by law upon county commissions, commissions are hereby authorized to enact ordinances, issue orders and take other appropriate and necessary actions for the elimination of hazards to public health and safety and to abate or cause to be abated anything which the commission determines to be a public nuisance. The ordinances may provide for a misdemeanor penalty for its violation. The ordinances may further be applicable to the county in its entirety or to any portion of the county as considered appropriate by the county commission.

DOH to Use Gas Well Brine to Treat Roads
Posted Thursday, August 12, 2010 ; 10:46 AM | View Comments | Post Comment
Updated Thursday, August 12, 2010; 10:58 AM

A new agreement will allow state road crews to use natural gas well brines to prevent and remove ice from roads in the winter.
By Pam Kasey
Email | Bio | Other Stories by Pam Kasey

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has entered an agreement with the state Division of Highways setting standards for natural gas well brines used for winter road safety.
“This allows us a more readily available source of brine,” said Department of Transportation spokesman Brent Walker.

The agreement allows the use of natural gas well brines for pre-wetting, or mixing with rock salt to prevent clumping; anti-icing, or applying to roads before precipitation; and deicing, or applying during and after precipitation.

The agreement has been in the works for more than a year, according to DEP Water and Waste Management Director Scott Mandirola, and was set in motion when someone suggested that natural gas well brines could replace the brine DOH was mixing from rock salt mined in the Great Lakes region.

“That ended up containing a fair amount of soil, and with that you get iron and other metals,” Mandirola said. “It was going relatively unchecked. We sat down and looked at some specs and came up with some limits that were better than the quality of what was currently being used.”

With regard to salts, the agreement sets maximum concentration levels for chloride and sodium and a minimum level for the combination of those salts and calcium — all related to the brine’s freezing temperature.

With regard to other aspects of natural gas well brine, the memo establishes levels for pH, iron, barium, lead, oil and grease, benzene and ethylbenzene.

For each new source of brine to be used on roadways, DOH has to submit an analysis of these criteria to the DEP.

The intention behind the agreement was to use brine that is generated during the ongoing production of natural gas, Mandirola said, not to use the hydraulic fracturing fluid that comes back when Marcellus Shale wells are “fracked.” That fluid contains additives to make it thicker and slicker.

However, Louis Bonasso, owner of the AOP Clearwater facility in Fairmont that distills frack flowback and leaves behind a concentrated brine, said that just a little more treatment would qualify his brine under the standards set out in the agreement.

“We are currently making 50,000 gallons minimum a day,” said Bonasso, who would like to sell his brine as a byproduct. “I’m excited by this.”

Mandirola expressed concerns about using this fluid.

He specifically mentioned what’s known as Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material, or NORM, which has been found in some Marcellus Shale “hot spots” in Pennsylvania. NORM hasn’t been ruled out in West Virginia.

In addition, when operators at the Clarksburg wastewater treatment plant wanted to treat Marcellus Shale brine, the DEP required the plant to test for about 30 other substances that are not mentioned in the agreement with DOH, including arsenic, mercury and selenium.

While Mandirola conceded that some brine applied to roadways will find its way to the state’s waters, he said the standards set in the agreement were not aimed at maintaining water quality standards. “What we came up with here is equal to or better than what’s been happening,” he said.

“From a public safety perspective, you have to allow de-icing,” he said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say it outweighs the water quality issues, but in most cases during storm events you’ve got high flow conditions and a lot more dilution available to assimilate the potential contaminants that are used in road salt.”

He noted the agreement establishes application rates aimed at minimizing runoff — 10 gallons per ton for pre-wetting, 50 gallons per lane-mile for anti-icing and 100 gallons per lane-mile for de-icing.

Walker said DOH maintains 76,000 lane-miles statewide.

The department will bid the brine out and is looking for a price of about 5 cents per gallon, he said. It will probably distribute about 1.2 million gallons of brine at 123 sites around the state to start the road treatment season and will purchase further brine as needed.

With regard to Norman's comment:

-- The DEP agreement ignores a dozen toxic substances which are part of the fracking process.

-- The DEP admits that the agreement is "not intended to maintain water quality standards."

-- Neither State nor Federal governments will protect our water or property rights. Many laws and regulations are written by, and for, the corporations they are intended to regulate.

-- Anyone who thinks that brine from gas wells isn't hazardous should drink some.

-- Rich

RML, I certainly agree with you. DEP thinks that Howe's Leather has been rehabbed. I think not! The problem is that in a court of law it may well be a valid and logical presumption. I think that fracking brine used as deicer is bad but DEP says that it is not a problem and allows it on the road. The de-icing argument is an achille's heel that needs to be used with all its legal ramifications.