Fracking Waste

What happens to the  toxic waste from hydraulic fracturing?

Political & Bureaucracy

--(DeSmogBlog, re EPA)  Leaked EPA Draft Fracking Wastewater Guidance Suggests Closer Scrutiny For Treatment Plants  "it was revealed that regulators had allowed industry to send hundreds of millions of gallons of this waste through municipal water treatment plants in Pennsylvania that were not equipped to remove its most dangerous toxins before the water was then discharged into rivers, sometimes just a mile or so upstream from drinking water intake pipes."  

(re political/bureaucracy inaction) "the front-line scientists and regional officials in closest contact with the effects of shale gas extraction have rarely been the problem when it comes to enforcement. It has often been the political appointees that have pulled back on the federal agencies' duties."

--(DeSmogBlog, PDF file of  EPA March 7 2014 Draft)  EPA NPDES Fracking Draft pdf

Injection Wells
--(USGS site) Web page discusses deep injection wells (and their connection with Earthquakes) Man-Made Earthquakes Update
--Residents In Fracking States Concerned About Rise in Quakes

"... fracking also generates vast amounts of wastewater, far more than traditional drilling methods. The water is pumped into so-called injection wells, which send the waste thousands of feet underground. No one knows for certain exactly what happens to the liquids after that."

Wastewater Treatment 
--(Smithsonian Magazine Oct 2 2013) Radioactive Wastewater From Fracking Is Found In A Pennsylvania Stream
--(Treatment Plant Operator mag, May 29 2014) Can Municipal Treatment Plants Handle Fracking Wastewater?


Radioactive Waste
--(blog) 6-2-14 DeSmogblog, Loopholes Enable Industry to Evade Rules on Dumping Radioactive Fracking Waste