PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: …The DEP’s original public notice described the permit narrowly — for the treatment and processing of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations at Marcellus Shale gas wells. But after meeting privately with officials of the firm, the DEP issued a permit that allowed two chemical compounds originally classified as waste to be classified as “beneficial use” material that could be used as road and sidewalk de-icer, for roadway dust suppression and for soil stabilization in fields.
And, according to that altered permit, issued in August without public participation on those changes, those salty compounds — crystallized sodium chloride and liquid calcium chloride — also can contain limited amounts of arsenic, lead, mercury, ammonia, volatile organic compounds and diesel hydrocarbons.
Those are significant changes, according to PennFuture, and could impact public health, but no public comment or input was sought by the DEP.… (more)
