BILL NUMBER:S3397

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in
relation to requiring treatment works to test waste from hydraulic frac-
turing operations to test for radioactivity

PURPOSE:  To require treatment facilities to test for radioactivity in
hydraulic fracturing waste through the promulgation of regulations set
forth by the commissioner after hosting a public hearing.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: Authorizes the commissioner to promulgate regulations in
requiring treatment facilities that handle wastewater to test for radio-
activity levels. In addition, identifies tests to be performed on the
water, including ingredients found within hydraulic fracturing fluids.
Finally, prohibits the acceptance, treatment or discharge of hydraulic
fractured produced waste.

Section 2: Effective date of bill.

JUSTIFICATION:  In late February/early March 2011, the New York Times
published a series of articles documenting the gas drilling industry. In
one of the featured articles, the Times discovered never-reported
studies by the Environmental Protection Agency and a confidential study
by the drilling industry that concluded radioactivity in drilling waste
              

cannot be fully diluted in rivers and other waterways. Perhaps if Penn-
sylvania was aware of this, they would have enforced extra precautions
with handling wastewater and may have ultimately forgone hydraulic frac-
turing activities.

The level of radioactivity in Pennsylvania's wastewater has sometimes
been hundreds or even thousands of times the maximum allowed by the
federal standard for drinking water, according to the Times. Most of the
1.3 billion gallons of wastewater produced by Pennsylvania wells over
the past three years was sent to treatment plants not equipped to remove
many of the toxic materials in drilling waste. In addition, 10 to 40
percent of water sent down wells during hydraulic fracturing activities
return to the surface, carrying drilling chemicals, including high
levels of salts and natural occurring radioactive materials. Federal
studies have shown consumed radioactive waste whether by drinking or
eating can cause cancer amongst other health problems.

What is most troubling is the inability of gas drilling regulators to
keep up with the gas drilling industry's treatment of wastewater.  One
regulator feared the more oversight upon gas drilling companies, the
less willing they are perceived to report their mistakes.

Since federal and state regulators are allowing most sewage treatment
plants to accept drilling waste that has not been tested for radioactiv-
ity, it is our intent - should New York State proceed with issuing

permits and allowing for hydraulic fracturing activity - to impose a
measure where treatment facilities that will handle wastewater to test
for radioactivity before discharging such water into our rivers, which
would ultimately supply New York State's drinking water.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:  2011 - 2012 - S. 4251A - Referred to Environmental
Conservation.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:  This act shall take effect ninety days after becoming
law.