Residents Very Concerned about Fayette County Injection Well

Lochgelly Frack Waste Injection Well Site Worries Residents in the Fayette Plateau

From Keely Kernan, Into the Hills & Hollows, September 10, 2014

Below are images from a short film about an injection well site that is owned and operated by Danny Webb Construction, located in Lochgelly, WV. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) gave Danny Webb a class II injection well permit in 2002. The permit allows for the dumping of waste from oil and natural gas industries. The creek located next to the site is the headwaters of Wolf Creek which leads directly into the New River, upstream from the current water intake for the surround areas.

The film exposed years of violations at the site and the West Virginia DEP’s failure to enforce regulations that would protect public health. In 2007, resident Brad Keenan presented evidence to the West Virginia DEP that toxic and radioactive waste was polluting Wolf Creek. The footage in the film was captured seven years later and features residents Brad Keenan, Mary Rahall, former employee Peter Halverson, and restaurant owner Wendy Bays.

The film is part of a series about resource extraction throughout West Virginia called “In the Hills and Hollows” and is sponsored by the Civil Society Institute and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

Check out “Frack Waste Injection and Concerned Residents” by In the Hills and Hollows on Vimeo. The video is available for your viewing pleasure at http://vimeo.com/105513941

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West Virginia DEP disregards common sense

Letter to Editor by Barbara Daniels (Richwood), Charleston Gazette, November 15, 2014:

The following situation in Fayette County exemplifies the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s disregard for common-sense rules of health and safety. There are others, but this one has been studied by Duke University and the U.S. Geological Survey. These scientists found high levels of endocrine-disruptors and frack-fingerprint chemicals in affected water sources.

Since before 2007, Pennsylvania has been sending frack waste-water, too radioactive to be economically disposed of under Pennsylvania laws, to a dump in Lochgelly, West Virginia. Also containing diesel, plus toxic chemicals, this material was found to be leaking into a creek above the primary water intake for Oak Hill, Fayetteville and Lochgelly.

Yet, despite public outcry, the Office of Oil Gas allowed the dump operator to cover the leaking waste-sludge-pit with a liner without first removing the sludge, and continued to renew the dump’s permit until 2013. Although being issued numerous violations, the dump owner was then issued a “consent decree” and, although exceeding its permitted 1.5 million-gallon capacity, the facility is still operating (for video, go to dirtysecretwater.com)

The DEP is, further, covering up an intractable problem with hydrofracturing. The hundreds of millions of gallons of frack-waste brine generated daily are exceptionally radioactive, according to EPA and USGS studies. They also contain endocrine disrupters and a chemical known as 4NQO, which is highly carcinogenic in parts per trillion. This waste has nowhere safe to go. Yet, on PBS, NPR and before the Legislature, the DEP stated that radioactivity in frack waste is a non-issue in West Virginia and failed to mention the chemical contaminants at all.

The DEP also testified before the state House Rules Committee this summer that leachate from West Virginia landfills where frack drill-cuttings are being placed has not shown radioactivity above background level. However, these findings can’t be checked, since the Department of Homeland Security tests for the DEP and is not required to disclose its methods.

Now, in a November 1st local FM broadcast, spokespeople for the state Division of Highways reported that they will be using hydrofracturing brine to de-ice West Virginia roads. Overseen by the WV-DEP, these Highways officials assured us that such toxin-laden, radioactive waste “is just salt water.”

Tagged as: air pollution, brine wastes, earthquakes, fossil fuels, injection wells, land disturbances, Lochgelly, oil & gas wells, sediment pits, waste disposal, water pollution, wv