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History
- Referred to environmental conservation
- Referred to environmental conservation
Full text
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Sponsor's memo
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.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.