Open Pits Offer Cheap Disposal for Fracking Sludge, but Health Worries Mount

In Texas, as in most states, air emissions from oil and gas waste are among the least regulated, least monitored and least understood components in the extraction and production cycle.  Although the wastewater and sludge can contain the same chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing and other processes—chemicals known to affect human health—little has been done to measure waste emissions or determine their possible impact on nearby residents.

This gap can be traced to decisions Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made decades ago, when oil and gas producers lobbied hard to get most of their waste exempted from federal hazardous waste regulations.

In 1988 they succeeded, even though a 1987 EPA study concluded that 23 percent of the waste samples the agency had collected contained one or more toxic compounds at levels 100 times higher than is considered safe for humans.  The EPA estimated that without the exemption, 10 to 70 percent of oil and gas waste could be considered hazardous.

Still, the report recommended granting the exemption.  The expense of disposing of so much hazardous waste would slow U.S. oil and gas production, the authors said.  And there weren't enough hazardous waste facilities to handle that much waste.

For the industry, and for people who live and work near commercial waste facilities, the distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous waste is critical when it comes to air quality.

Pits at hazardous waste sites must be covered—open-air pits are not allowed.  Even the transfer of the waste is done through pipes, so emissions don't escape into the air.  The EPA requires some type of air monitoring, too.

Pits at non-hazardous facilities, in contrast, allow chemicals in the waste to evaporate directly into the atmosphere.  States decide how and where facilities are built and what, if any, monitoring systems they must have.  A recent EPA review of oil and gas waste regulations in 27 states, including Texas, Pennsylvania and Colorado, found that none had rules requiring regular air monitoring at commercial solid waste facilities.

Open Pits Offer Cheap Disposal for Fracking Sludge, but Health Worries Mount