Coast Guard Wants Frack Wastewater Barges Tested – Every Load

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In late October MDN told you the good news that the U.S. Coast Guard has green lighted barge shipments of frack wastewater–good news for GreenHunter and their multiple barge facilities along the Ohio River (see Coast Guard Green Lights Barge Transport of Frack Wastewater). At the time the Coast Guard published their draft rules for a 30-day comment period. Those 30 days have come and gone as of last Friday, but still no official date for when barge shipments for frack wastewater will begin.

However, from an article published by the reliably anti-drilling StateImpact Pennsylvania (NPR), we do find out that every shipment of frack wastewater via barge will first have to be analyzed by a state accredited laboratory before it can leave the dock. Why? Frack wastewater is not uniform–each batch varies in the chemical compounds found in that batch. The Coast Guard intends to keep a close eye on it. Of course analyzing every load will add a lot of time and expense to the process, but this precaution will reassure reasonable people that barge shipments of frack wastewater is safe…

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