Brine Wastewater Spill in Marshall County, WV Investigated
Last Friday Noble Energy discovered a valve left open on a brine wastewater storage pond was allowing brine water to pour out—some 2,264 barrels (95,000 gallons) in Marshall County, WV. Brine “wastewater” is not fracking wastewater and does not contain fracking chemicals. It’s naturally-occurring water from deep below the surface that seeps out of drilled holes long after initial drilling is done. Brine contains a lot of minerals, and sometimes low amounts of radium—hence the anti-drillers mantra “it’s radioactive!”
When an accident like this happens, and when the water reaches a local tributary as it did with this incident by getting into the Big Wheeling Creek, it’s not nothing. It’s also not an ecological disaster. Fortunately, the spill was largely contained in sediment traps designed to do just what they did—stop most of the water from spreading. Here’s what we know so far about the accident:
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The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY), a 77,000-member umbrella organization for New York landowners interested in leasing their property for natural gas drilling, announced yesterday they will move forward with a lawsuit against New York State on behalf of their members. The group has decided to litigate in light of the now expired Feb. 27 deadline to adopt new rules to allow high volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state. MDN spoke to Dan Fitzsimmons, president of the JLCNY. He commented it took Illinois 14 months to research and write new legislation for fracking, and just 8 months for new rules to be researched and adopted in Ohio. New York’s rulemaking process has now languished for more than 4 1/2 years. Enough is enough.
MDN editor Jim Willis is in Columbus, Ohio attending the 
Although the evidence has always been there for all to see, it’s now abundantly clear that New York’s Democrat party wants to outright kill oil and gas drilling in the state. They prefer economic suicide to facing down the fracking extremists in their own party.
If you ever (logically) thought a piece of legislation that’s meant to be a budget would only deal with money issues, you would be wrong. Budget laws for decades have been used to slip in all sorts of non-money-related measures. This year’s Ohio budget is no different. Tucked away in the proposed budget law from Gov. John Kasich are a number of non-budget items that directly affect Utica Shale drilling in Ohio. The measures include a ban on using brine as a de-icer on public roads, moving from yearly to quarterly production reports, lease transfer 30-day notifications, a $25,000 impact fee on each well drilled (surprise!), and testing of shale cuttings for radioactivity. And you thought budgets were just boring numbers.