Weisenberg: No Hydrofracking Chemicals in LI

Don’t bring dangerous hydrofracking chemicals to our sewer treatment plants, Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) told the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“Nassau County should not, and will not, be a dumping ground for hydrofracking waste,” Weisenberg said in a release. “We cannot afford to compromise the health and safety of our community and environment — there are far too many questions that remain in the hydrofracking debate.”

Hydraulic fracturing is a process that drills natural gas by injecting water and chemicals at high pressures into underground shale formations. Many believe the process is dangerous and poses health risks to the communities where hydrofracking is taking place.

A September 2011 state DEC report said that the sewage treatment plants in Inwood, Bay Park, Cedar Creek and Glen Cove in Nassau County and the Southwest Sewer District’s Bergen Point plant in Suffolk County were deemed capable of handling hydrofracking wastewater.

The wastewater would be runoff from the gas-rich Marcellus Shale region — the Southern Tier of New York and the northern border of Pennsylvania, east of the New York City reservoirs — used to free in the hydraulic fracturing process, according to the release from Weisenberg.

“Although Long Island is not a part of this region, the prominent locations of its sewage treatment plants place it at the forefront of the issue and makes Nassau County a frontrunner for treating the contaminated wastewater,” it says.

But the DEC says that’s not the case. Although the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact State report lists all wastewater treatment plants in the state with pretreatment programs, it makes no reference to treatment of wastewater from high-volume hydraulic fracturing, according to Lisa King, a DEC spokesperson.

“No facilities in New York are currently permitted to accept wastewater from high-volume hydrofracking,” she said. “The facility would need approval from DEC. To get an approval, the facility would need to demonstrate through a full head works analysis, with a sampling of the wastewater, that it has the capability to treat the wastewater within its SPDES permit conditions.”

She added, “In addition, the drilling company would need to develop a contingency plan if the primary disposal for wastewater is a publicly-owned treatment works facility.”

But Weisenberg said the plants are far from that.

“Our county’s sewage treatment plants have demonstrated an inability to properly handle the county’s current wastewater,” he said. “To even consider adding additional volume is absurd.”