Tagged: dec

About 4 million gallons of water goes into a typical Marcellus Shale well during the fracking process. As much as 20% of what went in comes back out right away. That’s what’s known as flowback water.

Over the life of a producing well, more than a million gallons comes out, and after the initial flowback the rest is known as produced water.

In Pennsylvania, treating that water for metals and total dissolved solids and radioactive materials at public treatment plants has caused problems.

One thing is clear - the delayed health review is now the key factor in deciding whether or not fracking will go ahead in New York.

On Tuesday, Health Commissioner Dr. Nirav Shah sent a letter to Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens saying he needs more time to complete his health review. Martens then announced that his department’s environmental study, known as the SGEIS, will be delayed until Dr. Shah is done.

That means final regulations won’t be released at the end of the month. The SGEIS was due Wednesday to meet a Feb. 27 deadline for the regulations. Now that the SGEIS is on hold, the regulations will go back out for public comment.

But that delay won’t necessarily slow down fracking.