![]() ![]() New Yorkers saw the environmental and public health impacts of oil and gas drilling first-hand in their neighbors just to the south. ![]() In New York State, the impacts of drilling activity in Pennsylvania have changed considerably over the past decade. In general, this trend parallels the movement towards unconventional directional/ horizontal drilling, and away from conventional methods employed prior to the development of high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing. Nonetheless, while the quantity of liquid waste sent to these facilities was nearly 3.5 million barrels in 2015, the volume declined to only 220,000 barrels by 2020. In addition, rather than disposing of waste by road-spreading, Pennsylvania has historically sent produced water to sewage treatment plants, or other treatment facilities. In 2015, that number was more than 87,000 barrels. In 2018, the quantity in PA was close to 19,000 barrels. In contrast to New York State, Pennsylvania-where regulations are not as stringent-spread nearly 11,000 barrels of conventional drilling waste water on its roads in 2020. There has been a significant impact on greater scrutiny that drilling waste products now receives in New York State, following the closure of the drilling waste loophole in 2020. The decline in conventional drilling waste shipped to New York State in 2020 is a result of several factors. This will give you an instant view of the extent and location of the sources of these drilling waste products. FracTracker likes to present the data on maps, rather than in lengthy charts and tables. However, each year, the situation changes. We have covered this topic more broadly in the past, tracking the fate of solid and liquid waste from the fracking fields of Pennsylvania to locations as far flung as Texas and Utah (however most of this waste now is either disposed of in Pennsylvania, Ohio, or West Virginia). Because oil and gas waste may include hazardous levels of radiation, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and heavy metals, this legislation is highly significant. And then in 2020, New York State closed the “Fracking Loophole,” passing legislation that ordered the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to stop exempting oil and gas activities from scrutiny applied to other hazardous material. Following the state’s banning of high volume hydraulic fracturing in 2014, quantities dropped off considerably. Over the past decade, New York State has seen a steep decline in the quantity of waste products from the fracking industry sent to its landfills for disposal.
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