Drill waste from the hydraulic fracturing operations in West Virginia has to go somewhere.
And since we live in a country where the profits are privatized and the waste is socialized, the fracking companies, and the politicians they control, have decided to allow the fracking wastes to be dumped where you and I take our garbage — in our case the LCS Services landfill in Hedgesville.
The hydraulic fracturing — fracking — industry calls the waste “dirt,” but it’s more like a chemical cocktail, with the likes of heavy metals, benzene, toluene, xylene, barium, chlorides, radium and radon.
That’s why Clint Hogbin, chairman of the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority, believes that the state should have created special industrial landfills (Class F) for the fracking wastes.
But that was not on the industry’s agenda.
So, instead, the industrial and the political establishment came together earlier this year and passed a law that allows the industry to dump its wastes in local landfills.
In Martinsburg Wednesday night, Hogbin put forth an impressive powerpoint presentation detailing what the industry got from their buddies in Charleston.
The law that was passed (HB 107) — allows the industry to dump unlimited amounts of drilling wastes in segregated cells at certain municipal waste landfills. There are five of those landfills that qualify for that dumping — and they are all in the fracking area of the state — in and around the northern panhandle.
The law also allows municipal waste landfills without special cells — like the eastern panhandle’s only landfill — the Hedgesville landfill — to accept Marcellus waste — but it cannot exceed its tonnage limits.
Hogbin says that the Hedgesville landfill has yet to accept any drilling waste. Hogbin says that the landfill operators told him that they had “no intention to accept Marcellus waste at this time.” But it nevertheless now has the legal authority to do so. And soon, it might have an economic incentive to start accepting such waste.
That’s because there is a new operation in Martinsburg — Entsorga West Virginia.
It is a joint venture between Apple Valley Waste Technologies, Inc., Entsorga Italia S.p.A., and Chemtex Global N.V.
The company calls it the “first resource recovery facility in the United States that will utilize Entsorga Italia’s proprietary mechanical biological treatment system.”
“By utilizing this system, Entsorga WV will recover biomass, plastics and other carbon based materials, in addition to traditional recyclable materials such as metals and glass from a mixed municipal solid waste stream to be converted to a safe alternative fuel source,” the company says.
“The waste received will be converted to a clean burning alternative fuel which will be used by large energy users as an alternative or supplement to fossil fuels.”
Hogbin says that Entsorga is leasing twelve acres of land from the Solid Waste Authority next to the Grapevine Road recycling center.
“It’s the state’s first resource recovery center,” Hogbin said. “It’s not an incinerator. It’s a resource recovery center. It’s new technology coming from Europe. It will take wastes, pull out certain kinds of recyclables that will be recycled traditionally. A majority of the waste would be processed and prepared to be burned at Essroc (a cement facility in Martinsburg) for BTU. The emissions from burning this processed fuel is lower than burning coal. So, we have the benefit of increasing recycling, reducing what is going into the landfill, creating jobs and lowering emissions — all in one private facility. It will reduce the waste going into landfills in the eastern panhandle in the neighborhood of seventy percent.”
At this point, someone in the audience said — “wow.”
“If you are a landfill, it’s not wow,” Hogbin said. “If you are a landfill, it’s — Oh, no. Some of the worry is that ‘at this time’ may mean down that down the road” — when they have lost a big intake (of household waste) from the community, they might look to take in Marcellus shale waste to make up for the deficit.
Which leads back to the law that was passed earlier this year.
Hogbin said the law prohibits special unlimited Marcellus shale cells in the karst areas of the state — roughly the eastern third of the state. (Karst is cracked bedrock that features caves, sinkholes and underground streams.)
But it specifically allows for Marcellus waste in municipal landfills in karst areas — including LCS in Hedgesville — as long as the tonnage caps are adhered to.
After Hogbin’s presentation, state Senator Donald Cookman (D) came to the podium to explain his unsuccessful attempt to close the “loophole” that would allow Marcellus shale to be imported into the karst areas of the state.
Cookman put forth an amendment that would have prohibited Marcellus drill wastes in karst areas of the state — including the eastern panhandle.
The amendment passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously, but it mysteriously was not included in HB107.
Cookman said that he was not happy with the outcome, but voted for the bill nonetheless.
Cookman’s opponent in the November election, Berkeley Springs attorney Charles Trump (R), said he too would have voted for the legislation.
When asked why he didn’t vote against the industry sponsored legislation, Cookman said — “I could have.”
“But I was concerned primarily with the eastern portion of West Virginia, with protecting it,” Cookman said. “I’m also in favor of the industry. I’m not against the Marcellus shale industry as a whole as long as it’s done safely and responsibly. But I don’t think we should have those drill cuttings placed in our landfills, in an area that doesn’t have the actual industry activity.”
That seemed to be the consensus of all the politicians at the meeting — including Cookman, Trump, and state Senator Craig Blair — don’t bring it here, keep it over there.
Hogbin says that his idea of putting the wastes in special Class F industrial landfills was never even considered by the legislature.
Cookman said that he’s working with Jay Lazell, a lawyer with the Senate Judiciary Committee, to close the loophole that allows for the waste to come east.