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EPA proposes frack water ban at wastewater plants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to ban publicly owned wastewater treatment facilities from taking untreated waste fluids from the unconventional oil and gas industry in a move that would guarantee the end of a disposal practice that the industry and states have already abandoned, Laura Legere reports today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"In a notice Tuesday, federal regulators said they are taking comments on their plan to forbid publicly owned treatment works from accepting and discharging the wastewater, which often contains high concentrations of salt and lesser amounts of chemicals, metals and naturally occurring radioactive materials that are potentially harmful to human health and the environment. Public sewage treatment plants are not designed to remove those pollutants, which can flow through to streams untreated or interfere with the plant’s normal treatment processes.

"The rule would apply to wastewater that comes from production, field exploration, drilling, well completion or well treatment during unconventional oil and gas extraction, which generally uses the combined technologies of fracking and horizontal drilling to pull hydrocarbons from tight geologic formations, like the Marcellus and Utica shales."
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David Samson retires from law firm that changes name

Former NJ Attorney General and Port Authority chairman David Samson – NJBIZ photo

Former Port Authority Chairman David Samson, who resigned from the agency a year ago amid the broadening investigation into the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures, announced today that he was retiring from the powerful law firm he co-founded, Steve Strunsky reports for NJ.com.

"For personal, professional and health reasons, I have made the decision to retire," Samson, 75, said in a statement issued by his spokeswoman, Karen Kessler. "After my five decades of practicing law, it was time for new leaders to transition the firm for the future."

The politically connected firm, Wolff & Samson, has a broad range of practices including lobbying and real estate law, and has represented public agencies. Not only is Samson leaving the firm, his name is, too. The 43-year-old firm, based in West Orange and New York City, is changing its name to Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC, according to its website.

The leadership reflected in the firm’s new name includes Jeffrey Chiesa, a former chief counsel to Gov. Chris Christie whom the governor later named attorney general. Christie had also named Samson as Port Authority chairman. At times, the Wolff & Samson’s clients did business with the Port Authority while Samson headed the agency. For example, Wolff & Samson represented NJ Transit at a time when a $900,000-a-year lease with the Port Authority for park and ride space in North Bergen was reduced to $1-a-year, while Samson was the Port Authority chairman. In February,

Samson’s replacement as Port Authority chairman, John Degnan, said the agency was cooperating in an investigation by the office of U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in Newark, into whether United Airlines tried to curry favor with Samson by launching service between Newark Liberty International Airport and Columbia Metropolitan Airport, near Samson’s South Carolina home.

That service was discontinued only days after Samson resigned as chairman. Fishman’s office declined to comment Tuesday afternoon. Samson’s resignation from the Port Authority amid the broadening Bridgegate scandal in March 2014 coincided with a downturn in his firm’s lobbying business. State Election Law Enforcement Commission records show Wolff & Samson and its affiliated lobbying shop were paid $753,198 to lobby public officials in 2014, down from $1,067,029 in 2013 and $1,108,774 in 2012.

Read the full story here  

Related news stories:
United Airlines: “The chairman’s flight” | The Economist
Ex-Port Authority Chairman David Samson Sues To Block …
‘General’ David Samson has left Port Authority – Raw Story
Christie: Port Authority Chairman David Samson Resigns Amid GWB Scandal
Chris Christie ‘firmly’ backs embattled Port Authority …

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NJDEP chief and Solvay read clean-up ad differently

A South Jersey chemical company on Sunday refuted a claim by the state’s top environmental official that it had prematurely ended its investigation into water contamination near its West Deptford factory, Jon Hurdle writes today in NJ Spotlight.

Bob Martin - DEP photo
NJDEP’s Mob Martin

 A spokesman for Solvay Specialty Polymers said the company has no intention of terminating a probe into the presence of PFNA, a potentially carcinogenic chemical, despite criticism by Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin that it had failed to complete its work.

Spokesman David Klucsik said that an advertisement placed by Solvay in the South Jersey Times on April 2, and an accompanying statement, were intended to show that the company had reached a “milestone” in its investigation but is continuing to look into the presence of the chemical in local groundwater.
“Neither the statement nor the ad suggests in any way that our investigation is over,” he told NJ Spotlight. “In fact, we stated just the opposite. We stated that we anticipate the investigation will continue and we also stated that we hope to meet with the department to plan next steps.”
In the ad, Solvay said it had taken about 800 samples from ground and surface water sources, municipal and private wells, and Delaware River sediment over the past year, had contacted some 200 properties, and had studied air quality at specific sites.
The company said in the ad that it had found PFNA in an unspecified number of private water wells, among 95 tested, and that the DEP would determine how to treat the contaminated wells.
In conducting the testing, the company had “completed the elements of the work plan developed with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection,” the ad and statement said.
Klucsik told NJ Spotlight on Sunday that “15 or 16” of the 95 wells were found to contain PFNA at 20 parts per trillion or more, a level that merited treatment by the DEP. He was unable to say what the treatment would consist of but said the company has offered to pay for it.
In its statement, the company said it also found contamination in “some” sediment samples taken from the Delaware River, although no PFNA was found in the river’s surface water. 
Martin said in his own statement that he was “extremely disappointed” by Solvay’s ad, and accused the company of trying     
to evade responsibility for the contamination.
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The top five frackers in southwestern Pennsylvania

The Pittsburgh Business Times’ Research Director Ethan Lott ranks the top five shale
gas producers in southwestern Pennsylvania by MCF of natural gas produced in 2014. 

1. EQT Production Co., 269,913,514 MCF produced locally

2. Range Resources Appalachia LLC, 233,136,739
3. Rice Energy LLC, 128,854,032.
4. Chevron Corp., 128,827,664.
5. Consol Energy Inc., 119,591,972
Find out more from the list here.

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Electric utilities zap customers with higher fixed fees


Electric utilities across the nation are responding to slumping sales by boosting fixed customer charges, generating a guaranteed cash flow regardless of the volume of energy a customer consumes.

Andrew Maykuth reports in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer:

Pennsylvania’s two largest electric companies, Peco Energy Co. and PPL Electric, have filed in recent days rate-increase requests that seek substantial boosts in basic monthly charges.


This shift toward fixed fees has aroused opposition in other states from advocates for low-income customers and seniors, as well as from renewable-energy and environmental groups.

Critics say reliance on fixed fees places a heavier burden on small customers and penalizes the growing number who install solar panels or use other methods to reduce their dependence on the grid.

"It’s poor public policy," said Bill Malcolm, a senior legislative representative for AARP.

"Raising the fixed monthly charge lowers the variable per-kilowatt charge, which creates a disincentive for conservation and energy-efficiency and gives consumers less control of their bill."



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