Gas drilling waste hauler rejected

NORWICH – The City of Norwich’s wastewater treatment plant turned away a load of fluids hauled in from a natural gas drilling operation in the region on Monday and the plant’s operator said he was unsure where the driver traveled next.

Public Works Superintendent Carl Ivarson said the hauler was refused for lacking a permit, and presumably left for a municipal treatment facility in another county or returned the waste to the generator’s well site containment pit.

Ivarson provided the information Tuesday morning in a report to members of a special committee charged with monitoring natural gas drilling operations in Chenango County. The city’s municipal water supply and waste water treatment plant are being solicited by companies in the area that are drilling wells into the natural gas reserves in the Utica and Herkimer formations.

The news prompted several responses from members of the committee. Town of Smyra Supervisor James Bays said the rejected hauler should be known to other treatment facilities. Ross Iannello, the New Berlin supervisor, said the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation should tag non-permitted haulers. Charles Rowe, a representative of the Central New York Landowners Coalition, said milk haulers who attempt to deliver tainted milk are tagged by distributors.

DEC press spokesman Yancey Roy said he didn’t know whether a tracking mechanism was in place for what’s called “simulation” and “production” waste that is refused by treatement plants. He said he planned to find out whether such a measure would be part of the DEC’s updated environmental review regulations for gas companies. The new procedures are expected to be completed in the spring.