A couple years ago, there was concern about Total Dissolved Solids, or TDS, in the Monongahela River. There was call for the development of a water quality criterion for TDS, and talk about imposing controls on disposal of brine from oil and gas operations. In response, the Pennsylvania DEP asked, and oil and gas operators voluntarily agreed, that no one dispose of brine through wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The plants weren't constructed to remove dissolved solids, and therefore they were essentially being dumped untreated into Pennsylvania rivers. (The West Virginia DEP had not generally allowed brine disposal through WWTPs, and therefore the oil and gas industry in WV wasn't contributing to the problem.)
The fix appears to have worked. According to an
Associated Press report in the Charleston Gazette, levels of bromides, a constituent of TDS and a problem for municipal drinking water supplies, have dropped significantly.
Jeanne VanBriesen said Thursday that preliminary data from tests this year showed that levels of salty bromides in the river have declined significantly when compared to 2010 and 2011. In many cases the bromides were at undetectable levels this year, and in general they returned to normal levels. "These are very nice, low bromide levels, where we would like them to be,'' VanBriesen said of the 2012 test results, which were presented at a water quality conference in Pittsburgh.
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