Please help us fight! Take 10 minutes to submit a public comment about the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit for proposed Antero Frackwaste Dump in Ritchie and Doddridge counties.
The DEADLINE for comments is 5 pm on May 11; the quickest way to comment is to send an email to dep.comments@wv.gov with “Permit WV0117579: Antero Landfill NPDES” in the subject line.
Or you can send your comment from this page (note that I will also receive a copy of your comment when you send it through this form):
About Antero’s Proposed Frackwaste Dump
Antero’s proposed frackwaste dump and facility will remove salts from radioactive brine produced from frack fluids and pack them into a 500 acres of hollers and transform them into a toxic dump FOREVER. Because the dump will not be fully protected from weather, stormwater can flow into and out of the landfill, carrying these salts with it.
We know frack waste is cancer causing, but tests in our state have also shown that tree deaths from frack waste can be devastating. Frack water can literally salt the earth in WV, and they want to concentrate that here in WV.
Elaine Shannon of the Environmental working group explained, “In a study of possible environmental impacts of gas drilling…Forest Service researchers sprayed more than 80,000 gallons of fracking fluid on a half-acre area of hardwood trees in the Fernow Experimental Forest, a plot within the Monongahela Forest in West Virginia. They immediately observed ‘severe damage and mortality of ground vegetation’ and, 10 days later, premature leaf drop. Two years after spraying, 56 percent of the large trees were dead.”
Similar water could soon be washing into our forests if the WV DEP permits Antero’s frack waste dump to go forward. Do you live in Parkersburg or Charleston? You’re downstream.
Antero’s FAQs on the proposed landfill are a joke. “How will heavy rainfall and potential runoff be managed?” Their solution: “an extensive coverage system will be used to keep the landfilled material as dry as possible. Additionally, onsite buildings are sized to allow for temporary storage of salts during inclement weather.” But don’t worry, they’ll also have some “robust storm water diversion channels to limit the potential for inflow of rainwater into the site.” Also… does dry mean dusty? Will those toxic materials be blowing out across our rooftops and into our cisterns or gardens?
How can you keep rain water out of nearly 500 acres of hills and hollers? Some tarps, a shed they can shovel the salts into, and some ditches with 30-year landfill liners are all that will stand between WV citizens and cancer-causing Radium 226, Radium 228, other unknown substances, and frack salts getting in our drinking water and killing our forests. Radium 226 has a half-life of 1600 years. If it gets into the Hughes River, it would all wash through North Bend State Park, as well, and eventually into the Little Kanawha and the Ohio.
This would be the first frack dump of its kind in the world, concentrating these frack pollutants on top of our community here in the heart of WV. As their application currently reads, there would be no enforceable limits on pollutants, no protections for local source water, and a radiation detection system which monitors the wrong type of radiation for the isotopes which will be dumped in our hollers. (See WV Rivers Coalition’s fact sheet).
PLEASE HELP US! Let them know we’ll do more than just march. Take 10 minutes today to send an email asking the WV DEP to deny Antero’s NPDES Permit and protect West Virginians, our forests, and our waters.
How to Help Save Ritchie and Doddridge Counties
- Email dep.comments@wv.gov by the DEADLINE of May 11, and put “Permit WV0117579: Antero Landfill NPDES” in the subject line.
- OR – use the form above to send the email
- Cite the study above about the effect of frack brine on our forests: “Land Application of Hydrofracturing Fluids Damages a Deciduous Forest Stand in West Virginia” by Mary Beth Adams, Journal of Environmental Quality, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 1340-1344
- Refer to WV Rivers’ fact sheet for additional suggested comments: they are not monitoring for the right type of radiation, for example, and there are no enforceable limits on the pollutants they’ll be putting in the peripheral zone of concern for the Ritchie County drinking water intake in Harrisville
- Demand the permit be denied because Antero proposes insufficient protections–and we shouldn’t have to pay health costs and bear risks in order to save Antero money
Remember, ANTERO DOESN’T CARE ABOUT THE FOLKS WHO LIVE HERE. They want to put this facility in the peripheral zone of concern for the drinking water intake for a third of Ritchie County because that location will save them money. They want US to bear the risks and pay the costs, while they pocket the profits.
Demand that the WV DEP to do their job to protect our health and safety—and the health and safety of future generations—by denying that permit.
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We need to focus on bringing good jobs that will benefit our communities long term; we mustn’t enable more industrial theft that leaves CEOs wealthy and the rest of us in debt, burdened with health impacts and clean up costs.
The Appalachian Oracle 