Dive Brief:
- 460,000 tons of Pennsylvania fracking waste and 23,000 barrels containing drilling waste have been accepted at New York landfills since 2010.
- The results came from a report conducted by the Environmental Advocates of New York. The organization analyzed data showing where natural gas drillers took waste produced at their sites.
- Five landfills in New York have been accepting waste from 2010 to 2014.
Dive Insight:
Three out of the five landfills are owned by Casella Waste Systems: the Chemung County landfill in Lowman, NY; the Hyland landfill in Angelica, NY; and the Hakes landfill in Painted Post, NY. The Chemung site accepted the largest portion of solid waste, at 21,762 tons.
Authors of the report encouraged state lawmakers to change state laws and to deem oil and gas drilling waste hazardous. The organization is also pushing for drill cuttings to be considered radioactive waste; this classification would end the ability for these materials to be further disposed of at landfills.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, however, has criticized the report as “inaccurate, misleading and irresponsible,” due to the way it characterized waste. DEC spokesman Peter Constantakes said in a statement that New York only permits landfills to accept mud and drill cuttings, not “wastewater or sludges from high-volume hydraulic fracturing wells."
