Sewage plants(McKeesport/Franklin Township) targeted 4 lack of Marcellus pollution discharge permits

[Divernan]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11069/1131105-503.stm

Sewage plants targeted over lack of Marcellus permits
Thursday, March 10, 2011
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Two municipal sewage treatment facilities that together discharge 150,000 gallons a day of Marcellus Shale wastewater into the Monongahela River don't have permits that allow such pollution discharges and should, according to a legal action by environmental organizations.

Clean Water Action and Three Rivers Waterkeeper today filed a federal notice of intent to sue sewage treatment operations in McKeesport and Franklin Township, Greene County, in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, claiming the facilities are in violation of federal Clean Water Act permitting requirements.

The legal notice of intent to sue marks the first court action challenging the practice of discharging the Marcellus wastewater through municipal treatment facilities that do not have permits to treat such waste, and it is critical of both the state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to perform their enforcement duties.

"We cannot wait any longer to rely on the state and the EPA to act." said Myron Arnowitt, state director of Clean Water Action. "These sewage plants have been illegally discharging gas drilling wastewater into our rivers since 2008 without a permit as required by the Clean Water Act."

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