Yep ....  picked up on the notice on the DEP website last week ....  have been checking further with Evan Hansen, etc.... 

The fact that it's not frac water is good (therefore likely to have less chemicals, etc.....) but the sampling may be inadequate to prevent other pollutants from increasing over the already horrendous runoff from the current use of salts mixed with ash, etc..... 

In early '80's we went round and round with then Water Director Eli McCoy about the pollution of ground and surface waters near the state road garages where salt mixtures were stored uncovered .... ended up with those inexpensive creosote coated sheds which were no match for the larger structures used in PA, MD, etc....   But runoff from the application to roads themselves always brought forth comments similar to Scott Mandirola's quote  below --- eg....."What else can we do to keep roads safe in winter ?" ... "This is better than before.." etc.

cindy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Aug 15, 2010, Frank Young <fyoung@mountain.net> wrote:

To spread on icy highways, no less.  And then where does it go?
 
As the slogan says, "Don't Frack With Our Water"!
 
See below.
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Blumenstein
To: WVENVIRO@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2010 9:26 AM
Subject: Insane !

This is insane ! DOH to spread fluid laced with know cancer causing agents on roads to deice in Winter! Spreading the toxins across the landscape to enter our rivers and water supply ..... This stuff is what killed all in Dunkard Creek months back ......  This only aides the gas drillers .  in trying to solve the problem of where to Fracking fluid will go . Now we know.. THere is only one official Fracking water treatment plant in the state and thats in the Northern panhandle!    Joes a  gas man .....

August 13, 2010 
 
State to use gas-well brine on winter roads 
 
By The Associated Press 
 
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Salty wastewater from natural-gas wells may end up on West Virginia 
roads this winter under a new agreement between the state departments of Environmental 
Protection and Transportation. 
 
The agreement to let highway crews use the brine to treat snow- and ice-coated roads establishes 
new limits for pH, iron, barium, lead, oil and grease, benzene and ethylbenzene. 
DOT spokesman Brent Walker said the brine can also be mixed with rock salt to prevent clumping 
or sprayed on roads before precipitation. 
 
The Division of Highways will take bids for brine supply and is hoping to pay about 5 cents a 
gallon, Walker said. It plans to distribute about 1.2 million gallons to 123 sites around the state to 
start the season. 
 
Highway crews had been relying on brine made with rock salt mined from the Great Lakes region. 
"That ended up containing a fair amount of soil, and with that you get iron and other metals," said 
Scott Mandirola, head of the DEP's Division of Water and Waste Management. "It was going 
relatively unchecked. We sat down and looked at some specs and came up with some limits that 
were better than the quality of what was currently being used." 
 
Mandirola said some of the brine could run off into state waterways -- but that's always happened, 
and deicing is necessary for public safety. 
 
"What we came up with here is equal to or better than what's been happening," he said. 
 
The brine will come from producing wells, Mandirola said, not from the hydraulic fracturing of 
Marcellus Shale wells. That fluid, used in unconventional horizontal drilling, contains additives 
that make it thicker and slicker. 
 
That fracking water also could contain naturally occurring radioactive material, which Mandirola 
said has been found in some spots in Pennsylvania.