That fracking dirty water

I'm sorry that ambient overload kept me from reading a New York Times piece about wastewater from fracking until now. Specifically, the article talks about how the wastewater is being sent to sewage treatment plants that aren't designed to cope either with its high level of salts or relatively high level of radioactivity.

I'm also sort of sorry that I read the article, because it makes abundantly clear that the only ones more overwhelmed by the situation than those treatment plants are federal and state regulators charged with protecting us from that hazardous wastewater.

Actually, not all state regulators are overwhelmed. The word "overwhelmed" suggests that they're attempting to cope. In the case of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, nothing could be further from the truth.

In 2009, E.P.A. scientists studied the matter and also determined that certain Pennsylvania rivers were ineffective at sufficiently diluting the radium-laced drilling wastewater being discharged into them.

Asked about the studies, Pennsylvania regulators said they were not aware of them.

It's hard to tell if the Pennsylvania D.E.P. is complacent, or complicit.

UPDATE: I wrote about the risks of reusing the wastewater in early March. As with measuring for radioactivity in such wastewater, there are no regulations covering wastewater reuse.