The Honourable Randy Delorey, Minister of Environment, claims reverse osmosis (RO) is the answer to taking most of the contaminants out of the fracking wastewater that AIS wants to process through the Debert Sewage Treatment Plant. He claims it will be perfectly safe after this, and any toxic elements that aren’t completely removed — will be greatly reduced to the point of being negligible. At the time this article was written, the date was may 31st, but it’s best to check the event date here.
There isn’t anything safe about fracking wastewater. Even before it’s processed, several of the chemicals are air-borne. Some are carcinogenic, and some damage the liver, kidneys and central nervous system. There are also cases of individuals suffering acute and chronic health effects while living near fracking operations – including nausea, rashes, dizziness, headaches and nose bleeds. Frankly, the people living near the wastewater holding ponds, are in serious danger.
Typical breakdown of equipment can cause effects like this:
- Scale formation on membranes, usually in the back-end stages – high salt passage, Pressure difference in final stage.
- Bio-fouled pipe-work, cartridge filters and membranes – high Pressure difference.
- Iron loading on cartridge filters. Iron fouling of membranes – high Pressure difference, low permeate flow.
- Humic substances and organic fouling on membrane – low permeate flow, high feed Pressure
- Colloidal particles foul micron filters and membranes – high Pressure difference, low permeate flow.
- Carbon fines foul micro filters and membranes.
- Cationic coagulant fouls membrane – low permeate flow, high feed Pressure.
- Membrane damage – high salt passage and increased flux.
- High salt passage.
- High bacterial / fungal counts in water samples. Biofouling of membranes – high Pressure difference.
- Colloidal and bacterial fouling of micron filters and membranes.
- Scale formation – CaCO3 only.
- High microbiological loading, biofilm, severe cartridge filter fouling.
- Fouling / scaling of membranes.
You can see more causes and effects on the ROchemicals website but it’s pretty clear that a lot of causes are related to membrane problems, and equipment failures can often lead to terrible accidents. Something, that it might be wise not to gamble on.
In Alberta holding ponds are treated to help keep the threat reduced before the wastewater undergoes reverse osmosis. People who work around it, wear special suits to protect them from any contact. In a lot of cases, the fluid is held in tanks. After the expense of treating it, it is often sold back to the fracking companies to reuse. Then…. they don’t have the luxury of having a bay to dump it into.
Brian Gaulke, worked as Health Canada’s Atlantic Region Radiation Specialist for over 6 years. During this time he was responsible for implementation of Health Canada’s radon program throughout the Atlantic Region and had responsibilities for nuclear emergency preparation and response, and worked with other Specialists whenever issues arose involving radiation and radioactivity. His report, Radioactivity and Unconventional Gas (pdf) is an interesting read, if you’re in need of a refresher course on the dangers of fracking wastewater and NORMs. Likewise, he reminds us:
“…NORM concentrations can build up in pipes and tanks, if not properly managed, and the general public or water could come into contact with them, according to an EPA fact sheet.
Even in the best case, when none of the above problems occurs, the water still has to be treated. Radioactivity cannot be neutralized or made non-radioactive. It can only be removed from the bulk of the material by methods such as filters or reverse osmosis, resulting in highly concentrated radioactive waste, which must be disposed of, typically at special licensed facilities, which don’t exist in Nova Scotia.”
Even with reverse osmosis, there is going to be a lot of this toxic sludge left over, and it will obviously have to get shipped to either the hazardous storage area in Quebec or Ontario. The longer it sits in Debert, decaying in the ponds, isn’t going help the environment, as it is even more toxic than the regular fracking wastewater. Preparing and transporting the sludge is bound to be the cause of some unpleasant accidents.
Of course it isn’t just toxins in the air we have to worry about. The reverse osmosis process isn’t as efficient as some industry experts and politicians claim. The whole idea of the system is that particles larger than water will be filtered out, but some chemicals are smaller. Not to mention, that in order to keep the membranes clean, the reverse osmosis (RO) concentrates contain chemical additives necessary to maintain the treatment system such as antiscalants and antifoulants, including chlorine and other disinfection by-products that may be toxic, as well as chemicals present in the intake water. Discharge of this mixture into the environment may have adverse effects on marine biota. The larger particles can clog and foul the membranes resulting in a potential concentrate at the time of discharge. Regardless of the source, the more chemicals you have to use, the greater the chance to impair biological communities.
Dr Wayne Somerville wrote a report, A Report on the Health Impacts of CSG and Shale Gas Mining & CSG Health Checklists about the struggles they have had in Australia with Coal Seam Gas (CSG) and even with five of their universities being listed in the top 100 in the world, they haven’t had a lot of success. In his report he says:
The CSG industry has touted the use of reverse osmosis filtration technology to render gas mining waste water safe for discharge into the environment, even though this form of filtration cannot remove all dangerous contaminants. Chemicals that are unable to be successfully treated by reverse osmosis filtration include bromoform, chloroform, naphthalene, nonylphenol, octylphenol, dichloroacetic acid, trichloroethylene, tris (2-chloroethyl)-phosphate, and water soluble substances such as the methanol and ethylene glycol are also poorly removed. A 2011 report showed that even after reverse-osmosis treatment, CSG wastewater being released into waterways in Queensland contained a range of toxic substances, including boron and cadmium.
This isn’t nearly as foolproof as the Honourable Randy Delorey would have us believe. The problem doesn’t stop with failed membranes, air pollution, additional cleaning toxic chemicals, or toxic particles that seep through the system. Wes Byrne, who wrote an article as a consultant for US Water Services Inc. lists a few things in the operation of the equipment that are potential processing problems, such as:
- common problems
- chlorine elimination
- scale inhibition
- applying variable frequency drives
- controls and instrumentation
- installation
If you’re interested, you can read his article here. He said, “The components of a working reverse osmosis system are few — a pump, some membranes, vessels and plumbing. The challenge is to operate it in a way that minimizes membrane fouling, maximizes membrane life, and avoids hydraulic catastrophes.” The fact is, there have been numerous accidents related to fracking, but a lot of times you never hear of it. There are a few accidents listed on this interactive map across North America, but this is only a small sample. The National Toxins Network said in one of their newsletters, ” The optimism of industry and regulatory agencies in regards to Reverse Osmosis membrane filtration technology to adequately treat contaminated produce water is not justified.”
Australia, the U.S., Spain, Saudi Arabia and other places all across the globe, have written about RO not being the golden boy they hoped for. In a very technical report from Saudi Arabia titled, REVERSE OSMOSIS MEMBRANE FOULING – THE FINAL FRONTIER they write:
Premature failure of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane elements due to identified or unidentified membrane fouling substances costs thousands to millions of dollars each year. Membrane fouling is becoming widely accepted as the single largest cause, if not the ONLY cause, of permeate flux decline at normal operating pressures and temperatures in brackish water systems. While RO fouling may not actually be the “final” frontier as the title asks, it is clearly a frontier, an incompletely known territory with many uncharted areas.
Delorey said the filtration processes can clean the wastewater to the point that it poses a “minimal risk” to the health of Nova Scotians and the environment. Looking through all of the available information on the subject, that statement doesn’t seem justified. It seems a little incredible that countries across the world and in the U.S. will have to watch a little county, smack-dab in the middle of Nova Scotia, show them all how to do it. What’s the chance of that happening?