"The state Department of Environmental Protection has conceded it erred in allowing the spreading of hundreds of thousands of gallons of salty “brine” wastewater from gas and oil well drilling on dirt roads in Farmington Township, Warren County last year.
And that could mean that rural roads in Farmington and throughout the commonwealth will be a lot more dusty this summer and icier in the winter. At least 188 municipalities in 22 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties use free or low-cost drilling brine for road dust suppression and de-icing.
The DEP’s admission was made in a state Environmental Hearing Board case appealing the department’s 2017 approval of the rural township’s plan to control dust."
Don Hopey reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette May 22, 2018.
