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However, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, EPA lawyers say rules are broken. One unnamed official said:
"Treatment plants are not allowed under federal law to process mystery liquids, regardless of what the state tells them. Mystery liquids are exactly what this drilling waste is, since their ingredient toxins aren't known.""The bottom line is that under the Clean Water Act, dilution is not the solution to pollution. Sewage treatment plants are legally obligated to treat, not dilute, the waste."
Yet plants "are breaking the law. Everyone is looking the other way," so people in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are ingesting hazardous toxins authorities aren't preventing from ending up in drinking water.
Moreover, when federal regulations are lax, enforcement is left up to states that fall short by bowing to industry pressure.
According to Earthworks, it's "unconscionable that EPA is allowing (hazardous) substances" to contaminate drinking water across America. It's as bad that too few people understand the risk and aren't raising hell to stop it.
Against them are powerful industry giants muscling through Congress and regulatory agencies like EPA whatever they wish. They're doing it for planned Marcellus Shale development. It extends over eastern US states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia and others.
They want no hydrofracking restrictions impeding gas drilling, no matter the cost to human health. Extracting it from shale deposits holds potential to give America the world's largest supply. It's believed Marcellus Shale alone has enough gas to sustain US needs for 14 or more years, maybe longer depending on how much is found.
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