From Chemical & Engineering News;
Quote:
Sewage Plants Struggle To Treat Wastewater Produced By Fracking Operations
When energy companies extract natural gas trapped deep underground, they’re left with water containing high levels of pollutants, including benzene and barium. Sometimes the gas producers dispose of this contaminated water by sending it to wastewater treatment plants that deal with sewage and water from other industrial sources. But a new study suggests that the plants can’t handle this water’s high levels of contaminants: Water flowing out of the plants into the environment still has elevated levels of the chemicals from natural gas production (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es301411q).
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When I first saw this I thought, well crap, sewage treatment plants aren't designed to handle this stuff.
But it says "plants that deal with water from other industrial sources".
Hmm, does that mean this stuff is harder to clean up, or maybe nobody has been checking to see how well they clean the stuff, "from other industrial sources"?