The practice of local sewage authorities re-using water used in drilling deep natural gas wells has caused the amount of total dissolved solids in the Monongahela River to exceed EPA levels. These solids make the water smell and taste badly, and may be harmful to human health. We don’t know for sure, because we aren’t told what these solids actually are. There is an advisory to use bottled water for cooking and drinking, which suggests that they may, in fact, be harmful.
Using the age-old mantra of engineers that ‘the solution to pollution is dilution’, the Army Corps of Engineers is going to release more water from dams in West Virginia into the Mon.
This is just one of the many examples of Pittsburgh not living up to its Clean and Green hype. There are lots of promises and plans, but issues like these never seem to go away.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has more:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started releasing more water from the Tygart and Stonewall Jackson dams in West Virginia to help dilute contaminants in the Monongahela River. Robert Yue, a hydrologic engineer for the Corps, said it will take about two days for the additional water to travel down the Tygart River to the Mon.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection requested the releases because the concentration of total dissolved solids in the Mon exceeds the state and federal limit of 500 parts per million.
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