Advocates Query EPA Shale Gas Water Plan, Renew Call For CWT Standards

Environmentalists are questioning EPA's decision to propose a zero discharge standard to prevent publicly owned treatment works (POTW) from accepting wastewater from shale oil and gas operations, and say the agency should instead focus on tightening an effluent limitation guideline (ELG) for centralized waste treatment facilities (CWTs). EPA acknowledged in its March 31 proposed guideline that no POTWs are currently receiving shale wastewater, and one environmentalist says that the rulemaking is therefore "window dressing. . . . If it had...