The request comes a few weeks after the state shut down another pipeline project due to repeated permit violations, including more than 60 spills along its route.
Why is the wastewater created during fracking for oil and natural gas—flowback—radioactive? And just where does that dirty, salty wastewater go? Watch the video.
The settlement, filed in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, pertains to 10 coal-fired power plants around the state that have been operating on expired water pollution permits for years — in one case for 17 years.
Reid R. Frazier covers energy for The Allegheny Front. His work has taken him as far away as Texas and Louisiana to report on the petrochemical industry and as close to home as Greene County, Pennsylvania to cover the shale gas boom. His award-winning work has also aired on NPR, Marketplace and other outlets. Reid recently received a fellowship from MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative.
