by Kiley Bense | Inside Climate News
This story originally appeared on Inside Climate News and is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.
When a new study suggested that vast quantities of the critical mineral lithium could be found in Pennsylvania’s fracking wastewater, Eureka Resources seemed perfectly positioned to take advantage of the frenzy of publicity that followed. In 2023, Eureka announced it had extracted 97 percent pure lithium carbonate from fracking wastewater.
But just a year later, the wastewater treatment company has idled a facility, withdrew its permit application for a new project, intends to sell or close two more sites and faces scrutiny for environmental and workplace safety violations.
For activists and experts who keep a close eye on the oil and gas industry, Eureka’s troubles raise doubts about the economic viability of using Pennsylvania’s fracking wastewater as a source for lithium, since Eureka is the only company in the state to successfully extract lithium from wastewater. It’s also the latest example of the problems created by a sprawling and under-regulated oil and gas waste disposal system.
Oil and gas waste can contain radioactive elements like radium, toxic metals including arsenic and lead and cancer-causing chemicals like benzene. What happens to all of that waste — and how much of it ends up in the state’s waterways, air and soil — is still an unresolved question.
The Williamsport, Pennsylvania-based Eureka offered the possibility of processing the waste in a way that would address a separate problem: how to source the lithium essential for making renewable energy technologies like electric vehicles. The company has said it aimed “to develop a sustainable lithium supply chain in North America.” Billing itself as “an environmental solutions company,” Eureka says it’s “on a mission to leave a clean, wholesome environment for future generations.”
Closed plant, permit violations and questions about wastewater
On Aug. 19, Eureka’s Bradford County treatment plant at Standing Stone was inspected by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The inspector found that the plant was no longer operating: Most of its employees had been laid off, no water was coming in or going out and the telephone number was disconnected.
Eureka’s vice president of operations, Bob Cooney, told the inspector that the plant’s primary customer had stopped sending its wastewater, forcing the closure, according to the state agency. The report noted outstanding violations from previous inspections and ongoing leaks at the plant, with wastewater “seeping to the ground.”
Eureka did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The industry publication Marcellus Drilling News reported a few days after the inspection that Eureka planned to sell or close its two other Pennsylvania treatment facilities, both in Williamsport. CEO Dan Ertel told MDN that the company would reopen the Standing Stone site in October after “performing maintenance and equipment upgrades.” Ertel said the company would resume its lithium extraction work when Standing Stone reopened.
The sudden closure of that plant alarmed former DEP secretary David Hess, who publishes the PA Environment Digest blog and frequently writes about Pennsylvania’s oil and gas industry. Although the company says it will reopen the site, Hess worries what will happen if those plans do not materialize.
“There’s a real concern about what happens to all that wastewater that has been left in those tanks, and also any other solid waste or sludges that were generated by that process,” Hess said. “The question now is, where is all that wastewater going to go to be safely disposed of?”
In September, another DEP inspection of the Standing Stone site found five permit violations. DEP representatives saw corrosion of a concrete containment area that is supposed to help keep the wastewater from leaking outside the building. The inspection said the corrosion appeared to have “compromised the integrity of the containment.” Another tank that had previously been cited for a violation was still leaking and a dumpster filled with trash from the facility was also leaking, according to the report.
Staff at the site could not explain the origins of a dirt and sand pile on the property that was causing runoff that had killed nearby plants and stained the ground, according to the agency, nor could they confirm the contents of several containers of fluid, one of which was open and had mosquito larvae floating on top. When asked, the company was unable to provide DEP an estimate of the total number of gallons of waste at the site. During this inspection, a Eureka employee told DEP the site is not abandoned, and there are employees on site every day.
“There’s a real concern about what happens to all that wastewater that has been left in those tanks.”
In a statement about Eureka, DEP regional communications manager Megan Lehman said the agency is “considering all available enforcement options” while continuing to “communicate with the permittee and provide close oversight to ensure that violations are addressed.”
“DEP remains committed to enforcing environmental regulations to protect both the environment and public health,” she said.
Workplace safety issues
Eureka has a history of workplace safety issues, some of which were brought to light by Pennsylvania state Sen. Katie Muth and an investigation by Public Herald in 2023. Four Eureka workers spoke with Public Herald about their experiences there, detailing spills, a dangerous work environment and trips to the hospital triggered by chemical exposure.
Public Herald’s reporting also raised questions about how much radioactive material treatment centers like Eureka’s remove from the waste they process before discharging it into Pennsylvania’s watersheds. Ertel told Marcellus Drilling News in August that “none of the Eureka facilities accept, generate or dispose of radioactive waste.”
In December, four Eureka workers sent a letter to the district attorney of Lycoming County requesting a criminal misconduct and environmental crimes investigation of the company and copied Sen. Muth. The letter, now on Muth’s website, describes gas inhalation and worker injuries and spills of contaminated water, and accuses management of responding to workers’ safety concerns with “threats, retaliation, intimidation, and mockery.”
In September 2022, a Eureka worker died of chemical burns. A vessel at the plant had a “catastrophic failure,” subjecting the employee to hot water and chemicals that caused “severe burns to most of his body,” according to an inspection report by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“A worker’s last several hours spent on this earth was experiencing the most pain that any human could ever attempt to imagine as his skin was melted off of his body,” the workers wrote in their letter.
OSHA records show multiple complaints, monetary penalties, accidents and violations at Eureka since 2022. OSHA inspections revealed electrical shock, fall, fire and tripping hazards as well as issues with safety training and reporting workplace injuries.
In their letter, the Eureka workers expressed anger with DEP and the Wilkes-Barre OSHA office, saying the government had failed to protect them and to adequately address ongoing health, safety and environmental problems at Eureka. “The system has been found to be a fraud, a façade, an unaccountable illusion of safety and security,” they wrote. “This is why public trust in our institutions is at an all-time low and continuing to disintegrate.”
At a press conference at the time, Muth echoed this sentiment, calling out the state government for shortcomings in regulating the oil and gas industry, and especially its waste.
“Our government continues to permit the oil and gas and petrochemical industries to further loot and pollute our waterways, air, soil, and poison our families,” the state senator said. “Government regulators cannot continue to pretend this harm doesn’t exist. Decades of harm from the fossil fuel industry is well-documented and failure to face these truths is simply a failure of government.”
Company withdraws plans in Dimock, Pa.
This summer, news surfaced that Eureka was withdrawing its application for a permit to build a new oil and gas wastewater treatment plant in Dimock, the small town in northeastern Pennsylvania known for its long battle against fracking-related water contamination.
Victoria Switzer, a Dimock resident who has dealt with contamination on her property for years, was ecstatic. She and other residents had been fighting Eureka’s plans to build in Dimock since 2021. Switzer was relieved that a local creek would not become a discharge site for the wastewater plant. “I went down to the creek. I cried,” she said.
Switzer said she recognized the need to process and dispose of the toxic waste generated by the fossil fuel industry, and she’d once been convinced that Eureka might offer the best available solution to this problem. When Eureka was working to convince residents about the benefits of the proposed Dimock facility, officials gave a presentation about their methods and invited residents to tour Standing Stone.
The tour changed Switzer’s perception of the company. “I thought it was shabby-looking. It didn’t look high-tech at all to me,” she said. “It was greasy and dirty, and there were rusted tanks.”
Switzer’s relief that Eureka would not be building in Dimock was short-lived. She wonders where the wastewater that might have ended up there will go instead. “Who else is going to get it in their backyard?” she said.
The problem of tracking fracking wastewater
To Hess, Eureka’s story represents a mere drop in the ocean of oil and gas waste problems in Pennsylvania, from the banned but common practice of spreading it on roads to the lack of a reliable tracking system for the waste. A 2023 University of Pittsburgh study found that 800,000 tons of Pennsylvania’s oil and gas waste were unaccounted for between 2010 and 2020.
Hess’ reports on the industry using inspection data from DEP’s oil and gas compliance dashboard show the wide range of challenges in Pennsylvania in any given week: from wastewater pipeline leaks and abandoned wells to storage well spills and water supply contamination investigations.
The Eureka workers’ letter ends with a plea for government officials to better understand the emotional toll. “Do you know what it’s like to feel all alone, that there is no one that has your backs, that there is no one in the government who will help? Do you know what it feels to be gaslit by the very government agencies you pay taxes into, to be told there is nothing to see, your concerns are an illusion, these issues and serious questions don’t matter?” they asked. “That is how we felt.”
Former DEP secretary wants spreading conventional oil and gas wastewater on roads to remain illegal
