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Appeal Could Make It Easier for Companies to Spread Drilling Fluids on Pennsylvania Roadways

Inside Climate News · By Kyle Bagenstose · last updated
In recent years, Pennsylvania regulators have tried to clamp down on roadway spreading of tens of millions of gallons of oil and gas “brines,” high-salt liquids that can be laced with toxic metals and radioactive material. The industry is pushing back.

By Kyle Bagenstose

In rural Western Pennsylvania, communities routinely spray briny fluids on unpaved backroads to control dust in the warmer months and ice in the winter. Often, those liquids are drilling byproducts from nearby conventional oil and gas wells.