Wednesday, June 8, 2011

For whatever it's worth: sludge spill reported to EPA online

Your Name: Maximiliano
Your Email: mlaredense@gmail.com
Your Address: Laredo, Texas
Your City: Laredo, Texas
Your State: Texas
Your Zip: 78040
Your Phone: n/a
 
Suspected Violation Date: 06/07/2011
Suspected Violator Name: Unidentified: drump truck drove off
Suspected Violator Address: Unknown
Suspected Violator City: Laredo, Texas
Suspected Violator State: Texas
Suspected Violator Zip: 78040
 
Still Occurring: yes
Notified State DEP/DEQ/DEM: no
Characterized incident as:
Intent:Unknown
Type:Spill
Media:Land
Entity:Company
 
Description of incident or hazard: On June 7th, an open-top dump truck spilled what is believed to be fracking flowback waste sludge in Laredo, Texas at the intersection of Victoria street and IH-35 near downtown Laredo.
 
Specific Directions: The location of the spill was just East of downtown Laredo, Texas. At the intersection of IH-35 and Victoria street.

[logo] US EPA

3 comments:

  1. Woot! Woot! Way to go Max! :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Max, I asked around about these spills, and it looks like the spills are the actual "drilling mud" not waste. Drilling mud is not considered hazardous by the EPA, hence no placarding on the loads. The drivers do not get paid unless they deliver the mud. So that seems to rule out the idea of illegal dumping.

    The shortage of tankers is the problem, and becuase of that shortage the mud is being hauled in open bed trailers. That would be ok if the drivers were using the bed covers as required by law. So, we have an enforcement issue, and we need Tx DPS to step up here.

    Now, I would not claim that all spills are this, but this seems to be what local industry guys are saying.

    ReplyDelete