>FRACKING : Effort to ban wastewater treatment questioned
Flaws have emerged in efforts by environmentalists and aligned Democrats in the New Jersey Legislature to ban natural gas drilling wastewater from being treated in the state, business leaders said at a state Senate committee hearing last week.
The proposal also applies to the disposal and storage of wastewater from fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing.
Since there are no fracking wells in New Jersey, the prohibition isn’t in sync with U.S. Supreme Court decisions that states cannot discriminate against other states‘ articles of commerce, said Ed Waters, director of government relations for the Chemistry Council of New Jersey.
Bill sponsors rewrote the bill prior to the Thursday hearing, removing all mentions of shipping or transporting the effluent, but Waters said that didn’t fix the intent of the legislation. The bill is still in the committee for possible further amendments. (Jordan, Gannett)
