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Slide 8

This is the drilling pit that is down over the hill from the drilling site shown earlier. 

Disposal of water in the pit and the cuttings in the bottom of the pit is regulated by a State general permit.  Notice of the driller’s application for coverage under the general permit (including the plans for disposing of the cuttings and polluted water) is part of the notice the surface owner receives when the driller applies to the state for a permit to drill the well.    Disposal of the water and cuttings is one of the things that a surface owner can comment to the State on. 

The permit requires the driller to treat the water to remove pollutants and then spray it onto the land.  Or it can be hauled off.  The cuttings and other matter that settles to the bottom of the drilling pit during treatment of the water is folded inside the pit’s plastic liner like a diaper and buried in place in the bottom of the hole.  Or it too can be hauled away.