Wastewater

Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Wastewater

PA Senator Reintroducing Bill to Reduce Marcellus Waste Reporting
January 19, 2017January 19, 2017

PA State Sen. Elder Vogel

On Tuesday, PA State Sen. Elder Vogel (Republican from Beaver, PA) circulated a co-sponsor memo that states his intent to re-introduce a bill that will remove some of the hassles drillers now face with the recent adoption of new Marcellus drilling regulations. Specifically, Vogel wants to change the DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection) regulation requirement that drillers must file paperwork to report the amount and disposition of drilling waste–which would include wastewater and drill cuttings–from monthly to every six months. Every gallon of frack and produced water that comes out of a well, and every square inch of leftover rock and dirt, must be tracked and a report filed. The new Chapter 78a drilling regulations adopted by the DEP requires monthly reports to be filled out–a virtual blizzard of paperwork. Vogel wants to make it more manageable with biennial reports instead…
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Belmont County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | PTT Global | Regulation | Wastewater

Ohio EPA Issues Wastewater Discharge Permit for PTT Ethane Cracker
January 13, 2017January 13, 2017

We have some progress and movement to report about PTT Global’s proposed $6 billion ethane cracker project coming to Belmont County, OH. The rumor is that PTT will announce a final investment decision (FID) in March–just two short months away. We wait with eager anticipation! However, in the meantime, the project appears to be proceeding full speed ahead. The latest evidence of that comes from a recent permit issued for the project by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The permit allows the cracker plant to discharge wastewater (which is far different from drilling wastewater) into the Ohio River. The EPA notes, in granting the permit, that although the discharge may “result in changes from current water quality conditions” the discharge “cannot violate Ohio’s water quality standards that protect human health and the environment.” Next up is an air permit from the Ohio EPA, which the agency is currently working on. Here’s the deets on the wastewater permit just issued…
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Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Tioga County (PA) | Wastewater

EQT Wins Court Case Against PA DEP re $4.5M Wastewater Leak Fine
January 12, 2017January 12, 2017

In October 2014 the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) fined PA driller EQT $4.53 million for a leaky wastewater impoundment in Tioga County, PA (see PA DEP Levies Biggest Fine Ever, $4.5M Against EQT). While EQT did not say there wasn’t a problem with leaks at the site, they did say the way the DEP calculated the fine is unreasonable and arbitrary. In fact, EQT says the DEP levied the fine and took EQT to court because a few weeks prior EQT had sued the DEP over a different matter. EQT appealed the fine and the case to PA Supreme Court and a year later the high court handed EQT a “procedural victory” by saying EQT has a point about the manner in which the DEP is calculating the fine (see PA Supreme Court Gives EQT “Procedural Victory” in $4.5M Fine Case). The Supreme Court sent the case back to a lower court, PA Commonwealth Court, for follow up work. The work is done and EQT has won. A three-judge panel ruled that the method the DEP currently uses to assess fines–by how many days pollution lingers, instead of by how many days the initial release of pollution lasted–is not legal nor common sense. The judges said such a method in fining, “would result in potentially limitless continuing violations.” Under the old way of calculating fines, the DEP was considering upping the fine on EQT to an insane $157 million. Calculating it under the new way will mean a fine of around $120,000. This is a major victory for EQT and a reigning in of egregiously overzealous state regulators…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Litigation | Regulation | Wastewater

Obama EPA Signs One Final “Sue and Settle” Case Against O&G
January 9, 2017January 9, 2017

January 20th, when Donald Trump is inaugurated and decomposing swamps like the EPA get drained, can’t happen soon enough. However, before that date, the Obamadroids are doing everything they can to get their last digs in. One of them is the rogue, out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency, which will soon be swept clean by Scott Pruitt (delicious justice if ever there were some). We’ve written about the sleazy practice of “sue and settle” in the past–a practice whereby government agencies like the EPA get their friends in the radical environmental movement to sue them, then they quickly settle the case and say “See, we HAVE to do this because the court is making us do it.” Scott Pruitt knows all about that practice and it will stop on Jan. 20. But until then, the EPA continues to engage in it. The latest case they’ve just settled was brought by the odious National Resources Defense Council, Earthworks and a mishmash of other radical groups in May 2016 regarding an attempt to ban injection wells and stop landfills from accepting drill cuttings (see Enviro Nazis File Lawsuit to “Force” EPA to End Injection Wells). The EPA wants to once again eat away at the sovereignty of the states by regulating oil and gas drilling “wastes” using federal law (illegal under the U.S. Constitution). When was the last time you heard of a big lawsuit like this being settled in a matter of a few months? Yeah, never…
Read More “Obama EPA Signs One Final “Sue and Settle” Case Against O&G”
Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell | Statewide PA | Wastewater

Shell Cracker Wastewater Discharge Becomes an Issue
December 22, 2016December 22, 2016

Environmentalists are accusing Shell of using a loophole to discharge wastewater at their future ethane cracker that will exceed state limits for TDS (total dissolved solids). The issue may sound familiar. In 2011 Pennsylvania “requested” that municipal sewage treatment plants without specially outfitted equipment stop accepting and processing Marcellus wastewater (see PA DEP, Marcellus Shale Coalition Admit Drilling Wastewater Likely Contaminating Drinking Water). Almost immediately, it stopped, which was a good thing for the environment. The problem with shale wastewater (i.e. produced water) is its high TDS content, including bromide. When bromide combines with chlorine used in wastewater treatment plants, it combines to produce trihalomethanes, which (in some studies) indicate increased levels of cancer in humans (see MDN In-depth: Marcellus Wastewater Discharges via Municipal Sewage Treatment Plants into PA Waterways). Nasty stuff. While the Shell ethane cracker will not process shale wastewater, it will produce water with TDS as part of its process. Shell plans to use a permit from the plant it is replacing, an old zinc smelting plant, to discharge a certain volume of water with TDS. Environmentalists say the volume they will discharge is too much and if the plant were not using a pre-existing permit (swapping ethane cracking for zinc smelting) the volume of wastewater they want to discharge would not be approved. That is, Shell is leveraging a loophole, a permit grandfathered in, and the volume of wastewater it will discharge may endanger humans downriver. Legit? Not legit?…
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Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Washington County | Wastewater

PA DEP Says Ten Mile Creek Radiation-Free; Antis Still Peddle Lies
December 5, 2016December 5, 2016

In 2014 Pennsylvania anti-drillers from a local chapter of the Izaak Walton League, a so-called conservation organization, attempted a smear job on the Marcellus Shale industry. They alleged that shale drillers were illegally dumping frack wastewater in an abandoned coal mine, the Clyde Mine, which sits near the Ten Mile Creek where the creek joins the Monongahela River. According to the smearmeisters, the illegally dumped wastewater was leaking out of the mine and into Ten Mile Creek (see Is Shale Wastewater Causing Radiation Spike in Ten Mile Creek?). They claimed testing they had done showed high levels of radioactivity that could not come from just acid mine drainage, that it is radioactivity typically seen in shale wastewater. Of course the allegations got a lot of media attention. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) investigated and echoed their concerns with initial tests also showing high radioactivity. Except the testing done by the DEP, and the testing done by the Izaak Walton League, WAS THE WRONG TYPE OF TEST. They blew it. Researchers from West Virginia University came in and tested using the appropriate type of test and found no elevated radioactivity (see PA DEP Screws Up Water Test at Ten Mile Creek – Egg on Face). After the humiliation of being outed as using the wrong test, the DEP re-ran tests for six months in 2015–the right kind of tests–and found NO elevated radioactivity in Ten Mile Creek nor anywhere else in the area (see PA DEP Admits No Radiation in Ten Mile Creek, Closes Investigation). The DEP has continued to run tests since that time and issued a final report in November (full copy below) finding, once again, NO elevated levels of radiation in Ten Mile Creek. The response by anti-drilling radicals with an agenda to smear the Marcellus industry? Unbelievably, they once again repeated their allegation of illegal wastewater dumping…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County | Wastewater

Landowner Appeals Range Well Contamination Case to PA Supreme Crt
December 2, 2016December 2, 2016

For some time we’ve followed the story of Range Resources and their (former) wastewater impoundments in Washington County, PA. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) fined Range a whopping $4.15 million for violations in September 2014 (see PA DEP Fines Range Resources $4.15M for Wastewater Impoundments). Some of the nearby neighbors claimed that Range’s leaky impoundments (a quarter of a mile away) contaminated their water wells. One of those landowners was Loren Kiskadden, who sued Range in civil court. The problem is, the DEP determined that the nearby Yeager impoundment had not contaminated Kiskadden’s well, which led to allegations that the DEP had bungled the investigation (see Did DEP Mishandle Range Wastewater Impoundment Investigation?). Kiskadden had to press on, because if the DEP doesn’t reverse its finding, he has no civil case against Range. Press on he did (see Hearing on Range Yeager Impoundment/Water Contamination Continues). The matter was heard by the DEP’s Environmental Hearing Board (EHB). The EHB found that Kiskadden didn’t have a case–his well was not contaminated by Range’s impoundment. So Kiskadden and his lawyers asked for a re-hearing. The result of that re-hearing came in December 2015 and we thought it finally closed the door, once and for all, on the case (see DEP Final Determination: Range Didn’t Pollute Kiskadden Water Well). But no, that was not the end. Kiskadden appealed again, and in October 2016 a Commonwealth Court appeals panel affirmed the EHB’s 2015 dismissal of Kiskadden’s appeal of the DEP 2011 ruling that Range’s Yeager site operations did not contaminate Kiskadden’s well water. Case closed, right? Nope. Kiskadden has one card left to play, and he’s done it. Kiskadden’s attorneys have appealed the case to the PA Supreme Court…
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Earthquakes | Energy Services | Fairmont Brine Processing | Industrywide Issues | Wastewater

WV Wastewater Co Grabs Nat’l Headlines re OK Earthquakes
November 15, 2016November 15, 2016

For a number of years we’ve had our eye on Fairmont Brine Processing, headquartered in Fairmont, WV. We originally started writing about the company in 2010 when it was AOP Clearwater (see AOP Clearwater Plant in WV a Big Success in Treating Marcellus Shale Wastewater). New owners expanded the operation in 2014 (see New Brine Processing Plant Coming to Panhandle of WV). Earlier this year Fairmont secured a $90 million line of credit to build a new wastewater processing plant in southwest PA (see Fairmont Brine Gets $90M to Build New Wastewater Recycling Plant). Imagine our surprise at seeing the company’s name in a major Bloomberg article about Oklahoma earthquakes! Brian Kalt, CEO of Fairmont Brine, is floating an idea that will settle the man-induced earthquakes in Oklahoma, which come from injecting shale wastewater deep underground: Don’t inject it anymore. Instead, using Fairmont’s recycling technology to separate out the salty minerals and then release purified water into streams and rivers. That Bloomberg article actually made the Drudge Report for a while yesterday! Kudos to Fairmont and Brian Kalt…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Wastewater

PA Congressman Ask EPA for “Assurances” re Wastewater Rule
November 2, 2016November 3, 2016

11/3/16 Update: The Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA)–the only PA organization that represents both conventional and unconventional drillers–submitted comments to the EPA on Monday regarding this rule. PIOGA is urging the EPA to extend existing guidelines for an additional three years to allow PA’s conventional drillers an opportunity to work on alternative disposal methods. See a copy of the comments submitted below.

In June MDN reported on yet another new unlegislated law (called a “rule”) issued by the rogue federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that bans the disposal of wastewater from oil and gas drilling via public wastewater/sewage treatment plants (see EPA Bans Disposal of Frack Wastewater at Public Sewer Plants). The rule is meant to ban wastewater coming from unconventional (shale) wells, and not conventionally drilled oil and gas wells, which are shallow wells compared to shale wells. However, conventional drillers in Pennsylvania raised the alarm that the way the rule is written, it will prevent them from disposing their shallow (and much lower volumes of) wastewater by carting it to the local sewage treatment plant–as many of them do now (see EPA Shale Wastewater Rule Will Crush PA’s Conventional Drillers). The upshot is that the EPA needs to revise its rule. But it hasn’t, and that has three PA congressman asking the EPA for “assurances.” We’re not holding our breath on that one…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County | Wastewater

PA Court Says Range Impoundment Did NOT Contaminate Water Well
October 31, 2016December 2, 2016

You may recall that for some time we’ve been following the back and forth between Range Resources and their (former) wastewater impoundments in Washington County, PA. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) fined Range a whopping $4.15 million for violations in September 2014 (see PA DEP Fines Range Resources $4.15M for Wastewater Impoundments). Some of the nearby neighbors claimed that Range’s leaky impoundments (a quarter of a mile away) contaminated their water wells. One of those landowners was Loren Kiskadden, who is suing Range in civil court. The problem is, the DEP found that the nearby Yeager impoundment had not contaminated Kiskadden’s well, which led to allegations that the DEP had bungled the investigation (see Did DEP Mishandle Range Wastewater Impoundment Investigation?). Kiskadden had to press on, because if the DEP doesn’t reverse its finding, he has no civil case against Range. Press on he did (see Hearing on Range Yeager Impoundment/Water Contamination Continues). The matter was heard by the DEP’s Environmental Hearing Board (EHB). The EHB found that Kiskadden didn’t have a case–his well was not contaminated by Range’s impoundment. So Kiskadden and his lawyers asked for a re-hearing. The result of that re-hearing came back in December and (we thought) closed the door, once and for all, on the case (see DEP Final Determination: Range Didn’t Pollute Kiskadden Water Well). But no, that was not the end. Kiskadden appealed again. Last week a Commonwealth Court appeals panel affirmed the EHB’s 2015 dismissal of Kiskadden’s appeal of the DEP 2011 ruling that Range’s Yeager site operations did not contaminate Kiskadden’s well water. Have we finally reached the end of this drawn-out saga?…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research | Wastewater

Duke U Researcher Tries to Repair Reputation with Wastewater Study
October 21, 2016October 21, 2016

For years now the radical Park Park Foundation has been buying its research from a few select professors at a few select universities. One of the scientists for sale is Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment (see Duke Hit Piece on Shale Water Usage from Same Park-Sponsored Prof and Latest Case of Duke U Bought & Paid “Research” by Park Foundation). Here’s how it works: Park funds Dr. Vengosh’s “research,” and he conveniently “discovers” all sorts of nasty things about shale fracking, publishing his “research” in obscure, peer reviewed journals. Mainstream media picks it up and runs it. Readers who only scan headlines get the impression fracking is evil. Mission accomplished for Park (another hit on fracking) and for Vengosh (another buck in his pocket). That’s how it works in the world of bought-and-paid-for fractivism. But when the Park Foundation doesn’t pay the bill for the research, Vengosh turns in research that doesn’t slam fracking. Case in point: Vengosh has just published yet another study, this time in the journal Science of The Total Environment, funded by the National Science Foundation. Vengosh’s new research finds there’s really nothing to worry about after all when it comes to Marcellus Shale wastewater. He goes so far as to say with proper treatment, shale wastewater “potentially could have beneficial reuses.” Imagine that? From the same guy who previously bashed fracking as one of the world’s evil activities…
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Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Wastewater

Former D&L Injection Well in Ohio Goes Online “in a Big Way”
September 16, 2016September 16, 2016

Good news for Marcellus/Utica drillers. You now have access to a previously-shuttered wastewater injection well in the Youngstown, OH-area. You may recall the sad story of D&L Energy, a Youngstown, OH operator of several wastewater injection wells. D&L’s owner was Ben Lupo, who also owned sister company Hardrock Excavating, operating both companies under the D&L Energy Group umbrella. In September 2012, Lupo instructed a Hardrock employee to dump untreated frack wastewater down a sewer drain that emptied into the Mahoning River. Lupo and the driver were found out in early 2013 (see Youngstown Business Dumped >200K Gal of Untreated Wastewater). The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) promptly shut down both D&L Energy and Hardrock in February 2013 (see OH Wastewater Dumper D&L Energy Gets Business Death Sentence). Both Lupo and the driver received prison sentences and fines for their role in this ignominious affair. One of the injection wells D&L drilled was located in Beaver Township, known as Northstar Lucky #4. The well never did begin operations because of the action shutting down D&L. D&L filed for bankruptcy and sold its assets in late 2013. The buyer of those assets, Denver-based Resource Land Holdings LLC, “expressed interest in operating the well in the future” and began work at the site to reopen the well in July (see Shuttered D&L Injection Well Near Youngstown, OH May Reopen Soon). The good news is that the well “has come back to life in a big way”…
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Industrywide Issues | Wastewater

New Frack Wastewater Recycler Launches in Marcellus
September 16, 2016September 16, 2016

We have a new entrant into the frack wastewater treatment industry in the Marcellus Shale. Gradiant, which was founded in 2012 by a group of engineers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has rapidly established itself in both the Marcellus and Permian shale plays with innovative technology to treat and recycle produced water from shale wells. Gradiant has been experimenting in the Marcellus and Permian and is now ready to roll out their technology to all comers. In order to roll it out, Gradiant the mother ship is establishing a wholly-owned subsidiary called Gradiant Energy Services. Here’s more about the company and their new technology…
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Industrywide Issues | Research | Statewide WV | Wastewater | West Virginia

WVU Scores Another $4M Grant – to Study Produced Water
September 13, 2016September 13, 2016

(WVU Photo by M.G. Ellis) — Paul Ziemkiewicz, Director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute at WVU, and Jay Hewitt, Northeast Natural Energy, work at the Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory in Morgantown.

At the end of 2014 West Virginia University (WVU) scored a major grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy, which forked over $11 million to WVU and Ohio State University to conduct a five-year project to study “baseline measurements, subsurface development and environmental monitoring” in the Marcellus and Utica Shale (see WVU/OSU Get $11M Grant to Study Shale Energy Best Practices). WVU’s efforts are yielding fruit. In July we told you that WVU had studied frack waste and pronounced it safe (see Independent Research @ WVU Concludes Frack Waste is Safe). We’d call that a good use of taxpayer money! One of the innovations WVU has been working on is “green” drilling mud, a more environmentally-friendly drilling mud used to drill Marcellus/Utica wells (see WVU Effusive Over “Green” Drilling Fluid Used in Test Wells). WVU has done it again. WVU, along with the University of Kansas, has just been awarded a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study “produced water”–which is water from the depths that comes out of the borehole long after drilling and fracking are done. This naturally occurring water is super salty–far more salty (with minerals) than sea water. Typically drillers will either recycle it and reuse it for more drilling and fracking, or dispose of it via an injection well. WVU and KU are charged with developing “cutting-edge strategies for better management, treatment, protection and recovery of produced water.” Here’s the announcement and good news that WVU is on the case for better handling of produced water…
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Antero Resources | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Wastewater | West Virginia

Antero Responds to Critics of New WV Wastewater Facility
September 6, 2016September 6, 2016

Two weeks ago MDN provided an update on the new Antero state-of-the-art frack wastewater treatment plant and landfill being built in West Virginia (see Update on Antero’s $275M Wastewater Facility in WV). Once built, this new plant will recycle 98% of the water used, for re-use by Antero in its fracking and drilling operations. According to Antero’s regional senior vice president and chief administrative officer, Al Shopp, although it may be cheaper to just inject the wastewater down an injection well somewhere, the more environmentally friendly, long-term solution is to do what they are doing–recycle it all. You might think that would please environmental Nazis–but you would be wrong. They want zero drilling and anything, including a better way to handle wastewater, will lead to more drilling and therefore is opposed by these nutters. Al Shopp responds to some of their nonsensical arguments against the new plant…
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Antero Resources | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Wastewater | West Virginia

Mon Power Completes Project to Support WV Shale Industry
September 2, 2016September 2, 2016

Last week MDN provided an update on Antero Resources’ $275 million state-of-the-art frack wastewater treatment plant in Doddridge County, WV (see Update on Antero’s $275M Wastewater Facility in WV). Things are progressing very nicely at the facility. Another important piece has just fallen into place for the facility. In order to operate it, you need LOTS of electricity. Enter Mon Power. Mon has just completed a new substation and power lines–a $5 million project–to provide electric service to the Antero frack wastewater treatment plant being built…
Read More “Mon Power Completes Project to Support WV Shale Industry”