Wastewater

Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Wastewater

Study Finds PA Wastewater Volumes in 2014 Same as 3 Yrs Ago
August 27, 2015August 27, 2015

The Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center (SGICC), affiliated with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic with a mission to accelerate technology breakthroughs related to shale gas in PA, has just released an updated report on shale wastewater treatment and disposal in PA. The report, titled “Shale Gas Development – Summary of Shale Gas Wastewater Treatment and Disposal In Pennsylvania 2014” (full copy below) finds that drillers in PA produced about 1.8 billion gallons of gas and oil wastewater in 2014–a figure largely unchanged since 2011. The study also finds the shale industry in PA is recycling 91% of the wastewater it produces. Interestingly, the updated report shows “produced water” (or brine, naturally occurring water from the depths) volumes far exceeded volumes for “frac fluid” (or the fluid originally pumped into the well when drilling and fracking). That’s a reversal from the data evaluated in 2011 when frac fluid represented the bulk of the wastewater stream…
Read More “Study Finds PA Wastewater Volumes in 2014 Same as 3 Yrs Ago”
Antero Resources | Doddridge County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Wastewater | West Virginia

Antero Building New 60K Bbl Wastewater Recycling Facility in WV
August 20, 2015August 20, 2015

Antero Resources announced yesterday it is stepping up its recycling efforts in the Marcellus/Utica by hiring Veolia Water Technologies Inc. to build a new shale wastewater recycling facility in Doddridge County, West Virginia. The new facility, which will take two years to build and cost Antero $275 million, will process 60,000 barrels of wastewater per day. Is Antero building the new facility to prove what good “green” citizens they are? Nope. They’re building it for the best of reasons: capitalism. Once the new wastewater treatment plant is up and running, Antero will save $150,000 per well on completions costs. Veolia will not only build the facility but also operate it under a 10-year contract…
Read More “Antero Building New 60K Bbl Wastewater Recycling Facility in WV”
Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Marion County | Statewide WV | Wastewater | West Virginia

Did Antero Pull the Rug Out from Under Fairmont Brine Processing?
August 20, 2015August 20, 2015

MDN brought you the news today that Antero Resources is building its own frack wastewater treatment facility in Doddridge County, WV (see today’s lead story). It’s great news–great for Antero, but not great for some. One company feels betrayed by the announcement–Fairmont Brine Processing. Let’s back up. In December MDN told you the story of Fairmont Brine Processing, once called AOP Clearwater (see New Brine Processing Plant Coming to Panhandle of WV). Fairmont operates a small wastewater processing plant in Marion County, WV and has spent $2 million on engineering work and plans to build a new, larger facility near Wheeling, WV. Fairmont’s #1 customer is Antero Resources. All along Fairmont has been sharing plans and inside information with Antero to be sure the new facility they build meets Antero’s needs. And then Antero seemingly pulled the rug out from under them…
Read More “Did Antero Pull the Rug Out from Under Fairmont Brine Processing?”
Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Wastewater

GreenHunter Changes Strategy with USCG re Wastewater Barging
August 17, 2015August 17, 2015

GreenHunter Resources, the fresh water and wastewater subsidiary of driller Magnum Hunter Resources, has changed strategies and has backed off their tough talk in dealing with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) with respect to barging brine down the Ohio River. You may recall MDN was the first to decipher just what was going on between GreenHunter and the USCG with respect to GreenHunter’s intention on barging (see GreenHunter/Coast Guard War of Words — MDN Explains It). The USCG is being manipulated by the Obama administration into blocking a request for GreenHunter to begin barging of wastewater (brine, actually). GreenHunter informed the USCG they have the legal right to do it under an existing 1987 rule that allows for it. The USCG has said not so fast, brine from shale wells may contain more radioactivity than brine from conventionally drilled oil and gas wells. In so many words, GreenHunter told the USCG they would move forward, daring the USCG to stop them (see GreenHunter to Coast Guard, We’re Barging While You Fiddle Around). As recently as May, GreenHunter claimed barging would begin soon (see GreenHunter Says OH River Wastewater Barging to Begin September). However, in an analyst conference call on Friday reviewing second quarter 2015 results, both parent company CEO Gary Evans and GreenHunter COO Kirk Trosclair changed their tune. Now GreenHunter is talking with the USCG again and attempting to convince them to let barging operations begin. You can hear the frustration both in GreenHunter’s comments, and in the comments by investors probing them on the topic…
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American Water Management | Earthquakes | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Trumbull County | Wastewater

OH Minority Report: Shut Down Wells Before They Cause Earthquakes
August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

The Chief of the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management for the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (currently Rick Simmers) is a man with a lot of power. He has the power, according to a ruling just handed down on August 12, to make his own decisions about suspending permits to operate in the absence of specific violations of a law or regulation. In September 2014 Simmers suspended permits for two wastewater injection wells in Trumbull County, OH after a very low level earthquake was detected close to those wells (an earthquake that couldn’t be felt at the surface and caused no damage of any kind). American Water Management Services sued saying they hadn’t violated any laws or regulations on the books and their permits could not just be arbitrarily revoked like that. But the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission said nope–Tom Cruise, er, a, Mr. Simmers can arbitrarily do what he wants when there is no specific rule or guideline or law–because he has the best interests of the people at heart…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Elk County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Seneca Resources | Wastewater

It Speaks! An “Ecosystem” has Filed to Join a Lawsuit in PA
August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

Better be careful, the water table running under your property may decide to sue you for sinking a water well into it and withdrawing water for drinking, showers, etc. What…Absurd? Funny? Foolish? We’re not kidding. It seems that water tables and rock and dirt are now considered “ecosystems” and, if a lawsuit is allowed to stand in a Pennsylvania court, such an “ecosystem” has the right, under law, to sue. A motion has been filed by the radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) on behalf of an ecosystem to intervene in a federal lawsuit to defend its own “right” to exist and flourish. Background: In 2013 the CELDF convinced enough ignoramuses in Highland Township in Elk County, PA to pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights. Essentially it’s a way to prevent wastewater injection wells from being drilled in the township. Seneca Resources filed a lawsuit to overturn the illegal law. Highland Twp taxpayers are now defending their illegal action with $upport from the deep pockets of Big Green groups (i.e. the CELDF). In an attempt to bully Seneca into backing down from the lawsuit, the CELDF claims to speak for the ecosystem and has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the ecosystem. It’s utter bull crap of the highest order–but a dangerous precedent if allowed. We can see your dog suing you, the trees that ring your property suing you, wrongful death lawsuits for killing a snake…you get the idea. An ecosystem filing a lawsuit would be funny, if it weren’t such a tragically vicious attack against the fabric of this country and the HUMANS that live in it (the only living things with “rights” under our Constitutional form of law)…
Read More “It Speaks! An “Ecosystem” has Filed to Join a Lawsuit in PA”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Meigs County | Ohio | Regulation | Wastewater

CELDF Tries to Shut Down GreenHunter’s OH Injection Wells
August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

The radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is making mischief in neighboring Ohio. The CELDF is using some of its millions of Big Green dollars to file a lawsuit against Meigs County, OH Commissioners because the commissioners refuse to put an illegal ballot measure up for a vote in November. The CELDF pressured the citizens of Highland Township in Elk County, PA in 2013 to pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights–the same kind of law they want Meigs County to adopt (see today’s companion story about the ecosystem that speaks). Meigs County already has two injection wells recently brought online by GreenHunter Resources, with plans to bring another two online in the near future (see GreenHunter Brings 2 New Injection Wells Online in Meigs County, OH). GreenHunter has built out a barge terminal along the Ohio River in Meigs County where they plan to unload barged brine for disposal (see GreenHunter Resources 1Q15: Bets the Ranch on OH Injection Wells). The CELDF so-called Community Bill of Rights would stop GreenHunter’s injection wells and the barge terminal from operating. Can you imagine the lawsuits and the amount of money Meigs County residents would have to pay out if that happened? It would likely bankrupt the county. Meigs County commissioners rightly seek to protect the citizens they were elected to represent from this horrific economic apocalypse. And so now, the CELDF is suing Meigs commissioners because they won’t allow the ballot measure to proceed…
Read More “CELDF Tries to Shut Down GreenHunter’s OH Injection Wells”
Industrywide Issues | Research | Wastewater

Frack Wastewater Treatment Market Still Worth $1.9 Billion
August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

Even though we’ve had a dramatic decline in global oil prices–a price collapse from near $100 per barrel to less than $45 per barrel in under a year, and even though that price collapse is directly related to less shale drilling and fracking everywhere–including the Marcellus/Utica, water reuse/recycling in the Marcellus Shale is still in demand says a new report by Lux Research. In fact, the market for frack water management across the country is still estimated to be worth $1.9 billion, not including water transportation and disposal…
Read More “Frack Wastewater Treatment Market Still Worth $1.9 Billion”
Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Washington County | Wastewater

Is Shale Wastewater Causing Radiation Spike in Ten Mile Creek?
July 31, 2015July 31, 2015

Click image for larger version – Tests continue on drainage from the Clyde Mine in East Bethlehem Township, Washington County, for radiation and bromide levels. The mine, which is abandoned, is the responsibility of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. (Photo by Natasha Khan)

Ten Mile Creek runs through Washington and Greene counties in southwestern Pennsylvania and is considered a “major tributary” to the mighty Monongahela River, a 130-mile-long river in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. The Monongahela joins the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River at Pittsburgh. An abandoned coal mine, the Clyde Mine, sits near the Ten Mile Creek where the creek joins the Monongahela, and the abandoned coal mine (as many do) leaks acid mine water into the creek and ultimately into the Mon River. Anti-drillers suspect, apparently with no basis for doing so, that shale wastewater has been dumped in the Clyde Mine and is leaking out along with the acid mine water and is creating a radioactive hazard that could affect water in the Mon River used for drinking water sources. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) ran some initial tests in April 2014 and found ” high levels of radioactive materials and other chemicals typically related to Marcellus Shale drilling operations” according to the left-leaning news agency PublicSource. The DEP ran more tests in June of this year, but because the testing followed heavy rains, anti-drillers have already said they “won’t accept” the results from those tests. Anti-drillers love to cherry-pick their “science”. What’s really going on with Ten Mile Creek? Has there been, or is there still, illegal wastewater dumping going on at the Clyde Mine?…
Read More “Is Shale Wastewater Causing Radiation Spike in Ten Mile Creek?”
Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Meigs County | Ohio | Wastewater

GreenHunter Brings 2 New Injection Wells Online in Meigs County, OH
July 28, 2015July 28, 2015

Big news for GreenHunter Resources: They finally have two more wastewater injection wells up and running at their Mills Hunter facility in Meigs County, OH. In May we reported that GreenHunter was hoping to have four new injection wells operating at the Mills Hunter facility by the end of June, for a total of six operating wells (see GreenHunter Resources 1Q15: Bets the Ranch on OH Injection Wells). However, Mills Hunter has just two new wells now operating, for a total of four, and it’s nearly August. GreenHunter’s COO Kirk Trosclair continues to express his frustration at delays from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR), saying instead of taking 30-45 days for approvals (which is what it used to take), it’s now taking ODNR more than 90 days to issue approvals. GreenHunter has two more wells at the Mills Hunter facility working their way through the approval process now. But let’s not dwell on the negatives…
Read More “GreenHunter Brings 2 New Injection Wells Online in Meigs County, OH”
Industrywide Issues | Research | Wastewater

New EPA Rule Prevents Sewage Plants from Treating Frack Wastewater
July 17, 2015July 17, 2015

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which we’ve longed called a rogue agency (it is), is about to issue a new “rule” (i.e. unlegislated law) that prevents municipal sewage treatment plants from accepting untreated frack wastewater. It is the one EPA rule in recent memory that we can support. Of course the rule won’t change a thing. There are no municipal sewage treatment plants accepting untreated frack wastewater anywhere in the United States. It was happening in Pennsylvania back in 2011, but then-Sec. of the Dept. of Environment Protection for PA, Mike Krancer (a Republican), put a stop to it (see PA DEP, Marcellus Shale Coalition Admit Drilling Wastewater Likely Contaminating Drinking Water). Since that time there have been no sewage plants accepting frack wastewater–which proves the states are quite capable of policing such issues on their own. However, because it theoretically could happen, it’s a talking point for anti-drillers and their campaign to, irrationally, eliminate all fossil fuels, except the ones they use. Since there’s no federal law or rule against sewage treatment plants from accepting frack waste, the EPA is about to issue a new rule that officially ensures it never happens again (copy of the proposed rule below). Not wanting to let this momentous occasion go to waste, the anti-drilling zealots at so-called Environment America issued a press release congratulating the EPA (and themselves) for this new rule…
Read More “New EPA Rule Prevents Sewage Plants from Treating Frack Wastewater”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

Athens County Asks Gov Kasich & ODNR to Stop New Injection Wells
July 2, 2015July 2, 2015

Athens County, OH Commissioners have just passed a resolution calling for a ban on new injection wells in the county. The resolution has zero force and no weight of law–it’s not a legal document and if it were, it would be illegal. Only the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) can decide whether or not to issue permits for Class II injection wells in Ohio. Local municipalities have no say in the matter. But that doesn’t stop the nutters in Athens County from mouthing off (the thing they do best). Here’s their latest haughty communication requesting the Governor and the ODNR immediately and indefinitely refrain from issuing any more injection well permits not only in the People’s Socialist Paradise of Athens County, OH, but throughout the entire state of Ohio as well…
Read More “Athens County Asks Gov Kasich & ODNR to Stop New Injection Wells”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Wastewater

FWAP Asks SEC to Investigate GreenHunter for False Statements
June 19, 2015June 19, 2015

The anti-fossil fuelers are getting desperate. They’re concerned that GreenHunter Resources, a fresh water and frack wastewater company operating in the Marcellus/Utica, may actually pull it off and begin to barge frack wastewater (brine, actually) down the Ohio River. MDN was the first to disclose that GreenHunter is going to push back against the ongoing delays coming from the Obama White House in pressuring the U.S. Coast Guard to delay granting permission to GreenHunter to barge brine. We analyzed and told you what’s happening–that GreenHunter is using the Coast Guard’s own regulations from 1987 against them, using the definition of oilfield wastes to apply to brine from shale wells (see GreenHunter/Coast Guard War of Words — MDN Explains It). Essentially GreenHunter is daring the Coast Guard to take them to court to try and stop them (a brilliant move). GreenHunter says they will begin barging in three months’ time (see GreenHunter Says OH River Wastewater Barging to Begin September). Along comes the virulent anti-drilling organization FreshWater Accountability Project (FWAP, which we pronounce “fuh-wop”) with their own twist to try and stop GreenHunter. FWAP has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate GreenHunter for making false statements to investors about their permission (or lack thereof) to begin barge shipments of brine…
Read More “FWAP Asks SEC to Investigate GreenHunter for False Statements”
Accidents | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Trumbull County | Wastewater

OH Injection Well Operator has Until Today to File Remediation Plan
June 19, 2015June 19, 2015

We’ve been following the story of water contamination in close proximity to five injection wells owned by Kleese Development Associates (KDA) of Warren, OH. The wells were shut down when water contamination was found in a local wetland (swamp) and a nearby pond. But after investigating, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) found that the injection wells were not the source of chemical contamination, but rather a salvage yard was at fault (see Trumbull Injection Wells NOT the Source of Wetland Contamination). The salvage yard is also owned by KDA, so the company is certainly not off the hook. The last word we had was that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with the Ohio Attorney General’s office executed search warrants for KDA looking for evidence of “environmental crimes” (see Youngstown Injection Wells Previously Shut Down Resume Operation). Meanwhile, the injection wells were reportedly restarted after correcting an issue found by the ODNR when they were there investigating. The new news is that Ohio EPA (not the feds, but Ohio) says KDA has until today to file a remediation plan to clean up a local creek affected by the so-far still undetermined source of a chemical spill coming from the salvage yard…
Read More “OH Injection Well Operator has Until Today to File Remediation Plan”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

Anti-Drillers Ask Fed EPA (Again) to Regulate OH Injection Wells
June 2, 2015June 2, 2015

In December we wrote about anti-drillers in Ohio asking the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to step in an usurp the legal authority of Ohio’s Dept. of Natural Resources in their role of overseeing wastewater injection wells (see OH Anti Group Wants EPA to Suspend ODNR Injection Well Oversight). As we wrote at the time, “Whenever anti-drillers in a given state don’t like how the state environmental authority is doing its job, they run to the federal government like a petulant child clinging to its mother’s skirt.” The petulant children are back, asking yet again for the EPA to take over injection well regulation in the Buckeye State…
Read More “Anti-Drillers Ask Fed EPA (Again) to Regulate OH Injection Wells”
Indiana County | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wastewater

PA DEP Meetings on Injection Well, Marcellus Landfill Expansion
June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) will hold two public meetings, one tonight and one two weeks from tonight, with implications for the Marcellus Shale industry in the state. The first meeting, tonight at 6 pm in Indiana County, will be a question and answer session followed by a public hearing on an application from Pennsylvania General Energy Company (PGE) to convert an old production well into a wastewater injection well. The well is located in Grant Township, Indiana County. The second meeting, on June 15 at 6 pm in Lackawanna County, will consider Keystone Sanitary Landfill’s permit application to expand its facility located in Dunmore and Throop Boroughs. That expansion would mean accepting more waste in general, including Marcellus drill cuttings (leftover rock and dirt from drilling). The details for both meetings…
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