Wastewater

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    CELDF Tries to Shut Down GreenHunter’s OH Injection Wells

    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…
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    Frack Wastewater Treatment Market Still Worth $1.9 Billion

    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”

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    Is Shale Wastewater Causing Radiation Spike in Ten Mile Creek?

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    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?”

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

    big newsBig 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”

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    New EPA Rule Prevents Sewage Plants from Treating Frack Wastewater

    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”

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    Athens County Asks Gov Kasich & ODNR to Stop New Injection Wells

    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”

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    FWAP Asks SEC to Investigate GreenHunter for False Statements

    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…
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    OH Injection Well Operator has Until Today to File Remediation Plan

    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”

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    Anti-Drillers Ask Fed EPA (Again) to Regulate OH Injection Wells

    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”

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    PA DEP Meetings on Injection Well, Marcellus Landfill Expansion

    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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    Research: Marcellus Frack Wastewater More Radioactive than Thought

    A study published in April reportedly concludes that fracking wastewater may be “more radioactive than researchers previously believed.” The study, titled “Understanding the Radioactive Ingrowth and Decay of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials in the Environment: An Analysis of Produced Fluids from the Marcellus Shale” (full copy below) was published in the peer reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives. In a nutshell, the study says previous looks at the “you’ll glow in the dark, you’re all getting irradiated” issue has only looked at the presence of radium in frack wastewater. The researchers say that in order to judge the true radioactivity of frack wastewater you need to consider the isotopes that radium and radon breaks down into hours, days, weeks, months and years later–especially in closed tanks. And when you do, the authors say the level of radiation people (and the environment) is exposed to goes much higher that previously thought. Is this the smoking gun? Here’s MDN’s layman’s perspective on this new study…
    Read More “Research: Marcellus Frack Wastewater More Radioactive than Thought”

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    Carnegie Mellon Study on Challenges of Water Mgmt in Fracking

    MDN spotted a newly published study in the journal Environmental Chemistry titled “Current perspective on produced water management challenges during hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas recovery.” The study, authored by two researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, takes a look at the impact of shale drilling on water resources–particularly the wastewater that results from fracking. MDN does not have a copy of the study. The abstract (below) doesn’t give us much to go on as to whether or not the authors believe fracking can be done safely. We also don’t know who funded the research. We offer you the summary and abstract (below) as a heads up that you can expect to read more about the study. That is, you can expect to read more about it unless the conclusion from the study says the challenges of fracking can be adequately managed. If that’s the finding, you can rely on mainstream media to totally ignore this study…
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    Penn State Defends Controversial Water Contamination Study

    Two weeks ago MDN covered the news that researchers from Penn State had published a study that reportedly showed a Marcellus Shale wastewater impoundment had leaked and some of the wastewater had found its way to a crack underground and traveled up to a mile and a half away to contaminate 3 water wells. This happened in 2010–five years ago (see Penn State Finds Chemical Migration in 3 PA Water Wells from 2010). It seemed at first blush that this was important research not because it proves “fracking contaminates water wells, told you so told you so” as anti-drillers claim–but because of the research tools innovated by the team to detect small amounts of chemicals that may in fact come from shale drilling. However, a few days later the news broke that one of the so-called researchers on the team had actually been a consultant and worked for the three families with the contaminated water wells, helping them in their lawsuit against the driller. When that little overlooked and omitted fact became known, embarrased mainstream news organizations did something we rarely see–they printed retractions/corrections noting the huge conflict of interest (see Reversal: Media Discredits Penn State Water Contamination Study). It gave Penn State a major black eye and damaged their credibility. So Penn State fired off their own mea culpa to defend the research study and the “facts” of how this kerfuffle came to be…
    Read More “Penn State Defends Controversial Water Contamination Study”

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    GreenHunter Resources 1Q15: Bets the Ranch on OH Injection Wells

    A lot of news to report about GreenHunter Resources, the fresh water and wastewater subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources, focused totally on the Marcellus and Utica Shale region. On Friday GreenHunter released their first quarter 2015 update and held an earnings call with analysts. If we could sum it up in our own layman’s terms–we’d say GreenHunter is currently treading water (pun intended) as they wait to turn around their lack of revenue by bringing online a series of wastewater injection wells in both Ohio and West Virginia. Although GreenHunter’s COO Kirk Trosclair rightly pointed out the company has gotten much more efficient–driving down costs–there’s no papering over the fact that GreenHunter’s revenues for 1Q15 were down 39% from the same quarter in 2014 ($5.1 million in 1Q15 vs. $8.5 million in 1Q14). Which seems odd as GreenHunter’s CEO, Gary Evans, said that the company currently turns down 20 to 25,000 barrels a day of water that they can’t handle because they are currently “full.” GreenHunter currently has two operating injection wells at their Mills Hunter facility, located in Meigs County, OH and one injection well operating in Ritchie County, WV. By the end of June they plan to have six wells operating at the Mills facility and a second well at the Ritchie location…
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    Reversal: Media Discredits Penn State Water Contamination Study

    ripping mask offThe mask has been ripped off fractivist liars peddling what they pretend is science–and it’s been ripped off by mainstream media outlets including the Associated Press, USA Today, the International Business Times and (yes) The New York Times. Let us explain. Last week MDN brought you a story about a new research study that was ostensibly authored by Penn State researchers which found, using “non-traditional” methods of research, that wastewater leaking from an above-ground impoundment had migrated up to a mile and a half away and had contaminated three private water wells in PA–five years ago (see Penn State Finds Chemical Migration in 3 PA Water Wells from 2010). We told you how mainstream media, including the AP, had gone wild with excitement, endlessly repeating the story with the implication this is the smoking gun. The so-called research paper was published in the peer reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences–a gold standard among academic journals. It seems one of the authors of that paper lied…
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    USGS Research – Marcellus Wastewater from 13 PA Wells Tested

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has just published a new research paper on the topic of produced water–the water that comes out of a drilled hole, drilled for an oil or gas well. The paper, titled “Organic and inorganic composition and microbiology of produced waters from Pennsylvania shale gas wells” was published in the journal Applied Geochemistry and looked at produced water samples from Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale wells. The weakness in the research is that it is based on water samples from only 13 wells. Quite frankly, the research (which we think pursues a worthwhile line of inquiry) raises more questions than it answers. What can we divine from this study? In our cursory review, it appears two things stand out: (1) Although the inorganic chemistry of the produced water was pretty consistent across all 13 wells, there were big differences in the organic geochemistry and microbiology (bacteria) from well to well; and (2) volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were found in only a few samples–just 4 of the 13 wells…
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