Wastewater

Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | GreenHunter Resources | Industrywide Issues | Meigs County | Ohio | Regulation | Ritchie County | Wastewater | West Virginia

US Coast Guard Approves Brine Shipping via Barge on Ohio River
February 4, 2015February 4, 2015

Some big news coming from GreenHunter Resources, the wastewater disposal arm of MagnumHunter Resources. As MDN has chronicled for the past several years, MagnumHunter has been trying to secure a permit from the U.S. Coast Guard to transport frack wastewater via barges down the Ohio River. The Coast Guard floated a preliminary plan to allow it all the way back in November 2013 (see More on Coast Guard Plan to Allow Barging of Frack Wastewater). However, until now, they have withheld permission due to meddling by The White House and other federal agencies. According to a conference call last week, MagnumHunter/GreenHunter officials said the Coast Guard “quietly” granted permission in December to allow them to begin barge shipments down the Ohio River. The permission apparently applies only to brine, or “produced water” and not flowback for frack wastewater…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Wastewater

What Does Marcellus Wastewater Disposal Look Like in 10-15 Years?
February 2, 2015February 2, 2015

An interesting and well-written article appears in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on the topic of disposal and recycling of frack wastewater. Once upon a time drillers in Pennsylvania would send frack wastewater to the local municipal sewage treatment plant. That ended in 2011 under Dept. of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer (see PA DEP, Marcellus Shale Coalition Admit Drilling Wastewater Likely Contaminating Drinking Water). Today, some 90% of frack wastewater, which includes both flowback (the stuff that comes back out of the hole for the first couple of weeks following a frack job) and produced water (the naturally occurring water from the depths that continues to come out after the initial frack job), is recycled and used for more fracking. But according to experts quoted, that can only go on for perhaps another 15 years. What happens after that? How do Marcellus/Utica drillers dispose of wastewater when there’s more than they can reuse?…
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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Wastewater

PA DEP Completes Fracking Radiation Study, Concludes “Little Harm”
January 16, 2015January 16, 2015

We love it when we get to close a loop–especially this one. Exactly two years ago the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, under then Secretary Mike Krancer, embarked on what would become a two-year, top to bottom, “thorough and rigorous” study of radiation in shale drilling (see PA DEP Announces New Study of Radiation in Shale Drilling). That is, they would use real science to figure out whether we will all, as the anti-drillers claim, begin to glow in the dark from exposure to radiation in wastewater, radiation in drill cuttings and radiation in “fracked gas” as they frequently prattle on about. The 200-page study is complete and we have a copy (below). What did the DEP conclude in their “peer reviewed” study? “There is little potential for harm to workers or the public from radiation exposure due to oil and gas development.” That is, the DEP says all of these wild-eyed claims of radiation poisoning are false…
Read More “PA DEP Completes Fracking Radiation Study, Concludes “Little Harm””
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide NY | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | Wastewater | West Virginia

Yet Another Duke University Study Smears the Marcellus Industry
January 15, 2015January 15, 2015

Let’s see, it’s a new month in a new year–must be time for a new Duke University study (located in North Carolina) to pop up smearing Marcellus Shale drilling (located in Pennsylvania and West Virginia). Yep, that’s just what’s happened. The new study, titled “Iodide, Bromide, and Ammonium in Hydraulic Fracturing and Oil and Gas Wastewaters: Environmental Implications” was published yesterday in the “peer reviewed” journal Environmental Science & Technology. Here’s all you need to know about this “study”: The lead author is a Duke University student (looking to make a name for herself), and it was funded by the virulently anti-drilling Park Foundation. Which means the outcome of the so-called “study” was written before the first test tube was held over a Bunsen burner…
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Air Quality | Health Impacts | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Research | Statewide WV | Wastewater | West Virginia

WVU Launches 5-Year Study of Local Frack Site for Air, Noise, H&S
January 13, 2015January 13, 2015

This is very cool. A West Virginia University professor, now interim chairman of WVU’s School of Public Health (Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences), is going to perform some REAL science. Dr. Michael McCawley is someone we’ve highlighted before. He’s done some excellent research on air quality near drill sites (see WVU Prof Keeps Up Pressure on Improved Air Quality at Drill Sites). Dr. McCawley is launching the Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory (MSEEL)–a project that will drill a test well and provide real-time air, noise, occupational safety and health monitoring over a five-year period. It is one of three such projects approved and funded (in part) by the U.S. Dept. of Energy…
Read More “WVU Launches 5-Year Study of Local Frack Site for Air, Noise, H&S”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Monroe County | Pennsylvania | Wastewater

League of Women Voters Questions New PA Reps on Fracking
January 12, 2015January 12, 2015

Too funny. The League of [Liberal Democrat and Anti-Drilling] Women Voters held their annual beat-up-on-Republicans, er, a, “legislative coffee” with newly minted state representatives on Saturday at the Hughes Library in Stroudsburg (Monroe County), PA. All of the questions were, apparently, asked by the moderator of the event, the liberal Democrat editor of the Pocono Record, Paula Heeschen. On the hot seat were two newly elected Republicans to the PA House: Rep. David Parker, R-115, and Rep. Jack Rader, R-176. Heeschen tried her best to bait the pair with patently loaded and in many cases questions with false premises, like this one about fracking…
Read More “League of Women Voters Questions New PA Reps on Fracking”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

OH Anti Group Wants EPA to Suspend ODNR Injection Well Oversight
December 24, 2014December 24, 2014

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. “Mommy, mommy! Johnny hurt my feelings!” Such is the case with Ohio Citizen Action (OCA), an anti-drilling group that is accusing the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) of falling down on the job when it comes to regulating injection wells–wells used to dispose of frack wastewater. OCA’s demand? That the federal EPA suspend ODNR’s oversight of the injection well program in Ohio and that the feds move in and take over. OCA used 16 untrained volunteers (activists), gave them mountains of official paperwork from the ODNR archive, and armed each of them with yellow highlighters. The 16 untrained volunteer activists found every reference they could of what they say is incompetence and malfeasance by the ODNR, stitched it all together in a “report” (full copy below), and are now calling on Mommy EPA to “do something” about it…
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Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Ohio County | Statewide WV | Wastewater | West Virginia

New Brine Processing Plant Coming to Panhandle of WV
December 2, 2014December 2, 2014

The new owners of what was the AOP Clearwater brine processing plant in Marion County, WV (renamed to Fairmont Brine Processing) plan to grow their successful operation by opening a much larger, second plant in Wheeling, WV. The last time MDN wrote about the AOP Clearwater plant was in March 2010 (see AOP Clearwater Plant in WV a Big Success in Treating Marcellus Shale Wastewater). Apparently the “big success” didn’t last for AOP. An engineering firm was called in to evaluate the plant and told them they would need $10 million in upgrades, so AOP Clearwater cleared out. The guy who owned the engineering firm believed in the project, got some investors and bought the plant himself. Dave Moniot, CEO of both Venture Engineering and now Fairmont Brine Processing, turned the plant around. He’s now using that success to expand with a second plant in Wheeling…
Read More “New Brine Processing Plant Coming to Panhandle of WV”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Indiana County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania General Energy | Wastewater

Little Mahoning Watershed to Testify in Court Case (??)
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

You have to give the silly anti-fossil fuel nutters one thing–they sure are creative. The latest nonsense to come from the extreme left is that artificial constructs like watersheds now have “rights” and can somehow speak for itself. At least that’s what’s being claimed in a “first of its kind” motion by–yes–the Little Mahoning Watershed (Indiana County, PA). We wonder, what does the Watershed’s voice sound like? And where, precisely, did the Watershed scribble down its statement that was recently delivered to the court? We’d like to see that place and behold that miracle. This would all be rolling-on-the-floor funny if extremists weren’t so hellbent on bastardizing our laws and the U.S. Constitution–to the point our legal system becomes meaningless. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), which hangs its hat in Mercersburg, PA, says Little Mahoning Watershed spoke to it and whispered it doesn’t want to be polluted by nasty frack wastewater…
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Industrywide Issues | Supply Chain | Wastewater

New Report: Water is a $6.4B Part of the U.S. Shale Industry
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

How much water is used, and how much is generated that needs to be disposed of (or recycled) in oil and gas drilling–particularly in U.S. shale plays? A new report by Bluefield Research says the U.S. fracking industry consumes over 1 billion barrels of water annually, producing 450-500 million barrels of wastewater for disposal. According to Bluefield, the U.S. shale industry will spend $6.38 billion (!) in 2014 on water management: supply, transport, storage, treatment, and disposal. Water is a big deal in shale drilling. The following article by Bluefield sheds interesting light on the topic. Among the things that caught our interest is the breakdown of which shale plays use the most water (how does the Marcellus and Utica stack up? see the graphic below), and the section at the end which talks about new opportunities for supply chain companies in the water space…
Read More “New Report: Water is a $6.4B Part of the U.S. Shale Industry”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Wastewater

PA Dem Congressman Cartwright Continues to Bash DEP
November 21, 2014November 21, 2014

An anti-drilling Democrat Congressman from Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District (eastern part of the state), U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, continues a campaign of smearing the Marcellus Shale industry with a so-called investigation into how frack wastes in PA get handled and disposed. In October Cartwright demanded information from the new acting Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (see PA Dem Congressman Demands Info from DEP on Frack Waste). Cartwright’s latest media stunt is to send demand letters to WV and OH to ask them how they dispose frack waste in their states…
Read More “PA Dem Congressman Cartwright Continues to Bash DEP”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Litigation | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH | Wastewater

Another Day, Another Lawsuit from Food & Water Watch
November 20, 2014November 20, 2014

The anti-drilling Fresh Water Accountability Project (FWAP)–based in Ohio–along with the odious and litigious (and misnamed) Food & Water Watch have once again, sued. Surprise! This time they’ve sued OH Gov. John Kasich along with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) for what they claim are the “illegal approval of at least 23 fracking waste handling, storage, processing and recycling facilities to operate.” Lea Harper, head of the so-called FWAP, has been involved in other anti-drilling lawsuits, including one against the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District. FWW must have to employ a librarian to keep track of all their anti-drilling lawsuits. Here’s the latest bald-faced lies from these two litigious organizations:
Read More “Another Day, Another Lawsuit from Food & Water Watch”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA | Wastewater

Researchers: Frack Wastewater “Not quite as bad as we thought”
November 10, 2014November 10, 2014

What do you know–some real science has once again popped up with respect to shale drilling. A pair of researchers from Rice University published the results of their analysis of frack wastewater from the PA Marcellus Shale, the TX Eagle Ford Shale, and the NM Barnett Shale. The study, titled “Organic compounds in produced waters from shale gas wells” (full copy below) was just published in the October issue of the journal Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. The study is a detailed breakdown of the chemical components found in shale wastewater. And what did the study find? According to one of the researchers, the results show the frack water “was not quite as bad as we thought”…
Read More “Researchers: Frack Wastewater “Not quite as bad as we thought””
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Wastewater

PA Dem Congressman Demands Info from DEP on Frack Waste
October 30, 2014October 30, 2014

An anti-drilling Pennsylvania Democrat Congressman, Matt Cartwright, believes Washington, DC and not the individual states should be the ones regulating shale oil and gas drilling. So Cartwright, under the pretense of seeking information, has sent a letter to the acting Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) seeking information on how the state oversees frack waste disposal (wastewater and drill cuttings). Cartwright is the just the latest PA Democrat to bash away at the single industry keeping the PA economy out of the economic crapper. Cartwright, in his letter, refers to the flawed “report” from another high profile PA Dem who is critical of the industry, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale (see Anti-Drilling PA Auditor General Criticizes DEP in “Report”)…
Read More “PA Dem Congressman Demands Info from DEP on Frack Waste”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Research | Wastewater

NSF/Park Found. Research Claims Frack Fluid Tracking with Tracers
October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

Last year MDN endorsed a proposal put forth largely by anti-drillers–a proposal that tracers be used in fracking fluids to put to rest, once and for all, the silly notion that frack fluids are rising from the depths to “contaminate” water aquifers (see Using Tracers in Fracking Fluid – Ready for Prime Time?). Using tracers, or unique “fingerprints” that positively identify fluid as coming from shale drilling, can be used to check nearby streams and rivers to ensure such fluids have not somehow been released into the environment after they’ve come back to the surface for disposal by recycling or injection well. Our only concern was/is that the science is solid. Yesterday, the National Science Foundation announced researchers (using NSF and Park Foundation grant money) have field tested and pronounced they now have a solid solution…
Read More “NSF/Park Found. Research Claims Frack Fluid Tracking with Tracers”
Crime | Greene County (PA) | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Wastewater

Illegal Wastewater Dumping in Greene County, PA?
October 15, 2014October 15, 2014

A disturbing bit of news. Officials in Waynesburg, PA (county seat of Greene County, in the very southwestern tip of PA) say about 4,000 gallons of a “gray, milky substance” flowed through the local sewage treatment plant and that the plant’s flow meters spiked up when it happened. In other words, someone, somewhere dumped something down a manhole and that something got processed by the plant and ultimately discharged into Ten Mile Creek. The disturbing bit is that the plant’s operators, along with the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), think the substance dumped may have been frack wastewater…
Read More “Illegal Wastewater Dumping in Greene County, PA?”