EPA Spending $3.1M to Clean Shuttered Fairmont, WV Wastewater Plant
The Fairmont Brine Processing plant, located at 168 AFR Drive in Fairmont (Marion County), West Virginia, was constructed between 2009 and 2010 by AOP Clearwater LLC. The plant was acquired by Fairmont Brine Processing (FBP) in 2012. FBP began pre-treatment operations at the site in 2013 and fully operated the plant beginning fall of 2014. In May 2017, MDN reported that FBP was not paying some of its vendors (see Exclusive: What’s Going on with Fairmont Brine?). At the time, the facility’s lawyers told MDN that tardy payments were being addressed and everything was going full speed ahead. Less than a year later, FBP ceased operations at the site (on or about March 1, 2018). Read More “EPA Spending $3.1M to Clean Shuttered Fairmont, WV Wastewater Plant”
This week’s permit report is a bit different. Technically, for the week of August 12 – 18, a total of seven new permits were issued across the Marcellus/Utica. However, last week’s permit report omitted West Virginia numbers because the state’s online data service was out of order (see 
This is a case of everybody pointing at somebody else. Natural gas with contaminants (dirty gas) flowed through pipelines to Fairmont State University (in Marion County, WV), which “significantly damaged boilers, gas lines, valved and regulators and other structures and equipment on the college campus” in September 2021. The university sued the local utility company providing the gas, Hope Gas. In return, Hope said that *if* the gas was not clean, it was not their fault. They got the gas from Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage (EGTS), formerly owned by Dominion Energy but now owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and other regions like the Haynesville. DTM issued its fourth quarter 2023 update last Friday. The Marcellus/Utica region (which they call Northeast in the report) received several prominent mentions during a conference call with analysts. Also of note were comments by DT CEO David Slater, who said he’s positioning the company to take advantage of “bolt-on” opportunities in the regions where they operate. Meaning he’s on the lookout for mergers and acquisitions.
Clean Fuel Services LLC, a subsidiary of Hog Lick Aggregates LLC, is one of fourteen partner companies from West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania providing hydrogen production, offtake, and connective infrastructure for the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) project. Clean Fuel’s role is to develop a hydrogen fuel depot in Fairmont (Marion County), WV, as part of ARCH2. The depot will provide a “one-stop-shop” for customers transitioning heavy-duty and medium-duty trucks, construction equipment, delivery vehicles, and bus fleets from diesel to hydrogen.
There was a healthy number of new permits issued in all three actively drilling Marcellus/Utica states last week. In Pennsylvania, 14 new shale well permits were issued across the state. In Ohio, five new shale permits were issued, four of them to a single driller (Ascent Resources) in a single county (Jefferson). West Virginia came roaring back after getting skunked with no permits two weeks ago. WV issued 10 new shale permits last week with five going to a single well pad in Monongalia County.