Pa. Marcellus Wastewater Industry Restructuring, Painfully
The State Journal
17 November 2011
By Pam Kasey
The emerging industry for treating and disposing of Marcellus
wastewater has undergone a painful restructuring in Pennsylvania
since April.
That's when environmental regulators asked drillers to voluntarily
stop using conventional wastewater treatment plants.
"It's been a very powerful transformation of the water disposal
and water processing industry during the last six months," said
Paul Hart, president of Hart Resource Technologies, which operates
three treatment facilities to the east and north of Pittsburgh.
In West Virginia, companies drilling for natural gas in the
Marcellus shale have been able to use underground injection wells
for ultimate disposal of their wastewater.
Pennsylvania's geology is not conducive to underground injection,
though. Some haul to Ohio for underground injection. But since
transporting water very far is uneconomical, the Marcellus
industry in most of the state needs access to some treatment.
The rocky regulatory process of figuring out how that treatment
can be provided without damaging waterways has left Pennsylvania
Brine and other treatment providers bruised.
New Waste Stream
Salty waste fluids associated with the extraction of gas from
the Marcellus shale — flowback from hydraulic fracturing, mostly,
as well as produced water that comes up with the gas — became a
significant waste stream within a few years after the industry
started up in 2005.
The salts, known in water quality lingo as total dissolved solids,
or TDS, can run to the many tens of thousands of milligrams per
liter, much saltier than sea water. Standard public and private
wastewater treatment technology only dilutes the salts and
discharges them to waterways.
A salty episode in the Monongahela River in late 2008 got the
attention of regulators in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
In West Virginia, the Department of Environmental Protection
responded by setting a high bar in August 2009 for treatment
facilities. The small amount of treatment for discharge that was
taking place simply shifted to underground injection disposal.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, after
much research and public input, implemented a standard in August
2010 of 500 milligrams per liter of TDS as an average monthly
limit in discharges of treated gas industry wastewater.
At least 18 public and private treatment facilities, Hart's
included, were grandfathered at previously allowed discharge
levels.
That seemed to establish the new regime. Hart's business, which
had been built since 1985 around treating wastewater from
conventional gas and oil wells and which discharged to waterways,
now could feel comfortable offering treatment for the larger
stream of wastewater from unconventional gas wells.
Turnabout
But the detection soon after in some western Pennsylvania
rivers of bromide, one of the dissolved solids and a precursor to
a cancer-causing compound, led to PADEP's April call for drillers
to find new ways to treat and dispose of their wastewater.
For the grandfathered treatment facilities, it was a reversal that
changed everything.
"We have had anywhere from a 60- to 70-percent cut in the amount
of water we receive and process," said Hart.
The new, unofficial policy finished treatment for discharge.
Back in 2009, as the state considered TDS regulation, Hart said,
24 facilities treated and disposed of gas industry wastewater in
Pennsylvania. Many of those were publicly owned treatment plants
that had taken on gas industry wastewater for additional revenue
but were primarily dedicated to residential and commercial
wastewater.
At the end of 2010, after the TDS regulations but before the
PADEP's turnabout, 18 grandfathered facilities offered treatment
and disposal, he continued. Some of these were public plants;
some, like Hart's, were private plants focused solely on the gas
industry. Two facilities also had started up to recycle Marcellus
wastewater, treating it partially for re-use by the industry.
Now, he said, six months after, although the grandfathering
remains in place, only one facility is truly sanctioned by the
state for gas industry wastewater treatment and discharge: Eureka
Resources in Williamsport, which produces distilled water.
And PADEP lists three facilities conducting recycling.
Recycling
Recyclers have benefited from the policy switch.
One of those recyclers, Reserved Environmental Services at Mount
Pleasant southeast of Pittsburgh, opened at a fortuitous time:
April 2010, just as PADEP was discouraging treatment for
discharge.
RES precipitates mud and metals using a chemical precipitation
process, then filters the fluid to make it clear and chlorinates
to kill bacteria, according to President Andy Kicinski. It does
not remove salts, but it's not a problem because all of its fluid
is returned to the field for dilution and re-use.
The facility has a capacity of a million gallons per day and so
far handles about 400,000 gpd. RES charges between $3 to $5.50 per
barrel for its serves.
The company also has begun providing clean water purchased from
the Westmoreland County Municipal Authority to the field.
Kicinski expects volume to remain steady at this location for now
because of the low prices gas producers are getting for their
product. But he intends to build three more facilities to serve
gas fields in other parts of the state.
Fallout
Although Hart's and other facilities remain grandfathered for
Marcellus wastewater for the time being, PADEP's request of
drillers all but stopped the business.
Hart acknowledges that the Marcellus industry already was moving
toward recycling its hydraulic fracturing flowback, either through
simple dilution or with treatment and dilution, when the PADEP
changed its tune, and that some companies already were using
underground injection disposal in Ohio.
Yet, he expresses frustration.
"I have a valid permit. I've operated my business compliantly. I'm
legally allowed to take the water," he said.
"But this has been a very politically charged environment," he
continued. "When Marcellus was started, most of the producers were
independent. Most producers now are publicly traded. They don't
want to be viewed in opposition to the state. Basically, political
pressure was applied on these producers to stop bringing water to
us."
Hart said he has closed his business to any Marcellus producers
who might overcome that pressure while he adjusts his equipment
and processes to the new regime.