Treatment plant for gas drilling waste water subject of Athens Twp. hearing tonight

BY BRIAN BISHOP

ATHENS TWP. - Drilling in the Marcellus Shale not only produces natural gas, but millions of gallons of waste water that need to be dealt with.

The drilling and hydraulic fracturing of a gas well requires between two and four million gallons of water, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report published this spring. Some of that water, along with ground water, returns to the surface as waste water.

The waste water, a result of the hydraulic fracturing process used to liberate the gas from the shale, is handled and dealt with in different ways. In other states, the water can be injected into deep wells, according to Robert Hawley, water program manager for the North Central Region of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. However, the geology of Pennsylvania is "not conducive" to that type of disposal, he said.

Therefore, DEP offices in Meadville, Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport and Pittsburgh have received "many dozens" of applications for National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits to build plants to treat waste water produced in the Marcellus Shale to "clean it" before it is returned to the environment.

One of those applications belongs to Somerset Regional Water Resources, based in Tunkhannock, which has proposed a plant along the Chemung River in Athens Township. Somerset plans to build a treatment plant on a lot in the Valley Industrial Park.

According to an engineer's report submitted as part of the company's National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit application to the DEP, the plant, if constructed, would take in around 1.5 million gallons of water each day from natural gas production sites, to be treated and reused at well sites. Any water not hauled back to the well sites would be discharged into the Chemung River, the report states. According to the report, the plant is anticipated to process around 1.3 million gallons of water each day, accounting for a 12-percent water loss due to evaporation. For comparison, an Olympic-sized swimming pool has a volume of around 660,000 U.S. gallons.

Construction of the plant will disturb around 27.5 acres of land, according to application documents.

The North Central Regional Office of the DEP, which serves Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, and Union counties, has received 10 applications for NPDES permits, according to spokesman Dan Spadoni. Of those 10 applications, four are for plants proposed on the west branch of the Susquehanna River, one is for the Somerset plant on the Chemung River, one is proposed on the Tioga River, and the remainder are for various creeks and streams, he said.

Somerset Regional Water Resources is requesting a discharge permit for around a million gallons a day, which makes it the largest in the North Central Region, Spadoni said. The other proposed plants are requesting permits for between 50,000 to 500,000 gallons per day, he said.

DEP stopped its review of Somerset's NPDES permit in July, Spadoni said, because the company did not have local zoning approval. Because the treatment plant is a "use not provided for" in the township's zoning regulations, a conditional use permit must be obtained by the company. A public hearing on the company's conditional use permit is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight at the Athens Township Municipal Building on Herrick Avenue.

If the company receives local zoning approval, it will be several more months until DEP finishes the approval process, Spadoni said. After the DEP receives all the necessary technical information, Spadoni said, the department would publish a draft permit in the Pennsylvania Bulletin with a 30-day comment period on the draft permit. If there is significant interest in the application, public meetings and hearings can be held on any application if the department is requested to hold them, he said, though the department isn't automatically required to hold public meetings or hearings.

The waste water from Marcellus Shale wells can contain contaminants such as naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), high levels of dissolved solids, or salts, and heavy metals, Hawley said. Radioactive materials are a concern for the entire Marcellus Shale waste water industry, he said. That's all-the-more true in Bradford and Sullivan counties, because of the higher numbers and frequency of radioactive isotopes, he said.

These materials are around us all the time, he said, and typically pose no danger. But, the water treatment process can concentrate these elements, resulting in TENORM, or Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material, he said. Concentrations of radioactive isotopes, along with other metals, such as Barium or Strontium, in the produced sludge could cause the sludge to be labeled as hazardous waste, Hawley said. Sludge labeled as a hazardous material must be disposed of properly at a landfill permitted by the DEP to accept such wastes, he said. The handling of harmful elements is something that the DEP looks at while reviewing the NPDES, he said, but the actual handling of the waste is the responsibility of the DEP's waste management program.

In general the public has nothing to worry about, he said, although workers could have something to worry about if they are routinely exposed to high concentrations of radioactivity.

According to the engineer's report, Somerset is evaluating two methods of removing radionuclides: ion exchange and organoclay absorption. The methods are being evaluated for their ability to remove the radionuclides, and for appropriate sizing, the report states; further evaluation is being done to determine the right location for the process and the most appropriate and safest means for handling and disposing of the waste generated.

Another concern with treating waste water from Marcellus Shale wells, Hawley stated, is the amount of Total Dissolved Solids, or salts, present in the water. The Marcellus Shale layer was laid down millions of years ago under an inland sea that was many times saltier than the existing ocean, Hawley explained, and that salt went into the rock as solids as the sea disappeared. The salt goes back into solution in the waste water and comes back to the surface with the waste water, he said. Salts can "drastically affect" aquatic life if released into waters of the commonwealth, he said.

The removal of salts from the waste water presents a challenge, Hawley said, because unlike other solids that are suspended in the waste water, and can be removed using conventional treatment methods, the dissolved salts require more labor and energy-intensive processes, such as distillation, reverse osmosis, or nano-filtration, to remove.

Somerset plans to use a reverse osmosis process to remove dissolved solids, including salts and organics, according to the engineer's report. The resulting slurry from the reverse osmosis process will be dewatered and crystallized, the report stated, and then sold for a beneficial reuse, with the exact reuse determined based on an analysis of the salt produced.

Larry Mostoller, president of Somerset Regional Water Resources, said the company decided to build a plant in Athens Township because of the proximity to drilling activity and because the business park already has underground utilities. In addition to the proposed plant in Athens Township, the company has submitted permit applications for two other plants, one in Wyoming County and one in Somerset County, he said. The Somerset County plant is a larger facility, while the Wyoming County plant is similar in size to the Athens Township plant, he said.

DEP has been "very fair" with the company so far, Mostoller said, adding that his company and the engineering firm hired for the project, MWH of Chicago, have done whatever DEP has required to complete the work.

Although the company has not been given a list of effluent limits, Mostoller said, the company has put in place the necessary technology to remove anything in the water that is a contaminant relative to EPA drinking water standards.

The company plans on recycling the water for further use in gas drilling operations, Mostoller said. Almost all the facilities with applications for NPDES permits have proposed recycling the treated water, Hawley said, but are asking for discharge permits because they are unsure of the market for the treated water and might not be able to provide storage for large volumes of treated water. While they intend to treat and reuse the water, Hawley said, they know that at some point in time they will have to discharge some portion of the produced water.

Mostoller said the Athens Township facility won't discharge water unless it's absolutely necessary.

"Recycling makes sense in every venue," Mostoller said, not only from an environmental perspective, but it "makes perfect sense" economically to recycle the water and have it to return to the well sites. Somerset works in the gas industry and provides water services, he said, which gives the company a greater understanding of "what is and what can be and what needs to be" relative to recycling waste water. The companies the plant will be cleaning water for will be taking the water back, he said, as the cost of hauling the water in will be offset somewhat by taking it back.

The plant still needs a discharge permit, however; in case of unforeseen circumstances, such as heavy rains that may flood the facility, and which would cause the plant to have to discharge water, Mostoller said.

"I'm not trying to make a problem, I'm trying to solve one," Mostoller said.

"This water needs to be cleaned ... Someone has to clean it," he said, adding: "our company, with the help of MWH, will do as good or better of a job than anybody out there."

Brian Bishop can be reached at (570) 888-9652; or e-mail: bbishop@thedailyreview.com.