DEP discharge permits planned

The state has released proposed discharge permits for two facilities under development in Wyoming County to treat wastewater resulting from natural-gas drilling.

The agency has also scheduled public hearings in October to receive comments on the proposed permits, which constitute the beginning of a two-part process.

The first part, which includes the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System application, sets the limits the facilities would have to meet based on the characteristics of the fluid they plan to treat, according to DEP spokesman Mark Carmon. The second part requires the company to document how it plans to meet those limits, he said.

Other permits and approvals could be required, according to the department.

The two plants are proposed for Lemon and Eaton townships and would discharge into the Susquehanna River watershed. North Branch Processing LLC proposes discharging up to 500,000 gallons per day of treated effluent directly into the river at a site near Skyhaven Airport, while Wyoming Somerset Regional Water Resources Corp. hopes to discharge up to 380,000 gallons per day into Meshoppen Creek in Lemon Township.

The closest public water source downstream of the discharge would be Danville, according to DEP.

The standards the facilities will have to meet aren’t yet clear. DEP is working with the industry and other interested parties to draft new standards, Carmon said, which are scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2011. He expected the new guidelines to be more stringent.

The discharge permit covers a variety of substances that could be in the wastewater, including chlorides, sulfates and total dissolved solids.

Treating the contaminated wastewater – created in the process that cracks the shale to release the gas deposits about a mile underground – has become one of the biggest issues with the proliferation of gas drilling in Pennsylvania because the state has few treatment facilities.

To further complicate the problem, none is in the northern or eastern sections of the state, where much of the drilling in the Marcellus shale is focused.

The proposals are the first on the eastern side of the state.

DEP is also considering allowing wastewater to be discarded into deep, geologically stable, old, empty gas and oil wells. DEP Secretary John Hanger, speaking at a meeting of the state Senate Republicans at Misericordia University last year, noted that injection is his favored alternative.

If you go

Both meetings will be held in the Tunkhannock Middle School auditorium and begin at 5 p.m., with the public hearing beginning at 7 p.m. The middle school is at 200 Franklin Ave. in Tunkhannock.

The hearing for the Eaton Township facility is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 6 and the one for Lemon Township is on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

The permits are available for viewing at the Tunkhannock Public Library and DEP’s Wilkes-Barre office. The library is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and may be contacted at 570-836-1677. To reach the DEP office, call 826-5472.