Wastewater disposal to be tackled

In an effort to promote natural-gas drilling in the state while addressing public concern over potential environmental degradation, the state announced last week a partnership with the drilling industry to address wastewater disposal.

“These guys are the ones who are going to have to … come up with the technology to dispose of (the water used in drilling). That’s why we’re working with them,” DEP press secretary Teresa Candori said. “This certainly isn’t the only input we seek.”

The overall goal is to agree on industry-standard guidelines that will streamline the permitting process by allowing drillers to acquire all necessary approvals at the same time. The industry has been asking for a comprehensive regulatory manual that it can follow, Candori explained.

The department will consider comments from “everybody,” she said, because “we’re interested in taking advantage of this economic opportunity while protecting our water resources.”

The deep-well drilling techniques used to tap the gas-laden Marcellus Shale require hydraulic fracturing fluid, a combination of water, sand and chemicals. About half the fracturing fluid, called frac for short, remains when it’s forced underground to crack and hold open the rock, but the rest comes back up and has to be treated and disposed of. That process is complicated, as the fluid can’t simply be dumped in with regular sewage. Chemicals within water have the potential to decimate the bacteria colonies that filter sewage, so they must either be added slowly or be treated in a separate facility.

The department also is exploring a process used in Texas in which polluted water is injected deep underground into stable rock layers well below groundwater aquifers. Guidelines for the process have yet to be drawn up, however, and there is a question whether geologic features exist in this region to make it feasible.

The partnership also will explore unconventional processes that avoid using clean water in the first place. It will consider the viability of reusing frac water from other sites, using industrial waste water as frac water or even perhaps acid mine-drainage, Candori said.

No specific goals or deadlines have been set, she said, but it’s in everyone’s best interest to solve the issue quickly.

Part of that process will be to forge a standard limit that can be measured on chemical concentrations in each batch of frac water to be treated, she said. That way, drillers would know exactly what thresholds the water must meet before it can be sent to a treatment facility and can dilute or otherwise pre-treat the water.

About half the fracturing fluid, called frac water for short, comes back up and has to be treated and disposed of.