Aquatech opens new plant

Aquatech opens new plant

TIOGA, PA.

A Pennsylvania firm has opened a new plant to treat and recycle wastewater generated by Marcellus Shale natural-gas drilling.

Aquatech International Corp., which is based in Canonsburg, says the new plant opened in Tioga County in April. That’s in northeast Pennsylvania near the New York border.

The company says the Tioga facility has a central treatment plant that uses a combination of technologies to treat drilling fluids, the highly salty brine that flows back from wells and other oil and natural-gas wastewaters.

Treated wastewater can be reused in other wells, thus reducing the amount of fresh water that drillers use to fracture, or stimulate, well production.

Suit filed over oil leases

SAN FRANCISCO

Two environmental groups are suing the federal government over the December auction of nearly 18,000 acres of oil leases on prime public lands in Central California.

The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in April alleging that the Bureau of Land Management auctioned off the rights to drill for oil and gas without adequately considering the potential risks to the region’s water supply, wildlife and air posed by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The land at issue includes scenic ranches and vineyards in Monterey County and is also part of the historic range of the endangered California condor.

Gas drilling to resume at site of spill in Pa.

TUNKHANNOCK, PA.

State environmental officials say gas drilling can resume at a northeastern Pennsylvania site where thousands of gallons of fracking fluid spilled.

Carrizo Oil and Gas says it received permission from the Department of Environmental Protection to resume fracking at the pad in Wyoming County. The company says it met with regulators and agreed to make changes to improve its procedures.

Its operations in the state had been on hold since March 13, when an equipment failure allowed about 200,000 gallons of fluid to flow from the well. Several families nearby had to be evacuated.

DEP spokeswoman Colleen Connolly says the company will continue sampling to fully evaluate whether there are any impacts to water resources. Carrizo spokesman Richard Hunter says initial tests have found nothing unusual.