43
Patriot will try to debunk fracking-wastewater myths
By Karl Henkel
WARREN
Patriot Water Treatment hopes more research into wastewater from hydraulic fracturing will help win over the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Patriot faces a potential shutdown next year due to environmental regulations, and is planning a study with the city of Warren to debunk the myths surrounding the wastewater it cleans from fracking.
Fracking is a process where water and chemicals are blasted into rocks thousands of feet below the ground to unlock natural gas and oil.
In addition to the extended study, Patriot will also have the Water Environment Federation’s Ohio Association and US EPA’s Cincinnati research team peer-review a 2010 study.
That study helped Warren obtain a brine water permit, allowing it to accept wastewater treated by Patriot.
That permit is good through mid-2012, but the ODNR said earlier this year it will not renew it.
It cites a statute in the Ohio Revised Code that “strictly limits” options for disposing brine from the production of oil or gas.
It recommends deep-well injections, among other options, for wastewater used in fracking.
But Patriot — which cleans a small percentage of the overall wastewater used in fracking — does not treat water that can be injected.
The wastewater that Patriot treats cannot physically be injected into deep wells, said Andrew Blocksom, Patriot’s president, because it essentially is trying to push mud through rock.
Patriot cleans that wastewater until it meets or exceeds water standards imposed by environmental agencies. Warren accepts the brine into its wastewater treatment plant.
Jeffrey Dick, Youngstown State University geology department chairman, said Patriot should focus heavily on the quality of water after it leaves the Warren plant “to make sure its not increasing chlorides or [total dissolved solids].”
The study could take at least two years, and Blocksom did not know how much the study will cost.
Patriot already has purchased land in East Liverpool and Steubenville in hopes of building plants similar to the one in Warren.
Blocksom said as many as 600 jobs could be created, but only if ODNR allows Patriot to send treated water to public-water treatment plants.