Fairmont Brine Processing LLC, which currently operates an oil and natural gas wastewater treatment facility in Marion County, WV, has closed on a $90 million senior secured credit facility with the investment firm Benefit Street Partners (BSP) LLC to construct additional plants in the Appalachian Basin.

Fairmont’s President Brian Kalt confirmed the financing in a post on the professional social media and networking website LinkedIn last week, saying the partnership with “BSP validates the industry’s need for an environmentally responsible alternative to the technologically enhanced seismic activity that comes along with deep well injection.” Fairmont utilizes a patented evaporation and crystallization process at its small processing facility in Northern Western Virginia.

Kalt said the $90 million would allow it to build and operate “additional water processing and salt production facilities” in the region. The company is currently in discussions with exploration and production companies about where to locate those plants. Fairmont provides services to Appalachian producers in the Marcellus and Utica shales that range from flowback and produced water management to recycling and reuse services for future drilling and production of sodium chloride rock salt and distilled water.

Its West Virginia facility currently serves some of Antero Resources Corp.’s volumes. But Antero Midstream Partners LP has announced plans for one of the region’s largest wastewater treatment facilities in Doddridge County, WV. The company said last year that it would invest $275 million to build a state-of-the-art 60,000 barrels/day treatment complex that it expects to have in service by 2017 (see Shale Daily, Sept. 18, 2015, Aug. 19, 2015).

BSP, the credit investment arm of Providence Equity Partners, manages $11 billion in assets. Its funding for Fairmont is its latest investment in the Appalachian Basin. In March, the company said it would commit up to $175 million to jointly develop 58 of Rex Energy Corp.’s Marcellus and Utica shale wells in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio (see Shale Daily, March 2).