Siemens Water Technologies will provide Hydro Recovery LP with a system to treat natural gas hydraulic fracturing wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling and produced water from operating wells in northeastern Pennsylvania. The system, which Siemens said will produce a hydraulic stimulation fluid for reuse, will be part of a new wastewater treatment plant scheduled to go online in April in Tioga County, PA. The system is designed to treat 288,000 gallons of wastewater daily, reducing total suspended solids to less than 100 parts per million. Last year Pennsylvania adopted wastewater treatment rules that limit discharges of wastewater from gas drilling to 500 milligrams per liter (mg/l) of total dissolved solids and 250 mg/l for chlorides (see Daily GPI, Aug. 26, 2010).

A bi-partisan group of Pennsylvania state lawmakers led by Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware County) re-introduced legislation Wednesday to put a three-year halt on leasing additional state forest lands for natural gas drilling. A similar bill passed the House of Representatives last year, but died in the Senate, leading former Gov. Ed Rendell to install a moratorium by executive order. Pennsylvania has already leased around half of the 1.5 million acres of state forests that overlie the Marcellus Shale formation. Gov. Tom Corbett is in favor of opening more state lands to drilling but has not proposed any additional leasing in his first budget.

Southcross Energy will provide Eagle Ford Shale gas gathering, transportation and processing to Swift Energy Co. in McMullen County, TX, under a long-term agreement, the company said. Dallas-based Southcross plans to construct a 25-mile, 20-inch diameter gas pipeline with lateral gathering lines and convert an existing dry pipeline system to rich gas service in order to gather the Swift Energy gas for processing. The McMullen extension will have an initial, expandable capacity of 120 MMcf/d and is expected to be in service in mid-2011. It will originate in McMullen County and extend to Southcross’ CCNG Transmission pipeline for gas delivery to and processing at Southcross’ processing plant near Gregory, TX.