GreenHunter Resources Inc.’s planned water treatment, recycling and condensate handling logistics terminal in Wheeling, WV, to serve the Marcellus and Utica shale region could provide drillers with free recycled wastewater for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations.

In March, GreenHunter subsidiary GreenHunter Water LLC closed on the purchase of an 11-acre barging terminal facility on the Ohio River in Wheeling and said it had fully engineered plans to convert the facility, which had previously been used for gasoline storage, with a $1.7 million project expected to lead to operations by 3Q2013 (see Shale Daily, March 15).

Drillers that fill their trucks with recycled water on the same trip that they bring wastewater to the facility would receive discounts and would save enough money due to the facility’s location near their operations that the water would in some cases come to them at virtually no cost.

In February, dozens of protestors stormed GreenHunter facilities in New Matamoras, OH, about 40 miles south of Wheeling, causing a six-hour disruption that ended peacefully but resulted in 10 arrests (see Shale Daily, Feb. 22). The unconventional oil and gas environmental services company said its employees were “held hostage” by the protesters during the incident. A southeastern Ohio community group has also demanded that the U.S. Coast Guard study the potential environmental impacts of the company’s proposed fracking wastewater transfer station on the Ohio River in New Matamoras.

“GreenHunter’s plans for both our Wheeling facility and our New Matamoras facility include recycling of flowback and produced water, which would include sending clean brine back out to the drill pad and in some cases send it out at no charge (other than transport),” GreenHunter COO Jonathan Hoopes told NGI’s Shale Daily.

The company changed its name to GreenHunter Resources from GreenHunter Energy effective May 24 to more accurately reflect its nature and future business opportunities, it said.

“Over the last 18 months, the company has implemented a new business strategy of focusing on the water resource management business as it relates specifically to the oil and gas industry,” GreenHunter said. The company said it may also move into related operations, including transportation of hydrocarbons from oil and gas wells to refineries, hot oiler service, and water pipeline construction and transportation.

At the end of 2012 GreenHunter acquired two oilfield water service and construction companies operating in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas (see Shale Daily, Jan. 7). White Top Oilfield Construction LLC and Black Water Services LLC had common management and had been serving Eagle Ford operators since 2008. But the additional time needed to complete the consolidate the financial statements of the two private companies into GreenHunter’s financial statements has forced the company to delay its quarterly report on form 10-Q, prompting a letter from the Exchange Staff of the NYSE MKT LLC indicating that the company has not met one of the exchange’s continued listing requirements. GreenHunter said Friday that it expects to file the 10-Q by June 10.