Treatment

National Grid is beginning the design and construction phase of a purification system to convert biogas from New York City’s Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant into renewable natural gas for residential and commercial use.

A Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) official said Wednesday a consent decree between the agency and a private company concerning pollution, possibly from oil and gas wastewater discharged from a treatment facility along the Allegheny River, is imminent.

Researchers from Duke University published another controversial study on Wednesday, this time taking aim at a wastewater treatment plant in western Pennsylvania after finding radioactive chemicals in an adjacent creek bed, and blaming the find on Marcellus Shale development.

Produced water from oil and natural gas drilling sites that is treated at wastewater plants appears to create elevated levels of some of the “most toxic” chemicals, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

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.

Ridgeline Energy Services Inc. said it plans to construct a water treatment facility in the Marcellus Shale near Punxsutawney, PA. The Calgary-based company said it had executed an agreement for an initial single train commercial installation (STCI) that would concentrate on produced water, with an anchor customer providing about 2,500-4,000 b/d of wastewater. Ridgeline said it was looking to build additional permanent installations in the same production area and expand its presence in western Pennsylvania. Installation of the first STCI is to begin in about a month.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) independent Science Advisory Board (SAB) has formed a Hydraulic Fracturing Research Advisory panel of independent experts to peer review the EPA’s 2014 draft report of results for its national study on potential health and environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources. EPA said the SAB panel will provide scientific feedback on EPA’s research in “an open and transparent manner.”

The U.S. and Canadian rig count may recover a bit this year, but it still will be lower than it was in 2012, according to Schlumberger Ltd. CEO Paal Kibsgaard.

Houston-based Oil and Gas Solutions LLC (OGS) has been awarded an engineering contract by Austin, TX-based Omni Water Solutions Inc. to design Omni’s new HIPPO mobile water treatment system, which would be used to treat and recycle high volumes of water used in hydraulic fracturing. OGS said the system would be a modularized unit that would fit onto a conventional low-boy trailer for easy transport.