Waste

GreenHunter Water LLC has begun to process complex oilfield waste streams at its bulk storage and barge transloading terminal in New Matamoras, OH, the GreenHunter Resources Inc. subsidiary said Friday.

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.”

Phoenix, AZ-based solid waste operator Republic Services Inc. has signed a deal with a unit of California-based Clean Fuels Energy Corp. to take some of the renewable natural gas produced at a Tennessee landfill and use it as vehicle fuel in Republic’s expanding natural gas-powered fleet.

A newly devised state self-generation incentive program can proceed, including waste heat capture (cogeneration), pressure-reduction turbines, advanced energy storage, combined heat-power (CHP) gas turbines, micro-turbines and internal combustion engines.

Proposed rule changes for handling drilling waste products and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) were approved Tuesday by the North Dakota Industrial Commission. They drew an immediate negative reaction from the North Dakota Petroleum Council, which claimed the changes would add up to $300,000 of added costs/well.

Expanded use of combined heat and power (CHP) systems, which recover and make use of waste heat from power generation, could be a means of growing demand for Marcellus Shale natural gas, according to the Commonwealth Recycled Energy Economic Development Alliance (CREEDA).

The operators of two natural gas drilling waste disposal wells in Arkansas — BHP Billiton Petroleum (Fayetteville) LLC and Clarita Operating LLC — have agreed with regulators to keep the wells shut in while an ongoing study of their potential link to seismic activity in the area continues.

The operators of two natural gas drilling waste disposal wells in Arkansas have agreed with regulators to keep the wells shut in while an ongoing study of their potential link to seismic activity in the area continues (see Shale Daily, March 17).

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Operating Inc. and Little Rock, AR-based Clarita Operating LLC agreed Friday to halt drilling waste injection activities at two disposal wells while a potential link between injection activities and earthquakes in the Fayetteville Shale region is examined.