Wastewater

Among the many renewable energy sources — wind, solar, hydroelectric, biofuels — there is one to which we all contribute that has not yet managed to attract the romantic advocates who have embraced other forms of green energy. We're speaking about the gray river of warmth flowing right beneath our feet: sewage. A Philadelphia company, NovaThermal Energy L.L.C. , wants to heat and cool buildings by tapping into the constant, guaranteed heat contained in wastewater.

A consortium of Chester County's major environmental groups has declared that any further discharges of wastewater into the Brandywine Creek should be banned. The six-member consortium released a statement at Thursday night's meeting of the Downingtown Area Regional Authority's Phase III planning group that said critical problems would result from additional discharges to the creek. The problems include reductions in the creek's base flow, reduced groundwater recharge and depletion of the water resources of the Brandywine Valley.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's statistics on Marcellus Shale natural gas activity contain serious flaws and inconsistencies, and do not accurately report the volume of wastewater being reused in the industry's much-touted recycling efforts. The DEP's most recent statewide statistics on wastewater production overstate by nearly two times the amount of wastewater produced during the last six months of 2010 largely because one the 39 operators who filed reports last month inadvertently entered the wrong data in its forms.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it wanted to develop national standards for the disposal of polluted wastewater from shale-gas drilling - a move that puzzled Pennsylvania officials, who said Marcellus Shale operators had already halted discharges. The EPA's proposal is aimed at federally regulated pretreatment facilities that process some wastewater from natural-gas drilling before passing it along to state-regulated municipal sewage systems for final processing and discharge.

The level of salty compounds in the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh spiked above acceptable limits in late 2008 - not a health risk, according to federal and state regulators, but drinking water drawn from the river tasted like mud. Environmentalists blamed the contamination on Marcellus Shale gas-drilling discharges. Natural-gas drillers pointed to other sources in the historically stressed river: pollutants from coal mines and other industrial discharges. Which source was to blame didn't really matter.

Regulators ordered a Montgomery County wastewater-treatment operation last year to halt accepting liquids from a Marcellus Shale natural gas driller after discovering that hundreds of truckloads had been improperly imported into the Delaware watershed. The Delaware River Basin Commission, after learning that 1.8 million gallons of wastewater had been trucked to Hatfield Township, ordered a private industrial treatment facility and the Hatfield Township Municipal Authority to cease accepting the fluids from northern Pennsylvania.

A company drilling in the Marcellus Shale region in southwest Pennsylvania has been fined $97,350 for allowing "fracking" wastewater to overflow a pit and contaminate a watershed in Hopewell Township, Washington County. The state Department of Environmental Protection said that Atlas Resources L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlas Energy Inc., based in Moon Township, Allegheny County, corrected the problem once it was discovered. The wastewater was a by-product of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," during which millions of gallons of high-pressure water, sand, and chemicals are injected into a well to shatter the shale to release trapped natural gas. In this case, the state said in a release, an unknown amount of water overflowed and ran into a tributary of Dunkle Run. The problem was discovered Dec. 5 and 6. The company said that a water pump owned and operated by a contractor had activated improperly, and that the discharge consisted of about 90 percent fresh water and 10 recycled flowback water.

This week, Oxford Borough will begin to make its case for turning a farm property into a vast field for spray irrigation of treated wastewater. Winning approval is essential for Oxford to turn its wastewater treatment system into a regional plant. Because the farm is in Lower Oxford Township, supervisors there will begin hearings Tuesday on the suitability of the 158-acre former Osborne farm. More hearings are set for Thursday, Feb. 25 and Feb. 27. The resumption of hearings became possible after the recent appointment of Ervin W. Lewis to Lower Oxford's three-member Board of Supervisors.

Pennsylvania regulators on Tuesday called on Marcellus Shale natural gas drillers to stop sending wastewater to 15 treatment plants, citing an increased risk of contaminating public drinking water. The Department of Environmental Protection's action, while voluntary, will likely set the stage for a formal ban on the discharge of inadequately treated wastewater into the state's rivers. "Now is the time to take action to end this practice," acting DEP Secretary Michael Krancer said in a statement Tuesday.

Months ago, with little public awareness, the Delaware County wastewater treatment plant got a state permit to accept wastewater from natural gas-drilling operations hundreds of miles away. The plan was to take the polluted water from the burgeoning - and contentious - industry in the Marcellus Shale region, transport it by truck or train to the Chester facility, treat it there, and then discharge it into the Delaware River. Until yesterday, that is, when the permit was abruptly rescinded.

Among the many renewable energy sources — wind, solar, hydroelectric, biofuels — there is one to which we all contribute that has not yet managed to attract the romantic advocates who have embraced other forms of green energy. We're speaking about the gray river of warmth flowing right beneath our feet: sewage. A Philadelphia company, NovaThermal Energy L.L.C. , wants to heat and cool buildings by tapping into the constant, guaranteed heat contained in wastewater.

By Ted Zangari Despite what critics contend, wastewater and sewage management legislation signed by Gov. Christie last week is not a threat to the environment. It leaves environmental protections in place while providing a remedy for overreaching regulations that have compounded the economic damage of the Great Recession. The new law addresses a cumbersome process for wastewater treatment planning that was put in place in 2008. It required counties to attempt to precisely predict development and therefore sewer services decades in advance.

Metaphorically speaking, the shale-gas boom was supposed to bring seismic changes to America's energy landscape. But after a series of earthquakes during the holidays shook Youngstown, Ohio, authorities are focusing on a literal link between seismic activity and gas development. Seismologists say there is strong evidence that the Ohio quakes were induced by the underground disposal of wastewater from natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale. The earthquakes originated about two miles below the surface, close to the point where an underground injection well discharged wastewater into porous sandstone for permanent disposal.

A series of earthquakes in northwestern Ohio, the latest and largest on New Year's Eve, has prompted that state's Department of Natural Resources to close or suspend development by natural gas drillers of five deep wastewater disposal wells pending an investigation into well impact on increased seismic activity in the area. The latest earthquake, registering a magnitude of 4.0, was centered five miles northwest of Youngstown and very close to the 9,000-foot-deep Northstar No. 1 disposal well owned by D&L Energy, which receives most of its brine and fracking wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling operations in Pennsylvania.

Authorities probe mosque attack NEW YORK - While members of an Islamic cultural center gathered for a dinner Sunday evening, a Molotov cocktail thrown by an unknown assailant burst against the center's main entrance, and another was thrown at the sign for the center's school. It was one of a string of suspected arson attacks that police were investigating on Monday as possible bias crimes and trying to determine whether the incidents were linked. No arrests had been made. Structural damage to the Imam Al-Khoei Foundation was minimal, but some members of the center were emotionally shaken, the assistant imam said.

A Coatesville-area man serving probation for 2008 wastewater-treatment violations in Chester County faces new charges related to his operation of a Delaware County sewage plant, the state Attorney General's Office said Monday. A news release identified him as Thomas M. Horrex, 57, of East Fallowfield Township. Horrex is the owner of TMH Environmental Services Inc. and has run the Fox Valley Community Services Sewage Treatment Plant in Concord Township since 2010, the release said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it wanted to develop national standards for the disposal of polluted wastewater from shale-gas drilling - a move that puzzled Pennsylvania officials, who said Marcellus Shale operators had already halted discharges. The EPA's proposal is aimed at federally regulated pretreatment facilities that process some wastewater from natural-gas drilling before passing it along to state-regulated municipal sewage systems for final processing and discharge.

Ed Rendell may not get invited to another Marcellus Shale industry conference any time soon. A week after the former governor dressed down the natural gas industry at its first conference in Philadelphia - "the industry frankly has been a great disappointment to me" - tongues are still wagging about Rendell's remarks. Rendell, who one news outlet called the "skunk at the garden party," admonished gas operators for "screwing up" and giving anti-drilling activists legitimacy.

Marcellus Shale gas wells have proven to be prodigious producers not just of natural gas, but of toxic wastewater, too. Ted Leisenring thinks he can make money off both. Leisenring, 57, a Berwyn businessman, is cooking up a project to build a power plant to generate electricity by burning Marcellus gas, and then use the plant's heat to purify wastewater from the hydraulic fracturing process. "This is a no-discharge solution for frack water," said Leisenring, whose venture is called Marcellus Power Solutions L.L.C.