Frack fears stall area plant

April 21--SHAMOKIN DAM -- Sunbury Generation will temporarily suspend processing wastewater from Marcellus Shale drillers as of April 30, complying with a request Tuesday of all gas-drilling companies from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Ed Griegel, vice president of operations, said Wednesday the Snyder County wastewater treatment facility will "re-evaluate its treatment process and discharge into the Susquehanna River." It was authorized in November 2008 to treat up to 80,000 gallons daily of gas-drilling waste fluids.

Gov. Tom Corbett requested Tuesday through DEP that as of May 19 natural gas companies voluntarily stop delivering wastewater to facilities treating it under the total dissolved solids regulation of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

Sunbury Generation's permit was a temporary authority under NPDES, and it expires in April 2012, Griegel said.

Sunbury Generation is one of 15 wastewater treatment plants in Pennsylvania approved under this special provision, and one of two that releases the water into the Susquehanna River.

What the action means business-wise for Sunbury Generation is unclear, Griegel said, noting the company is still studying DEP's request.

"This is still breaking news," Griegel said. "We are still evaluating the long-term implications. ... Any comment on anything else as far as jobs or revenue loss is very premature."

Processing gas-drilling wastewater "certainly has been part of our business, but our primary business is generating electricity," he said. "There will be a loss of revenue from that portion, but anything on costs, I can't comment on."

Sunbury Generation charges gas-drilling companies a rate per gallon of fluid it takes from them.

Shamokin Dam Borough Manager Ed Hovenstine said Wednesday that he believes processing the wastewater at Sunbury Generation "was an opportunity for it to bring in money, but it wasn't its sole, bread-and-butter business," he said.

Hovenstine also said a proposal written about two years ago would have had Sunbury Generation buying as much as 80,000 gallons of water from the borough, which would have charged the plant per thousand gallons. The deal could have garnered Shamokin Dam between $150,000 and $170,000 per year for as much as 29.2 million gallons of water if Sunbury Generation purchased water every day for a year.

Hovenstine believed the idea was for the tanker trucks to return to drilling sites with water for use instead of just coming back empty.

Hauling issues, among others, sank the deal, he said. However "It all kind of fell to the wayside when they realized there is chlorine in the water," Hovenstine said.

DEP's announcement Tuesday stemmed from research data from a Carnegie Mellon University and Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority study suggesting the natural gas industry is a factor in elevated levels of bromide found in the Allegheny and Beaver rivers in Western Pennsylvania.

Bromide itself is nontoxic, but when combined with chlorine, which many water treatment facilities use for disinfection, it turns into total trihalomethanes, a potentially unsafe compound.

"There were some issues that they couldn't buy water from us," Hovenstine said. "They even talked about building a storage tank on site so they could tap the water and have it available constantly. Something within the process killed all that."

Sunbury Generation releases between 1.7 million and 1.9 million gallons of treated water into the river daily. Marcellus Shale wastewater accounts for about 8 percent of that.

According to information on DEP's Oil and Gas Electronic Reporting website, between July 2009 and June 2010, Sunbury Generation processed about 357,000 barrels of fracking water and related drilling fluids.

Griegel said company officials are planning to meet with DEP to discuss requirements under the action and what they may need to do to comply.

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