Eureka Resources to build wastewater treatment facility in Pennsylvania

Eureka Resources has announced that it will build a centralised wastewater treatment facility in the US state of Pennsylvania.

The facility, to be constructed in two phases in Bradford County, will treat wastewater produced during the development of oil and gas wells in the Marcellus and Utica shales.

Eureka chief executive officer Dan Ertel said the facility will provide gas producers in the area with a treatment option that is closer to home, and helps reduce the number of trucks needed for off-site disposal and their associated costs, noise and pollution.

"Not only will this facility provide another reuse option for Marcellus wastewater, it will also reduce the need for the disposal of concentrated brine, which typically has been trucked to injection wells in Ohio," Ertel said.

"The highly concentrated brine will be reusable in the natural gas and hydro fracturing industry, and the remaining waste after the crystallisation process may be disposed of in landfills as solid waste."

Phase I of the facility will consist of pretreatment and bulk storage tank systems capable of treating 10,000 barrels of multiple fluids per day and is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.

Under phase II, a concentrated brine crystalliser will be built to help the company provide advanced treatment of pretreated effluent. This phase is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2013.

Depending on the needs of the oil and gas operator, the crystalliser unit will produce solid-phase crystallised salt cake, concentrated liquid brine purge stream and distilled water.

Eureka holds a WMGR123 permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Waste Management to treat oil and gas wastewater, and is seeking the necessary regulatory approvals and permits to build the facility.