Wetterling Well Under Way in Owego, NY

The other day a resident in Owego was out for her morning walk. She knew a gas well was planned for the area - but was surprised to see the top of a drilling rig poking above the treetops.








Apparently, drilling for the Wetterling Well, just off McHenry Road (North of Bodle Hill Rd) is underway. Carrizo Oil and Gas (out of Houston, TX) filed a permit application for a vertical Marcellus well on a 43-acre unit back on May 17 of this year. A couple months later - August 9 - the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) approved the application and issued a drilling permit. According to the DEC records, Carrizo began drilling on September 18; at least that's the "spud date" reported.

But, say the locals, the drilling rig just went up a couple days ago, complete with stadium lights that can be seen at least a mile away. This is supposed to be a "test" well; given that the industry insists that Marcellus is all over the place, we're not too sure what exactly they're testing for - unless it's for local resistance.

Ironically, even as Carrizo was moving their rig into New York, Pennsylvania Senator Jim Ferlo and other PA lawmakers were calling on their state to "enact a drilling moratorium during which a comprehensive study on the effects of fracking would take place." Ferlo's concerns: impacts on public health, environmental impact, and the erosion of infrastructure needed to support PA's commerce including agriculture, tourism, hunting, fishing and recreation.

PA Drilling to Increase Heavy Truck Traffic on NY Roads

You don’t have to have drilling in your town – or even in your state – to experience heavy truck traffic associated with drilling. At least that’s what residents of Owego, NY are learning. Last month the Owego Village Board discussed plans for selling wastewater to drilling concerns – a business opportunity, for sure, but one that will bring in a lot of additional water-hauling trucks.

Then, earlier this month Mark Clark, Town of Owego highway superintendent, reported that Talisman Energy has expressed a great desire to use four of the town’s roads. The company is looking for access to drilling sites in Pennsylvania, just across the town border.

According to my colleague Patricia Bence, Talisman has asked the town for permission to use four roads to carry 700 of their tri-axle trucks full of gravel for drill pad construction. Once the proposed well is operational, Talisman explained that heavy tanker trucks would haul water to the well, and frack-and waste-fluid from the well.

The problem, says Clark, is that the roads can’t take the weight. He urged the town to get a bond to insure that Talisman repairs any damage. Given that the county and neighboring towns have been moving on a multi-municipal road agreement at a snails pace (or as my mama used to say, “slower than molasses in January”) it looks like Owego-ites will have to fend for themselves if they hope to keep their country roads drivable.

You can read Bence’s full article here.

New Compressor Proposed for Owego, NY

Vestal residents are concerned about having a metering station move into a residential area. One reason could be that once a metering station is in place it just makes sense to put another compressor station in too.

At least that's what's happening a few miles west and across the county line. Central New York Oil and Gas Company (CNYOG) wants to put in a compressor station that will allow them to move gas in and out of their Stagecoach Storage field into the Millennium and Tennessee Gas Pipelines.

The difference is that the CNYOG project falls under the purview of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). That means the proposed project gets an environmental review and well-publicized public meetings - something the Vestal proposal apparently lacks.

On Thursday, July 15 environmental engineers from FERC visited CNYOG's proposed compressor site for an environmental site review. Eight people, including unicipal officials from Owego, as well as representatives from Soil and Water Conservation District, NYS Ag and Markets and local residents, laced up their boots and joined them on the short hike to the site.  It was more people than FERC environmental project manager Rich McGuire (the guy with the coffee cup) expected. Usually no one shows up for site reviews, he said.

The current compressor is located on the Reeves Farm, between McLean Road and East Beecher Hill in Owego. “The problem,” said CNYOG representative Randy Parker “is that the current compressor just doesn’t have enough horsepower.” They plan to install an electric 13,400-horsepower centrifugal compressor uphill from the current compressor. A new compressor will allow them more flexibility in moving gas from the storage field to the pipelines. They’ll also need an electric substation at the site.

   

Noise shouldn’t be an issue, Parker noted, because FERC regulations set that level at 55 decibels (dB). When asked about emissions, Parker explained that was the primary reason for building an electric-powered compressor. Except for fugitive emissions from the pipeline, there shouldn’t be any emissions, he said.

McGuire asked, “Why here?” The most important reason, Parker explained, is that it's located close to the Millennium Pipeline. The construction won’t impact other land owners much, and the farmer who owns the land is agreeable to selling the 25 acres required for the access road and compressor. CNYOG looked at other areas but one was too close to the pipeline, and the other was too steep a slope. This site, while near the top of a hill, is fairy level. 

So far, Parker said, the only concerns from adjacent landowners are how the compressor construction will affect hunting, and the potential for storm water runoff. 

The facility itself will be unmanned, monitored electronically from a distance. In addition to monitors the station will have alarms and the capacity to automatically “blow-down” the walls in the event of a gas leak.

Plans include retaining a wooded buffer between the compressor site and the landowners. “The current landowners are not opposed to the plans at all,” Parker said. “In fact, they plan to incorporate the site into their hay-rides.” And neighboring landowners and hunters seem to appreciate the deer habitat the clearing will provide.

Amy Gonzales, of AK Environmental, is working on the environmental assessment for the project as well. She addressed storm water runoff and wetland concerns. “We will be doing erosion and sediment control during construction,” she said. This includes such things as using a silt fence, hay bales, or erosion control blankets. She also explained that they will re-seed and mulch exposed soil and access roads.

“Erosion control is a major issue on any pipeline project,” Gonzales said. “FERC has a little more oversight and stricter regulations than other agencies.”

Read more about the FERC project here.

Truck Accident in Owego linked to Gas Field Service Company

photo provided courtesy of Wendy Post of the Times-Shamrock Group

 On Saturday, June 26 at 5:30 am some residents of Owego, NY were woken up by a loud noise that sounded like a train disengaging rail cars. Then the power went off. The cause? The driver of a flatbed tractor trailer owned by 5J Oilfield Services (out of Palestine, TX) was driving Route 17C through town too fast, lost control of his rig and sheared off several telephone poles and a guardrail while trying to negotiate a gentle turn in the road. The cab of his truck ended up in the stormwater drainage ditch in front of a local family practice clinic. 

When police arrived at the accident scene, the driver was no where to be found. My colleague, Wendy Post received a call about the accident and ran down to take photos. She was so intrigued by the missing driver (found later) that she followed the story throughout the day. You can read more about it and see her photos here. 

Back in March the Pennsylvania State Police reported on overweight trucks traveling Bradford County (PA) roads.One tractor trailer, driven for 5J Oilfield Services was clearly in violation of its permit, weighing in at nearly 53,000 pounds over the limit. The driver was fined more than $16,000 and released.

Less than 24 hours later, police stopped two more trucks from the same company at that same location after people called in traffic complaints. Both trucks were oversize and overweight. The drivers were fined more than $10,000 and released.

If you want to find out anything about Schlumberger, a company located in Horseheads, NY that will be trucking chemicals and gas-field supplies to drill sites located in NY, PA the surrounding area, you can read all about them on their website. They provide a lot of info. But if you wanna find out about 5J Oilfield Services you get this, a page "under construction". No website, lotsa violations, and an LLC to boot. Makes you wonder exactly what the gas industry means when they say they have everything under control.

 

Patriot Water Withdraws Application

The attorney for Patriot Water Treatment LLC notified the Town of Owego today that the company is withdrawing their application for a treatment facility located on Taylor Road.

A little after 3 pm Sarah Grace Campbell, Esq sent a message to the Town of Owego saying, "On behalf of my client, Patriot Water Treatment LLC, I hereby withdraw all planning and zoning applications pending before the Town of Owego regarding property located at 936 Taylor Rd. We wish to thank Town officials and staff for their assistance in this process."

Patriot Water still seeks special use permit

Last Tuesday, February 23, Andy Blocksom tried to convince the Town of Owego Planning Board of the merits of Patriot Water Treatment's request for a special use permit for floodplain development. When the votes were tallied, he came up one short. The board voted 3 to 2 in favor of recommending the permit, but apparently they needed four to make a majority.

As a result, they cannot recommend action for the Zoning Board of Appeals - which is where Blocksom will be arguing his case on March 10.

Though I was not at the planning board meeting, one of my citizen-journalist colleagues took loads of good notes.  According to Frank, more than 100 local residents showed up to hear the the ruminations of the town planning board, filling up the seats and lining the walls of the auditorium.

Prior to the vote, planning board chairman Robert Rieg explained that the board has the responsibility to approve or disapprove proposed site plans. However, because the proposed Patriot Water Treatment facility lies within the 100 current year flood plain, a special use permit is required. That permit must be approved by the zoning board. 

So, explained Rieg, the planning board could only provide a recommendation to the zoning board. If the zoning board approves the special use permit, Rieg said, then the planning board would address Patriot’s site plan.

But, Rieg emphasized, prior to any planning board decision on a site plan, a State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) must be completed, with either the zoning board or planning board taking on lead agency status. 

As in the Feb. 17 meeting,  Blocksom, assisted this time by civil engineer David Marnicki and attorney Sarah Campbell, answered questions about frack water storage at the facility. Planning board members asked for specifications on the water holding tanks, fresh water impoundment, specifics about treated water leaving the facility and how water was tested and monitored throughout the treatment process. They also asked about qualifications for employees operating the treatment facility as well as plans for entrance and egress for trucks hauling wastewater to the facility.

Even though it was not a public hearing, Rieg opened the meeting for public comment.  He noted that since the October meeting, the planning board had received 25 e-mails and letters commenting on the proposed project. 

Echoing discussion from the previous week, residents raised concerns about truck traffic. Some people commented that four trips inbound means four trips out, a total of eight truck trips per hour along the road. This is a lot of noise and toxic exhaust, they pointed out. Residents did not seem impressed by Blocksom’s description of how the tanks of material would be moved in an imminent flooding situation. They didn't like the idea of having  a facility that treats hazardous waste located in the flood plains and so close to wetlands.

At the end of the night Rieg told Blocksom, “Maybe your process has potential, but you picked a lousy site."

What’s next:  On Wednesday, March 10 the Town of Owego Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a special meeting to consider Patriot Water Treatment’s application for a special use permit for floodplain development. The meeting will be held at 7 pm in the Hubbard Auditorium (56 Main Street). Patriot Water Treatment is the only item on the agenda. For more information please contact the Town of Owego planning department at 687-0123 ext. 6.

Owego residents not enthused about proposed Frackwater Treatment Plant

Last Wednesday, February 17 Andrew Blocksom returned to the Tioga County Planning Board with a revised site plan for his proposed frack-water treatment facility. The planning members voted 5 - 2 in favor of the revised site plan, just shy of the 6 votes needed for a majority (5 members were absent that night). A recommendation is nice, but not necessary. The true hurdle comes this Tuesday, Feb. 23 when Patriot's site plan comes up for review by the Town of Owego Planning Board.

Blocksom is one of the owners of Patriot Water Treatment LLC. Back in October, when he presented his original plan to the county planning board, they approved his site plan and sent him on to the Town of Owego Planning Board.

The members of the town planning board thought Blocksom needed to do some homework. Instead of approving the site plan, they sent him home with a long list of questions.  

The basic plan is the same: convert the old Chevy dealership on Taylor road into a frack-water treatment plant. The site is already located in an industrially-zoned area, and Blocksom feels it's ideally suited for his business. The existing building would house the distilling equipment and the paved lot and driveways provide ingress, egress, and room to park extra tanks if needed. Trucks will drive up to a docking bay and pump their loads of flowback and frack water into a holding tank. From there the water will go through a vacuum distillation process, where metals and other contaminants are separated from the liquid, and the distilled water will be pumped into trucks waiting to haul it back to the drill sites for reuse.

There are some differences, though. For one thing, Patriot had to "flood-proof" their facility, as the old FEMA maps show that area in the flood plain. (The new maps don't, and Blocksom will likely appeal that in a meeting with the town planning board this Wednesday.) Patriot needs to insure that any tanks will not be breached by flood waters.

“We’re putting in tanks for both the frack water and the clean [distilled] water,” Blocksom said. The 1-million gallon tanks will have 2-foot thick foundations as well as containment tanks that will hold any spills or leaks. Tanks holding the solid waste and sludge left at the end of the process will be mobile and, Blocksom said, they will be moved in the event of a flood. 

The facility will treat frack-water and flowback from early in the drilling process, not the heavily-salted “brines” that are produced later with the gas. Blocksom said that the wastewater will be tested

for metals, ethylene glycol and other volatile organics, and radioactivity. He promised that his facility would not take wastewater contaminated with high levels of any of those things - and that trucks hoping to recycle such wastewater would be sent to injection wells for disposal.

 Owego village mayor Ed Arrington raised concerns about the noise from the estimated 4 trucks/hour all day long every day of the week. He pointed out that there are only two routes to get to the proposed facility: one is the steep Bodle Hill Road and the other is right through the heart of the village. 

“Either way you go through a residential area,” Arrington said. “I don’t think 24/7 is reasonable for the residents of my village to put up with.”

Update on Owego Frack Fluid Treatment

On Oct. 27 Andrew Blocksom presented his plans for a frack fluid treatment plant to the Town of Owego Planning Board and was told to do a bit more homework (see Oct 28 entry). Patriot Water Treatment LLC had submitted a site plan and a "short-form" Environmental Assessment Form" (EAF).

The "short form" is indeed short - only two pages in length. Instead of the 20 or so questions about environmental impacts on the longer form, there are only seven concerning potential adverse action on the environment. At the meeting the planning board asked Patriot Water to provide more details - and complete the longer EAF - before bringing the proposal back to the board.

Which, Blocksom says, they are working on. He also says that he is working with the DEC to figure out what other permits may be required, as the type of treatment facility he hopes to build is very different from anything they've permitted. Apparently DEC is going to ask for some air quality information as well.

The biggest concern voiced by both residents and planning board members last week was the lack of detailed information about the recycling treatment process. Blocksom’s overly simplified description left people wondering what happened to the frack fluid when it entered the facility and where would the solids and salts be stored after their removal from the drilling waste fluid. People also wanted more details about the proposed impoundment and what actions Patriot Water Treatment would take in the case of a spill or a flood. Perhaps the thing that bothered people the most was Blocksom’s continual reference to frack waste as “non-hazardous” and “non-toxic” material.

When Blocksom submitted his plans to the town, he included some information about equipment developed by Aqua-Pure Ventures Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, and implied that Patriot would be leasing from that company. So I called up Aqua-Pure and spoke with Patrick Horner, the lead engineer.

The facility proposed for Taylor road will employ a process called “mechanical vapor recompression evaporation” (MVR) said Horner . He explained that Aqua-Pure already has nine well-site units using this process in Texas and they are working with Eureka Resources in Williamsport, PA to establish a permanent facility much like the one proposed for Owego.

IF Patriot does indeed use the NOMAD units built by Aqua-Pure, the frack fluid will go through a series of stages. During the first stage the pH (acidity or alkalinity) of the water is adjusted. This is when metals and solids precipitate, or drop out of the frack fluid. The solids go through a de-watering process and, once they are dried into cakes, transported to an industrial waste facility.

Meanwhile, the remaining liquid is subjected to the MVR process to reduce the salts. One of the problems both Blocksom and Horner raised is that fluid with extremely high levels of salts, above 80,000 to 100,000 parts per million (ppm), are hard to distill. “And the Marcellus wells tend to have higher levels of salinity in their flowback,” Horner said.

Fluid that has low salinity, and distilled water resulting from the treatment process will be trucked back to the wells for use in fracking.

The NOMAD isn't the only type of unit available, and Aqua-Pure isn't the only company developing this technology. In a telephone conversation today, Blocksom indicated that his company is considering other companies as well. With 20 tough questions to answer and some research to do, it's not likely that Patriot Water Treatment LLC will be ready with an updated proposal in time for the November 24 planning board meeting.

Owego Town Planning Board to Patriot Water: You've Got Work to Do

About 50 residents showed up to the Town of Owego Planning Board meeting last night (Oct. 27) to learn more about the Patriot Water Treatment LLC plans for recycling frack fluid. The planning board, which is the lead agency for this project, has the authority to approve or reject the site plan. Last night, after listening to the company's proposal and an hour or more of citizen comments, the board decided that they needed more information before making a decision. They gave Andrew Blocksom, one of the Patriot Water owners, a long list of items they'd like more information on by the next meeting.

Seems like the biggest issue that both residents and planning board had was the lack of detailed information: What exactly is this process of cleaning up the frack waste? Where will the recycled water go? What happens if there is a spill or a flood? Will there be open pits (impoundments) holding frack fluid? And why can't we find your company on the internet?

Turns out Patriot Water Treatment LLC is brand-spankin' new, created only recently by three guys who see the potential in offering a service to the gas companies. They'll be leasing the water treatment equipment from Aqua Pure, a company out of Calgary, Canada that is on the web. The process, Andy explained to me after the meeting, is one that precipitates out the heavy metals and solids (which get transported to a proper waste facility) and then - if the remaining water is not too salty or doesn't have too high a level of TDS (total dissolved solids) - they send it through a distilling process and the "clean" water is trucked back to the wells to re-use for fracking. The brine (wastewater) is sent to an injection well in Ohio - at least for now. (Fortuna has a permit to test a "non-producing" gas well in Van Etten for potential as an injection well - more on that later.)

Aside from the fact that this company is new, and that Andy gave what he called his "kindergarten" presentation [and clearly not enough details to satisfy the locals and the planning board], what really bothered folks was that he constantly said that the frack waste was "not hazardous" and "not toxic". The other issue was the amount of truck traffic - 4 trucks/hour, 24 hours/day, 7 days a week - routed up and down a steep hill near through residential areas.

"Why not follow the regular truck route through town?" asked one guy. Another wanted to know whether the planning board could put a route restriction on the trucks, and quite a few expressed concern about the taxpayers underwriting the road maintenance for repairs, as each truck will weigh something on the order of 80,000 pounds.

So, where will this treatment facility go? On the site of the old Chevy dealership on Taylor Road. This is zoned an "industrial" area, and sure enough there are a bunch of industries there already: Sanmina, Lockheed, Moore's Tires and service center, a bowling alley, a wastewater treatment plant and a small electrical business. There are also four churches and a preschool within a couple minute walk from the site, and the nearest residence is a mere 500 feet from the edge of the pavement, where the frack tanks will be lined up - not 1500 feet as stated a week earlier at the county planning board meeting. As some folks pointed out last night, the area is already zoned industrial, and the idea of recycling frack waste sounds good; it might reduce the amount of water pumped out of the local rivers and streams.

But, as the planning board said last night: there are a lot of unanswered questions.

Frack Waste Treatment Plant in Owego?

While I was deliberating budget matters during our town library board's monthly meeting, the members of the county planning board were deliberating whether or not to allow a frack-fluid treatment plant into the next town over.

Somehow a draft copy of the Tioga County (NY) Planning Board minutes for the Wednesday, October 21 meeting ended up in my in-box; reading them was nearly as exciting as reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Patriot Water, LLC hopes to establish a treatment facility where the old Chevy dealership used to be. The business, they say, will treat hydraulic fracturing flowback fluid and transform it into "distilled water" which can be re-used by gas drillers for further fracking. It will also create a whopping 20 jobs.

The treatment facility will store frack fluid and their treated water in tanks on-site. They plan to build an enclosed impoundment (pool) to store incoming frack fluid - lined with two 36-ml rubber linings and assembled using bolts.

Patriot Water LLC estimates that the average truck traffic to their facility in the near future will be 4 trucks/hour running 24 hr/day - and that will increase over time. They also note that although their proposed site is in the 100-year 500 -year * flood plain (and there have been at least two big floods there in the 20 years I've lived here) that this will not be an issue. In fact - they're not required to obtain a floodplain permit! (corrected 10/ 27 at Owego Town Planning Board meeting)

The real gotta-turn-the-page reading came with the comments. Andy Blocksom, the Patriot Water representative, insisted time and time again that the 200,000 to 240,000 gal/day of frack fluid they'll process is not toxic. "It's just water with a small portion of heavy metals and brine," he said - and we all know how healthy arsenic and cadmium can be, not to mention Radium 226 and 228, just two of the "Normally Occurring Radioactive Materials" (NORM) that are sure to be present in flowback from Marcellus wells.

But, hey, DEC doesn't call this stuff toxic. They don't even call it hazardous. To DEC all this frackin' stuff is simply considered "industrial waste".

On top of that, if there is a flood Patriot Water will simply stop accepting frack fluid and let what they've stored just "dilute and drain" with the floodwater - into the Susquehanna.

At the end of the discussion the Tioga County Planning Board recommended approval of the site plan. Tonight - Tuesday, October 27 - the Town of Owego Planning Board will meet at 7pm to address the Patriot frack fluid ("this is not toxic stuff") treatment facility. Update later....