|
|
CMA still seeks business partner for sewage plant
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
By Jeff Corcino Staff Writer
The Clearfield Municipal Authority continues to look for a business partner for its new sewage treatment plant.
The CMA is in the process of constructing a new sewage treatment plant to meet the new Chesapeake Bay nitrogen and phosphorous discharge limits and because its aging plant is nearing the end of its useful lifespan.
However the cost of the plant is expected to exceed $20 million and the CMA wants to partner with a private company that is looking to treat frac water from natural gas well drilling operations to reduce or offset its costs to construct the new wastewater treatment plant.
Under this arrangement, the CMA would construct its wastewater plant as normal but an additional module would be added by a private company to allow the plant to treat frac water as well.
Deep well drilling operations looking to extract natural gas from the Marcellus shale pump large amounts of water into the well to fracture the rock or "frac" the well to increase its yields.
The water that returns is high in salt and heavy metals and must be treated before being discharged.
At yesterday's meeting, CMA engineer Jim Balliet of Gwin, Dobson & Foreman of Altoona said interest in the project is very strong and said after an article ran in The Progress on the subject last month his phone has been "ringing off the hook."
Balliet said many of the calls are from companies seeking more information and some of the proposals are from "fly-by-night" operations.
"You have to be very careful when undertaking an operation such as this," Balliet said.
However, he said there are two or three companies that are seriously interested in the project.
He said these companies are established firms with facilities of this type already in operation.
Balliet said one company is looking to construct a treatment facility that would remove the heavy metals and remove enough of the salt to allow the discharge to be mingled with the municipal plant discharge and released into the stream.
Balliet said this company has a similar arrangement at one of its other plants where the municipal authority earns approximately $500,000 a year from the partnership.
Balliet said the CMA is estimating the debt service on the construction of its new plant to be roughly $1 million a year and the revenue from this type of arrangement could significantly reduce the financial impact on the CMA's rate payers.
The other company is looking to construct a zero discharge plant where the frac water would be treated to the point that at the end of the process only rock salt and distilled water would be left.
The rock salt could in turn be sold to the state Department of Transportation for road salt. The distilled water would not be suitable for drinking water but could be used in manufacturing processes like the ethanol plant in Clearfield, or the water could be discharged into the stream, Balliet said. Under both methods, the heavy metals that are extracted would be taken to a landfill for disposal.
However, Balliet said companies are waiting to see what the state Department of Environmental Protection does before committing to any new plant construction. The current DEP standard for the treatment of frac water is that it must be below 500 TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) concentrations before it can be released back into waterways. But Balliet said this standard is very difficult and very expensive to meet and essentially limits treatment facilities to the zero discharge type of the second proposal.
Because of the difficulty in meeting this standard, there is talk that DEP is considering relaxing it and companies are unwilling to commit to the construction of a plant until they know what the DEP standards will be.
Balliet said the first process where the treated frac water is mingled with the sewage treatment plant's discharge would be more financially beneficial to the CMA because it has more to offer under the arrangement. This is because the CMA already has a NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) permit, which is very difficult and time consuming for a private company to obtain.
Under the zero discharge system, it would be much easier for a company to get a discharge permit for distilled water. Under this arrangement, the main benefit that could be offered under the partnership would be shared facilities and operation costs.
But Balliet said there is still a lot of time for the CMA to find a suitable partner because it is still in the design phase of the project. Balliet recommended the CMA proceed with design and planning and securing financing for the project as planned and said hopefully they can have a partner in place by the time the design work is completed.
The CMA also approved requesting a letter of no prejudice from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority for phase one of the project.
Phase one is the upgrades to sewer pipe interceptors and lift stations at a cost of $797,800 that are needed in preparation of the wastewater plant upgrade and the letter of no prejudice would allow the CMA to start the project and be reimbursed by PENNVEST for the work completed.
|  |
|
|
|
