After nearly three years of research to make it happen, officials on Tuesday showed off what will be the first facility in Ohio to treat wastewater generated as part of the Marcellus Shale drilling boom.
City and Patriot Water Treatment officials held a ribbon cutting at the facility located in Warren's Sferra Industrial Park.
"We celebrate the hard work and the opening of not just Patriot in Warren, Ohio, but the opening of this new growth industry in the State of Ohio," Mayor Michael O'Brien said.
The facility will accept and process wastewater generated from the hydraulic fracturing of Marcellus Shale deposits. After the water is pretreated, it is sent to Warren's wastewater plant for further filtration.
"We have a fantastic team at Ohio EPA that worked with us diligently through the whole process. Tom Angelo the same, there was no expense spared to make sure safety came first," said Andrew Blocksom, president of Patriot Water Treatment.
Due to a decision in Pennsylvania, officials said the city could benefit even further. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ruled that wastewater plants in Western Pennsylvania must stop accepting water from drilling companies because of the levels of chemicals in the surface water near the drilling sites until proper safeguards are put in place. That water now may come to Ohio.
In Ohio, water used in the drilling process first goes to a pretreatment facility like Patriot Water. The Ohio EPA previously projected that having Warren's wastewater treatment plant process up to 100,000 gallons per day should not cause significant biological impacts to the Mahoning River or impact drinking water sources.
O'Brien said the processing of natural gas well wastewater will help create jobs.
"We want to put Ohioans to work here, and in our vision for generations, not for a short term, so we wanted to do it in a way that is slow, methodical and safe," Blocksom said.
More facilities are planned for Ashtabula, East Liverpool and Steubenville.
