Site Visit Report

Seneca Resources Corporation

Covington, PA

February 4, 2015
i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

1.0 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................1-1

2.0 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES .......................................................................................2-1

3.0 SHALE GAS EXTRACTION WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT .................................................3-1

3.1 Company Background .........................................................................................3-1

3.2 Wastewater Services............................................................................................3-1

3.3 Wastewater Concentrator Information.................................................................3-2

3.4 Concentrated Wastewater Streams ......................................................................3-5

3.5 Costs.....................................................................................................................3-6

Appendix A: LIST OF PARTICIPANTS ON THE SENECA RESOURCES, 

COVINGTON, PA SITE VISIT

Appendix B: SITE VISIT PHOTOGRAPHS

Appendix C: MONITORING DATA
ii

LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 3-1. Facility Flow Diagram .............................................................................................. 3-3

Figure 3-2. Direct Contact Heat Exchange and Evaporation Zone ............................................. 3-4

Figure 3-3. Entrainment Separator............................................................................................... 3-4

Figure 3-4. Schematic of Evaporation Zone and Entrainment Separator .................................... 3-5
1-1

1.0 INTRODUCTION

On August 6, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) met with 

representatives from Seneca Resources Corporation (Seneca Resources) and Heartland 

Technology Partners, LLC (Heartland Technology Partners) at Seneca Resources’ Cherry Flats 

Compressor Station in Covington, PA. Collocated at the compressor station is a facility owned 

by Seneca Resources and operated by Heartland Technology Partners to manage produced water 

generated by area Seneca Resources unconventional oil and gas wells. The facility operates 

Heartland Technology Partners’ Low Momentum – High Turbulence (LM-HT®) Concentrator to 

achieve zero liquid discharge of produced water. Energy for the wastewater concentrator is 

provided by waste heat (exhaust) from the compressor engines.

Site visit participants are listed below. Contact information is included in Appendix A.

U.S. EPA Office of Water, Office of Science and Technology Engineering and Analysis 

Division

Jesse Pritts

Karen Milam

Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG) (EPA Contractor)

Debra Falatko

Cortney Itle

Sarah Yates

Seneca Resources Corporation

Randy Garett (works for Kevlor a contract operator for Seneca)

Heartland Technology Partners, LLC

Terry Beasy

Bernard Duesel

Craig Clerkin

John Weigold
2-1

2.0 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The recent increase in unconventional oil and gas (UOG) extraction activities through 

practices such as hydraulic fracturing has increased the need for management and disposal 

options for flowback, long-term produced water, and other wastewater that is generated. EPA is 

evaluating oil and gas extraction wastewater management practices, including CWT facilities 

accepting oil and gas extraction wastewaters. As part of this evaluation, EPA is collecting data 

from a variety of sources, including site visits at CWT facilities and other facilities that manage 

oil and gas extraction wastewaters. The goals of these site visits are to evaluate treatment 

technologies (including factors such as their cost and performance), evaluate types and volumes 

of wastewater managed and the characteristics of these wastewaters, evaluate residuals 

management practices, and understand the economic and financial factors affecting the industry.

EPA is not endorsing the use of specific technologies.

EPA conducted a site visit at Seneca Resources’ Covington, PA facility to collect 

background information on the oil and gas extraction wastewater management industry and 

observe wastewater management operations. Before the visit, the EPA reviewed information 

about facilities in Pennsylvania that manage oil and gas extraction wastewater. During this 

review, the EPA identified Seneca Resources as a company active in shale oil and gas extraction 

in the Marcellus Shale Play. Further, the EPA learned that a concentrator located at Seneca

Resources’ Cherry Flats compressor station received oil and gas extraction wastewater for 

management using technologies designed to remove TDS from wastewater.

The compressor station facility is owned by Seneca Resources, while the collocated 

concentrator is owned by Seneca Resources and operated by Heartland Technology Partners to 

manage produced water generated by area Seneca Resources unconventional oil and gas wells. 

Terry Beasy and Bernard Duesel of Heartland Technology Partners led the discussion of Seneca 

Resources’ wastewater concentrator operations and the site tour. The remainder of this report 

summarizes information discussed during the August 6, 2014 site visit.
3-1

3.0 SHALE GAS EXTRACTION WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT

During the site tour of Covington, PA operations, Heartland Technology Partners

provided an overview of shale gas extraction wastewater management. Topics discussed 

included:

 Company Background

 Wastewater Services

 Wastewater Concentrator Information

 Concentrate Streams

 Costs

3.1 Company Background

Seneca Resources was founded in 1934. According to Seneca Resources website, 

“Seneca operates more than 3,000 shallow wells and more than 150 deep shale wells in New 

York state and Pennsylvania. Seneca controls 745,000 net prospective acres in the Marcellus 

Fairway in Pennsylvania, which are part of its approximately one million acres located 

throughout the Appalachian Basin in New York and Pennsylvania. Of Seneca's Marcellus 

holdings, approximately 80 percent is fee acreage, with the mineral rights owned outright by 

Seneca with no royalty obligation or lease expiration. The remaining Marcellus land rights, 

approximately 20 percent, are leasehold interests, most of which are held by production.”1

Heartland Technology Partners was founded in 2008 by partners that developed and 

patented the LM-HT® Concentrator technology. The company currently has about 30 employees 

throughout the U.S. Heartland Technology Partners approached Seneca Resources, along with 

many other oil and gas companies, to promote their wastewater management technology. Using 

money from private investors, Heartland Technology Partners installed their technology for 

Seneca Resources in 2011 and supplied operators at no cost for six months to demonstrate the 

technology. The facility was moved to a new location and after a few months, Seneca Resources 

asked Heartland Technology Partners to build and operate this facility for Seneca Resources. 

3.2 Wastewater Services

Seneca Resources’ facility accepts shale gas wastewater from local area shale gas 

extraction operations. Accepted wastewater is predominantly produced water with a salt 

concentration of approximately 235,000 mg/L total solids, but also flow back wastewater with 

total solids concentration typically between 90,000mg/l to 235,000 mg/l.

The facility operated by Heartland Technology Partners is very versatile. The wastewater 

management process uses evaporation to concentrate the wastewater and reduce its volume, 

thereby greatly reducing transportation costs. Evaporated water (vapor) is vented to the 

atmosphere. The extent of evaporation performed is dependent on desired reuse or disposal as 

follows:

 Reuse for hydraulic fracturing. Wastewater (approximately 9.6 pounds per gallon) 

is concentrated to 10 pounds per gallon. The concentrated wastewater is then 

 

1

http://www.natfuel.com/seneca/east_division.aspx.
3-2

transported to shale gas wells where it is blended with fresh water and used for

hydraulic fracturing, or used in winter completion operations for freeze 

protection. If the produced fluids are reused, they generally get sent back to the 

well.

 Disposal. Alternatively, the facility can concentrate the wastewater to heavy

slurry that can be solidified and disposed at a landfill.

Regardless of how the treated wastewater is managed (wastewater reuse or waste slurry 

to land disposal), the facility is “zero discharge,” with no wastewater discharged either directly to 

receiving streams or indirectly via a publicly-owned treatment works.

3.3 Wastewater Concentrator Information

The facility was designed to manage a maximum of 30,000 gallons or 750 bbl. per day of 

wastewater in the slurry mode for disposal, but in the 10 pound per gallon mode the facility can 

process a little more volume. This is possible because more water is left in the 10 pound per 

gallon water, which allows more throughput. The recycling of produced water for fracturing in 

new wells created a use for all local produced waters, and operations of the collocated 

concentrator facility were shut down pending increased need to dispose of production water.

Figure 3-1 presents a flow diagram of the system. Figure 3-2, Figure 3-3, and Figure 3-4 provide 

photographs of select individual units. Appendix B provides site visit photographs.
3-3

Figure 3-1. Facility Flow Diagram2

 

2

Source: Heartland Technology Partners, http://www.heartlandtech.com/about/core-technologies/
3-4

Wastewater is received at the facility by tanker truck. The driver backs the truck onto the 

unloading pad and uses a keypad to enter a code to track the wastewater unloaded into the 

facility. Heartland Technology Partners’ personnel indicated that because the wastewater has 

been tested at the well, individual wastewater loads are not sampled or analyzed upon delivery. 

The wastewater is drained from the tank truck into an open top pit to permit visual inspection for 

abnormality. From the pit, the wastewater is pumped to an appropriate storage tank. The facility 

has three 16,800-gallon feed storage tanks for a total wastewater feed storage capacity of 50,400

gallons.

Exhaust from the compressor station’s six 1,380 horsepower reciprocating engines is

collected into an exhaust manifold and pulled by vacuum (provided by an induced draft fan) into 

the evaporator (see Figure 3-2 and Figure 3-4). Wastewater feed from the storage tanks is 

injected into the evaporator, directly contacting the hot exhaust. In the evaporator, the 

wastewater feed is subjected to a tortuous path flow, which breaks the liquid into small droplets, 

providing high interfacial surface area for heat transfer and evaporation. From the evaporator

section, the exhaust/brine mixture enters an entrainment separator (see Figure 3-3 and Figure 

3-4), where the concentrated brine droplets are separated from the exhaust and drain into a sump 

located under the separator. The resulting brine exceeds wastewater saturation, inducing the 

precipitation of salt solids. A sump pump transfers brine and solids from the sump to a thickener 

tank, where salt solids/brine settles to the bottom and are removed, while the lower-density 

supernatant liquid (lower salt content) is recycled back to the evaporator section. The supernatant 

recycle rate is adjusted to achieve the target brine salt concentration. Concentrated 10 pounds per 

gallon brine is stored in two 16,800-gallon brine storage tanks. The 12.5 pound per gallon slurry 

can be stored in a 20,000 gallon tank.

Figure 3-2. Direct Contact 

Heat Exchange and 

Evaporation Zone3

Figure 3-3. Entrainment Separator4

 

3

Source: Heartland Technology Partners, http://www.heartlandtech.com/about/core-technologies/

4

Source: Heartland Technology Partners, http://www.heartlandtech.com/news/docs/140205-EUEC-adiabatic.pdf
3-5

Figure 3-4. Schematic of Evaporation Zone and 

Entrainment Separator5

Water vapor (steam) is typically released directly to the atmosphere from the separator.

However, as an option, the steam can be routed to a shell and tube heat exchanger to condense it

into water containing approximately 139 parts per million salts. Cooling water for the heat 

exchanger is provided by wastewater feed. The condensate is stored in one 16,800-gallon 

condensate tank. Presently a small amount is produced and used for the fracturing of new wells. 

In some areas were a water supply may be in short supply, a larger amount can be condensed for 

reuse in the fracturing operations.

3.4 Concentrated Wastewater Streams

As noted in Section 3.2, the concentrator has the ability to produce brines of various 

concentrations. Heartland Technology Partners monitors the brine specific gravity, which is 

correlated to salt content or weight of the water.

Only one stream that leaves the facility is managed as waste: heavy slurry (37 percent 

water), which is generated only when lighter concentrations of brine are not generated. The 

heavy slurry is trucked to Waste Management, Inc. for solidification and disposal via landfill at 

the Waste Management Phoenix landfill in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. The facility would generate 

a maximum of 45 to 50 tons of solids per day, if operating at full capacity and treating the 

highest concentration feed stream.

According to Heartland Technology Partners personnel, landfills in PA can accept wastes 

for disposal that meet disposal criteria, and information for disposal can be found by reviewing 

the waste disposal permit filed with the state. Based on these findings, Heartland Technology 

Partners instead developed a technology that retains all of the salts, which when presented for 

disposal passed all tests. In this way; Heartland Technology Partners has not experienced any 

issues with the Phoenix landfill accepting their waste brine slurry. 

 

5

Source: Heartland Technology Partners, http://www.heartlandtech.com/news/docs/140205-EUEC-adiabatic.pdf
3-6

3.5 Costs

Capital and operating and maintenance costs of the system are not available at this time. 

The system includes a natural gas-fueled generator to provide electrical power for operating the 

system. The system was installed in 2011. Although Heartland Technology Partners provides at 

least one operator per shift, system operation and maintenance is only a small portion of shift 

personnel time. For example, facility personnel stated that the primary system maintenance 

requirement is to clean and inspect the entrainment separator for approximately 15 minutes per 

day. Heartland Technology Partners personnel stated that relatively low maintenance 

requirements enable the system to operate with high online percentage.

Heartland Technology Partners personnel estimate that local commercial facilities 

currently charge a fee per barrel for wastewater treatment and disposal, and a fee per barrel for 

wastewater treatment and reuse on a barrel-in/barrel-out basis. It costs $14 to $18 to truck and 

treat wastewater at the next nearest wastewater treatment facility located in Ohio. Producers use 

the services that Heartland Technology Partners provides because it is significantly less 

expensive than other alternatives. 

According to Heartland Technology Partners personnel, their LM-HT® Concentrator 

provides several benefits as compared to traditional mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) and 

crystallization technologies:

 First, direct contact heat exchange eliminates the need for heat exchange 

equipment, which is prone to scaling and associated periodic shutdown and 

maintenance. 

 Second, unlike the LM-HT® Concentrator, most other evaporator/crystallizers

cannot operate in conditions exceeding the wastewater saturation, as solids foul 

and plug the equipment. Accordingly, to produce crystallized salts, traditional 

treatment requires two technologies (MVR and crystallization) as compared to 

Heartland Technology Partners’ single concentrator unit. 

 Third, only the direct contact heat exchange portion of the LM-HT® Concentrator 

is subjected to high temperatures (waste heat at 600 to 1,000°F), requiring highly 

corrosion resistant metal alloy; the remainder of the system operates at 140 to 

180°F and is constructed of corrosion resistant but less-costly materials. In 

contrast, the relatively large indirect heat exchangers and vessels used in 

MVR/crystallization systems that are subject to high temperatures require higher

end (costly) materials of construction. 

 Fifth, the LM-HT® Concentrator uses relatively few moving parts, limited to the 

induced draft fan and wastewater pump, reducing operating and maintenance 

costs. The LM-HT® Concentrator down time is lower than either the MVR or the 

crystallizer alone.
APPENDIX A

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS ON THE SENECA RESOURCES, COVINGTON, PA SITE VISIT
A-1

Table A-1. List of Attendees

First Name Organization Phone Number Email

Jesse Pritts U.S. EPA, Engineer (202) 566-1038 Pritts.Jesse@epa.gov

Karen Milam U.S. EPA, Economist (202) 564-9752 Milam.Karen@epa.gov

Randy Garrett Seneca Resources, Plant 

Operator 231-313-0969 Covingtoncso@gmail.com

Terry Beasy Heartland Technology Partners, 

Operations Manager (219) 863-1355 tbeasy@heartland-companies.com

Craig Clerkin Heartland Technology Partners, 

Vice-President, Engineering 608-516-7012 cclerkin@heartlandtechcom

Bernie Duesel Heartland Technology Partners, 

Vice-President, Research and 

Development

(201) 965-2303 bduesel@heartlandtech.com

John Weigold Heartland Technology Partners, 

Marketing Manager (617) 823-8097 jweigold@heartlandtech.com

Debra Falatko ERG, Engineer (703) 633-1607 Debra.Falatko@erg.com

Cortney Itle ERG, Engineer (703) 424-8360 Cortney.Itle@erg.com

Sarah Yates ERG, Engineer (703) 633-1661 Sarah.Yates@erg.com
APPENDIX B

SITE VISIT PHOTOGRAPHS
B-1

Exhaust Manifold Behind Compressors Exhaust Manifold to CWT Building, Truck 

Unloading Pad on Right

Open Top Wastewater Pit, Wastewater 

Feed and Brine Storage Tanks in Rear

Truck Unloading Pad and Open Top 

Wastewater Pit

Downflow Evaporator on Left, Inlet to 

Entrainment Separator on Right

Downflow Evaporator on Left, Inlet to 

Entrainment Separator on Right
B-2

Entrainment Separator on Left, Thickener 

Tank on Right

Wastewater Feed Sample Tap

Wastewater Feed Sample Tap Thickener Tank Supernatant Recycle 

Sample Tap
B-3

Concentrated Brine Sample Tap Steam Condensate Sample Tap

Increasing Salt Content from Wastewater 

Feed (Right) Through Salt Cake (Left)

Heartland LM-HT® Concentrator Control 

Panel
APPENDIX C

MONITORING DATA
C-1

Sample / Date

CONDENSER WATER

11/8/2013

Analyte CONDENSER WATER

EPA 200.7Total (ug/l)

Barium (7440-39-3) 8590

EPA 200.8Total (mg/l)

Arsenic (7440-38-2) <0.001

Cadmium (7440-43-9) <0.0001

Chromium (7440-47-3) 0.0029

Lead (7439-92-1) <0.001

Selenium (7782-49-2) <0.001

Silver (7440-22-4) 0.00075

EPA 245.1Total (mg/l)

Mercury (7439-97-6) <0.0002

EPA 300.0Unknown (mg/l)

Chloride (16887-00-6) 139

SM 2320BUnknown (mg/l)

Alkalinity (as CaCO3) 322

SM 2540CUnknown (mg/l)

Total Dissolved Solids 324

SM 2540DUnknown (mg/l)

Total Solids 4

SM 4500-H+BUnknown (s.u.)

pH 6.4

SM 5210BUnknown (mg/l)

BOD - Five Day 37.9

SM 5310CUnknown (mg/l)

Total Organic Carbon (7440-44-0) 24.1