AES Sweetwater Drop Plans for Frack Wastewater Treatment Plant

Dominion Post reporter David Beard reported today that plans for a cooperative venture between American Environmental Services (AES) and Sweetwater Resources to develop a Marcellus shale wastewater treatment plant at the Morgantown Industrial Park have been dropped.  AES operates a commercial treatment, storage and disposal facility for hazardous and nonhazardous waste in the industrial park.  AES had entered preliminary talks with Pittsburgh-based Sweetwater Resources but the talks did not come to fruition.  David Torrence, owner of AES, told the reporter that he thought the announcement of intention to build a facility by Sweetwater was premature.

Morgantown Utility Board (MUB) General Manager Tim Ball told Beard that he was not aware that the proposal was off the table.   AES Sweetwater was supposed to submit documentation of the FORT process (Flowback On-site Recycling Technology) for treating the waste water to the WVDEP which would determine if the project needed a wastewater discharge permit.  Ball continues to submit requests for information to AES and the WVDEP.  On Friday the WVDEP was attempting to determine the status of the paperwork but was unable to provide an update to Ball. Ball had not had response from AES following requests for information from Ball.

Repeated attempts to call Sweetwater this week by Beard were unsuccessful.  An answering machine answered each time with a message that said, “The party you are trying to reach is not currently accepting calls at this number.”

Full story in Dominion Post (requires online subscription)