FACT SHEET

Considerations for Accepting

Fracking Wastewater at
Water Resource Recovery
Facilities
By Adrienne Beckman, Archis Ambulkar, Art Umble, Diego Rosso, Joe Husband, Joseph Cleary,
Julian Sandino, Mikel Goldblatt, Ron Horres, Ronald Neufeld, Russell Mau, and Sam Jeyanayagam

A Quick Start Guide for Municipal Agencies, WRRFs and Operators

Hydraulic fracturing operations (commonly known as fracking) will continue to be part of
U.S. energy production and likely remain a controversial process in generating energy.
Water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) frequently referred to as publicly owned
treatment works will be asked to manage water from fracking operations, and a
thoughtful, comprehensive evaluation of the water characteristics, regulatory requirements,
and a facilitys ability to manage the waste constituents will be required prior to acceptance.

Background
The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide
information to WRRF owners and operators who are
considering accepting fracking wastewater at their
facilities. It does not speak to other environmental
issues associated with fracking, including the effects
of drilling, well production, and groundwater impacts.
In many ways, fracking-water acceptance at WRRFs
should be managed in a manner similar to other
industrial wastes, but there are some unique
constituents within this wastestream about which
utility personnel should be aware. Public concerns
and reaction to fracking water are hot button issues,
and municipal officials will likely treat fracking with
greater scrutiny. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and state regulators have specifically
identified fracking discharges for increased scrutiny
and regulation.

What is fracking water?

Fracking water is water generated at gas wells from
the forced fracturing of shale formations. Natural gas
occurs in fractures in the pore spaces between
individual mineral grains and may be chemically
adsorbed onto organic matter (Soeder, 1988). To
increase the pathway for gas, water, along with
chemical and physical agents, is pumped at high
pressure into the well, opening the fractures in the
shale and developing a flow path for the gas to
escape.

Fracking water is generated at gas wells

from the forced fracturing of shale
formations and during gas production.

Water Environment Federation | Fracking Fact Sheet

Flowback water is used to fracture

the shale while production water is
collected after gas emerges.

Image created by Nicolle R. Fuller (www.sayostudio.com @SayoStudio)

Types of water associated with fracking

Drilling fluid A fluid mud both cools the drill bit
and carries rock cuttings back to the land surface.
This water is typically managed onsite and recycled
during the drilling operation.

Flowback water Water with additives is used

to fracture shale and is recycled back to the top of
the well. Flowback water volumes typically range
from about 1500 to 4500 m3 (0.4 million to 1.2 million
gal) per well per week, depending on both the
formation and the type of well. For instance,
horizontal fracturing uses and produces more water
than vertical fracturing. After the fracturing operation
is complete, flowback water gradually decreases.
When the majority of the fracking liquids have been
recovered, flowback water transitions to production
water.
Production water Water collected during the
production life of the well (after gas emerges) is
called production or produced water. Production
water volume exceeds flowback water as production
activity outpaces drilling and completion activities.
This water will be retained in the wells and exposed
to the shale formation for a significant period of time.
Production water typically includes a wide variety of
constituents (Tamblin, 2010).

Fracking water can have a wide range of constituent

concentrations throughout the production cycle. The
largest concern for WRRFs is typically high salinity,
measured as total dissolved solids (TDS) or specific
conductance. Because salts are in the dissolved
phase, they are not significantly removed by
biological and other traditional wastewater treatment
unit operations. Salts can have a negative effect on
the biological treatment process due, in part, to
higher osmotic pressure.
In addition to high levels of TDS, fracking water can
contain high levels of fluid additives, metals, and
naturally occurring radioactive material. Many
fracking operations are attempting to maximize their
reuse of fracking water because of the limited
availability of water resources and disposal
challenges. Accordingly, the fracking constituents
can vary significantly (see the table on p. 3).
Depending on geological formations, water produced
from the site can continue for years at a daily flow
rate of 0.1 to 1.9 m3 (30 to 500 gal), and long-term
water recovery volumes can be 30% 100% of
original injection water volumes. Recycling can
greatly reduce the discharge of wastewater.
Opportunities for recycling decrease as production
slows, and finally, it is necessary to dispose of lowerquality water (Sun et al., 2012).

Water Environment Federation | Fracking Fact Sheet

Current regulations
States and EPA share responsibility for regulating
treatment and disposal of wastewater from shalegas extraction under the National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). In October
2011, as part of the Clean Water Act Sec. 304(m)
planning process, EPA announced a schedule to
develop
categorical
effluent
standards
for
wastewater discharges produced by natural gas
extraction from underground coal-bed and
shale formations.
To ensure that fracking water
receives proper treatment and can
be properly handled by treatment
plants, EPA will gather data,
consult with stakeholders, and
solicit public comment on a
proposed rule for coal-bed methane
in 2013 and a proposed categorical
standard for shale gas in 2014.
EPA
recognizes
that flowback and
production water from fracturing operations may
contain very high levels of TDS, of which chlorides
are a major component. Updating the water quality
criteria for chloride will provide an updated scientific
basis on which to issue discharge permits. A draft
criteria document was developed in early 2012.
Several states, including New York and
Pennsylvania, have developed or will be developing
rules for the acceptance of fracking water at WRRFs
(see http://www.epa.gov/hydraulicfracture).

Check current and planned requirements

for managing fracking water at WRRFs
with the regulatory community.

Recommendations related to regulatory

requirements for acceptance
Discuss the current NPDES requirements and other
regulations for accepting water from fracking
operations with your state regulatory agency and the
EPA before accepting fracking wastes. It is best to
engage the regulatory community as soon as
possible in an open discussion of the current
and planned regulatory requirements for
managing fracking water at a WRRF.
Pretreatment
requirements
for
WRRFs may exceed those typical of
industrial effluent. Effluent discharge
requirements not previously of
concern, such as limits on TDS and
other dissolved constituents, can be
an issue. For example, salts are not
typically removed at WRRFs but can
be a concern, based on loading rates.
State regulators are therefore imposing
new regulations on WRRF discharges to protect
aquatic organisms and drinking water purveyors
from
excess
concentrations
in
receiving
waterbodies. Effluent-dominated streams are
particularly susceptible to high TDS discharge. (See
Pa. regulations http://bit.ly/13Atl5o).
While online resources and guidance documents are
excellent starting points, WRRFs are encouraged to
discuss acceptance of fracking water at their
facilities with state regulators to ensure that the
latest regulatory requirements (such as permitting,
additional monitoring, and effluent discharge limits)
are identified.

Water Environment Federation | Fracking Fact Sheet

prior to its arrival at the facility is also important.

Fracking wastewater quality can vary significantly,
depending on the pretreatment, if any, to which it is
subjected. Pretreatment via physical, chemical, and
biological processes can reduce the potential toxicity
of fracking water to the WRRFs biological treatment
process. It can also affect the volume received. A
WRRF should have the ability to control the receipt
of fracking water prior to discharge to its facility by
setting treatment quality specifications.

Acceptance evaluation
Once a WRRF understands potential influent
constituents and what is needed to achieve
consistent compliance with its NPDES permit, the
WRRF should carefully review its ability to continue
proper operations with this additional loading.
Review processes and understand the potential
impact of fracking wastewater on the facility and in
particular, the stability of operations to the projected
salt levels and concentration variability.

Items to consider when accepting

fracking water at a WRRF
Fracking wastewater characteristics
Flowback and produced water can contain a number
of constituents at levels not typically found in WRRF
influent, including

trace chemicals added to the drill/fracking

water, which may include surfactants
(reduces hydraulic headloss), biocides
(prevents biological growth), and other
compounds (check www.fracfocus.org for a
representative list of chemicals); and
natural contaminants, such as barium,
strontium,
radium,
bromide,
calcium,
sodium, chloride, and other salts that are
dissolved by the fracking water, as well as
naturally occurring radioactive material.

Depending on the nature of the drilling operation,

fracking wastewater volume and constituents can be
extremely variable, presenting challenges similar to
other industrial influents. As mentioned before,
highly variable TDS discharge to WRRFs may cause
issues in the biological treatment process.
One of the first steps is to obtain a clear definition of
fracking wastewater constituents, volume and
frequency, as well as the proposed delivery method
of this material to the WRRF by enrolling the
fracking operation into an industrial influents
management program. A clear understanding of the
pretreatment process fracking water will undergo

Similarly, depending on pretreatment, fracking water

may contain highly concentrated organic material
and nitrogen. For these more-routine constituents, a
typical analysis of facility capacity can address the
ability to accept.
Conducting a bench-scale
treatability study can provide valuable information
about the potential impact on the biological
treatment process.
Certain constituents removed from the liquid stream,
such as metals, will be present in the facility
residuals. Accordingly, biosolids quality will change.
Also consider this impact in the acceptance of
fracking water.

References
Soeder, D.J. (1988). Porosity and permeability of eastern
Devonian gas shale, Society of Petroleum
Engineers Formation Evaluation (March), pp. 116
124.
Sun, Paul T., Charles L. Meyer, Cor Kuijvenhoven, Sudini
Padmasiri, and Vladimir Fedotov (2012).
Treatment of water from fracturing operation for
unconventional gas production, in Contemporary
Technologies for Shale-Gas Water and
Environmental Management, Ronald D. Neufeld,
editor. Alexandria, Va.: Water Environment
Federation, pp. 6181.
Tamblin, Michael E. (2010). Pilot Project To Recycle and
Treat Marcellus Shale Water, Clear Waters
(Winter), pp. 4046.

Water Environment Federation | Fracking Fact Sheet