Disposal in Dakota

With the oil exploration industry swelling to more than 20,000 workers in North Dakota, the state looks to regional lagoons and continued land application to handle the waste stream

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Small towns throughout the sprawling spaces of western North Dakota treat their wastewater in lagoon systems. The nearest large-scale municipal treatment plant is in Bismarck, some four hours away.

As the oil exploration workforce in the Bakken Shale and Three Forks formations rose from 5,000 in 2005 to more than 20,200 in 2011, towns accepted septage from pumpers with whom they had contracts, but closed the door to new arrivals. Worker camps and more than 200 drilling rigs – the greatest source of hydraulic volume – generate 2 million gallons of septage per month.

The area has 17 pumping companies operating nonstop, but only six do some or all land application, which the state has always approved. This year’s mild winter allowed land-spreading to continue, and helped postpone the disaster of too much wastewater and nowhere to put it.

In response to the crisis, Mountrail County declared a moratorium on worker camps until the situation is under control and sound planning exists for expansion. Three oilfields have accepted responsibility for their wastewater and brought in mobile treatment package plants. Only Mon-Dak Water and Septic Service in Stanley has seized the initiative and is building the first 10-million-gallon, three-cell lagoon system in the state.

“When I looked back at the situation, I could see the domino effect as one plant after another turned pumpers away,” says Marty Haroldson, septic pumper program coordinator of the Wastewater Division for the state Department of Health. “By the time we realized what was happening, we were caught in the middle of it unprepared.”

Pumper: How is your department dealing with the crisis?

Haroldson: We’re rewriting the septic rules and regulations. One big kicker is how we classify wastewater from the oilfields, because that affects dispersal. Currently, wastewater in holding tanks is classified as septage. Sewage is anything passing through public-operated treatment works. Camps and rigs are small cities with holding tanks, but the wastewater has the same characteristics as raw sewage. It isn’t concentrated like the sludge in septic tanks.

Our rules and regulations don’t have a lot of explanations because they were written when people used common sense. They understood that they couldn’t over-apply and everyone followed the maximum allowable nitrogen application or MANA rate. However, now we’re seeing that the nutrient content isn’t the driving issue. It’s the soil’s absorption rate because the hydraulics are outweighing the nutrient load.

I’ve asked pumping companies to test wastewater for nutrient content. So far, one sends consistent data that I’m using as a monitoring guideline. This year, I’ll check the test sites and ask the farmer how the crop is growing. Once we have scientific data, we can change application rates.

Pumper: Have you asked other states for advice?

Haroldson: Yes, we’re talking to northern states with similar climates to make sure our rules are fair, equitable, achievable and appropriate for when the issue of sheer volume goes away. Our current rules allow pumpers to land-apply in winter and suggest that they have best management practices (BMP) in place. We are looking into greatly reducing the volume applied on frozen ground versus frozen with little or no snow cover.

We don’t want to ban winter application without implementing a timeline for pumpers to build more storage tanks and mandating that regional lagoon systems or small package plants are in place around the state. That all takes time, which we don’t have. Therefore, we’re looking at classifying sites by volume. The more the land is utilized, the more we will scrutinize the operation to verify that BMPs are holding runoff to super minimal. Pumpers would need a variance, and we would check the site for compliance.

Our efforts could all disappear if the majority rejects winter application without an alternative solution in place. That could trigger our worst fears of rules so stringent that pumpers begin midnight dumping or dumping down the road.

Pumper: How prevalent is illegal dumping?

Haroldson: I receive calls about it, but they’re difficult to substantiate and no one gets a license plate number. We do have some ongoing investigations with enforcement action pending.

Pumper: How many waste-hauling trucks are licensed with the state?

Haroldson: As of 2011, I had 146 licensed companies owning 265 licensed units. This was the first renewal cycle where I ran out of license plates and had to order 75 more to fill new applications. Companies are expanding their fleets, others are coming from out of state, and more in-state people are considering entering the business. It’s only when they call here with questions that they realize pumping isn’t as easy as they had imagined.

To ensure that everyone knows how to land-apply properly and document it, I sent a six-page summary of the 503 regs with every pumper license renewal. I also check established sites several times per month and try to visit newly licensed sites and talk to the pumpers. Our oil spill response crews occasionally check on things, too.

Pumper: How were you able to help Curt and Beau Vachal of Mon-Dak Water & Septic Service with their proposal for a treatment lagoon?

Haroldson: When Curt discussed his idea for a regional facultative lagoon system, I took him to environmental engineer Dave Bergsagel in our Municipal Facilities division, who provided the information his engineering firm would need to design the system to our specifications. They’ll build the three cells in phases with the goal of recycling the effluent for hydraulic fracturing so they don’t need a discharge permit.

Early this year, Curt and Beau took me to the proposed lagoon site to make sure it was in a location where haulers would still use it after the oil boom subsides or evaporates. It’s just off a major highway and the city commission approved the site. The closest farmstead is 1.5 miles away.

Pumper: What opportunities do you see in the energy exploration picture for pumpers to expand their business?

Haroldson: Besides adding to their fleets, I’m not hearing much from pumpers about purchasing mobile package plants because of their price and the difficulty in obtaining discharge permits. That brings us back to rewriting the rules regarding what classification of operator do we need for these plants and can we have a general permit for them.

Nobody has ever mentioned bringing in dewatering presses, although I’ve thought about it. The closest anyone has come is one camp with mechanical treatment. It uses the activated sludge system and dewaters it into a 55-gallon drum. When it’s full, they take it to the landfill. Another camp with mechanical treatment is putting in a holding pond for when they can’t discharge. It could be a $1 million bill by the time they’re done.

Pumper: Is it likely that more camps will begin treating their own wastewater and take the pressure off pumpers?

Haroldson: The public outcry for it is certainly there. However, I understand from some camps I’ve visited that the owners did try. They wanted to build the camps close to water so they could install mechanical treatment and discharge to streams, but the county Planning and Zoning Board wouldn’t issue a permit. That left putting the waste in holding tanks and hauling it off. Now we’re living with the consequences of that decision, and it’s been going on for four to five years in places.

Pumper: What hope do you see on the horizon?

Haroldson: I’d love to see more regional lagoon systems to handle wastewater during inclement weather or when pumpers can’t land-apply. I hope we can balance pumping and land application with the public outcry to crack down on pumpers and making the rules so stiff that no one can comply. There is a huge educational curve to overcome.



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