The Jensen Facility, located south of Boulder, will soon have a holding capacity of more than two million barrels of wastewater.

Anticline Disposal

by Cat Urbigkit

With last December's opening of Anticline Disposal LLC's Jensen Facility, natural gas operators were presented with a new alternative for disposal of produced wastewater.

The water accepted at the facility, which is located off the Boulder South Road, has been deemed non-hazardous, and consists of recovered frac water and produced water. The facility is located on 40 acres of private property that is leased from Wayne and Kay Jensen. It is permitted by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's water quality division and by county zoning under a conditional use permit.

Anticline Disposal LLC's Managing partner Bill Fiant explains that each cell is triple lined, first with a one-inch layer of compacted clay, then with a dual liner. The dual polyeurea liner has a leak-detection piping system inserted in its center, a piece of which Fiant is shown holding in the photograph.

The Jensen Facility uses a water-evaporation system to dispose of the wastewater. With an input capacity of 3,000 barrels a day, and a major expansion project well underway, the facility will soon increase its holding capacity to a total of about 2,350,000 barrels.

Water trucks enter the facility, present their trucking manifest, and pump the water into separator tanks where condensate is separated from the water. The production water is then pumped into the pit or cell, where sprinklers distribute it into the air for evaporation.

Each cell is triple lined, and has a four-part leak-detection piping system, to aid in identifying the source of a leak should one occur. Among other protective measures, four monitoring wells are used to collect baseline water quality information for the site, and allow any changes to be detected.

Anticline Disposal LLC has also posted a $1 million closure bond, according to managing partner Bill Fiant. That bond is based on the worst-case scenario for closure and cleanup of the site.

The existing sprinkler system is temporary. The permanent system will involve installation of a floating dike down the center of the cell, with the spray sprinklers based off that.

Six full-time employees operate the facility, which is manned 24 hours a day, according to general manager John James.

Fiant said the initial investment in getting the facility operating cost $1.6 million, while the expansion involved another $3.8 million investment.

Another significant milestone occurred recently when Anticline Disposal obtained a 10-and-one-half-mile stretch of the old El Paso pipeline from Duke Energy. The 8-inch line obtained by Anticline Disposal begins about five miles north of the Jensen Facility on the west side of the New Fork River. It traverses several miles of anticline development occurring on the Mesa, crosses under the river to the Jensen Facility, and proceeds south from there.

"Mechanically that line is in pristine condition," Fiant said.

The two existing evaporation cells are 14 feet deep, but the new L-shaped cell currently under excavation will be 34 feet deep.

Fiant said that if operators want to eliminate the costs of trucking the wastewater from the Mesa, down Paradise Road and Highway 351 up to the Jensen Facility, the El Paso pipeline would allow the water to be pumped to the facility instead. This would reduce trucking costs and transportation time, as well as reducing the amount of traffic on the roads.

While plans for use of the pipeline haven't been finalized, Fiant said there appears to be considerable interest in using the line in this manner.

Photo credits:  Cat Urbigkit