CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

OWEGO -- A plant to treat waste from the Marcellus Shale is on the drawing board in the Town of Owego.

Patriot Water Treatment pitched its plans to convert a former car dealership at 936 Taylor Road to a waste water treatment plant for Marcellus drillers at a planning board meeting Tuesday night. The proposal calls for installing holding and processing tanks in the existing building to treat round-the-clock shipments of drilling waste water, according to information from the planning board.

Andrew Blocksom, of Patriot, proposed the plan to desalinate brine that is a product of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus, a massive formation running under the region and throughout the Appalachian Basin. He did not return calls Wednesday.

Planning board members tabled the request for site approval, pending more information, said Debra Standinger, planning and zoning administrator for the town. According to Standinger, questions concern oversight by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and the technical specifications of the tanks.

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