Shale Gas a Boon to Clean Water Technology

Susan Phillips

Recent Stories

Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

August 23, 2011 | 3:13 PM

As lawmakers debate new gas drilling regulations, and more Pennsylvania residents complain about tainted water supplies, the water purification industry is experiencing its own boom. Forbes reports today on a study by the Artemis Project, which takes a look at the companies working on developing new technology that would clean fracking water.

The new report from the Artemis Project, “The Marcellus Effect,” evaluates how these promising companies are turning this opportunity into a proving ground for solutions that could make them new leaders in the water industry.
The intense competition in the shale gas drilling market will have wide-reaching impact for the water industry as a whole. From this limited, niche market of shale gas drilling, we predict a new breed of product solution will emerge.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, uses millions of gallons of water per well to extract gas. The water contains chemicals going down, and it flows back up with additional salts, radiological materials, and heavy metals. With all that wastewater, there’s lots of money to be made in cleaning out the salts and heavy metals. A report by G lobal Water Intelligence says more than $3 billion dollars a year could be spent on shale gas wastewater treatment and disposal.