NNE First in U.S. to Achieve Independent Certification
Cleaning Up The Past – Fueling The Future
Minimizing Impacts – Improving Technologies
NNE strives to reuse or recycle 100% of its produced water either by utilizing the excess water in its own completion operations, or through water sharing agreements with other oil and gas drilling and production companies. Through the development of 32 miles of water pipelines, NNE has removed approximately 55,000 truckloads from public roads and highways. The reduction in truckloads increases safety and reduces significant emissions.
NNE recently partnered with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to construct and maintain an active treatment system on Deckers Creek, a tributary of the Monongahela River in Monongalia County, West Virginia. Each year the project will remove 200,000 pounds of heavy metals from Deckers Creek. This project will not only clean Deckers Creek but will greatly enhance the water quality of the Monongahela River, which is a source of fresh water for many downstream communities.
NNE has taken an active role in improving local, West Virginia roadways by paving and repairing slips on miles of public roads.
NNE has also partnered with Clay Battelle PSD to provide assistance in the improvements to their infrastructure providing safe, dependable drinking water to their customers.
NNE prides itself in its ongoing relationship with our local first responders and recognizes the importance they play in our community. To show its support, NNE provided funding to the Blacksville, WV Volunteer Fire Department to purchase five new sets of fire gear.
Our communities are strengthened through education. NNE supports both our local educators and students. Employees have taken active roles as tutors, coaches, guest lecturers, adjunct faculty, and have participated on various school boards.
NNE has joined The One Future Coalition in an effort to support the reduction of methane emissions within the natural gas industry. NNE joins thirty-seven of its industry peers in the goal of achieving the goal of reducing the methane intensity rate to less than 1% by 2025.
NNE has joined the API Environmental Partnership in an effort to support the natural gas industry’s environmental performance. Through a collaboration of industry professionals, NNE both supports and gains additional best practices and introduces technological advancements as we work to understand and reduce carbon emissions.
NNE is committed to using a Tier IV (or equivalent) frac fleet in its completions operations. Utilizing these fleets reduces emissions by over %60.
Northeast Natural Energy believes in transparency. We recently committed to the process of having our natural gas production certified through rigorous standards developed by Equitable Origin and MiQ. This means independent assessors will provide a thorough review and audit of our policies and practices including Labor, Environmental, Social, and Governance practices, to confirm our commitment to rules, regulations and the EO 100 standards. The MiQ certification will focus on our methane intensity, using new technology to monitor our methane and our overall emissions reduction plan. NNE is proud to be the first natural gas production company in the United States to seek independent certification of its entire operating field. We want to be measured and this process will provide us with the opportunity to see how our methane intensity levels compare to our peers, and what we can do to improve in the future.
Learn more about Equitable Origin www.equitableorigin.org and MiQ www.MiQ.org.
Read the news release announcing our plans to seek certification here.
NNE recently partnered with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to construct and maintain an active treatment system on Deckers Creek in Monongalia County, West Virginia.
Deckers Creek, a tributary of the Monongahela River, has been degraded by more than 100 years of acid mine drainage due to underground coal mining. While active coal mining ceased in the Deckers Creek drainage area in the 1950’s, acid mine drainage has continued to impact Deckers Creek, to the point where aquatic life is practically non-existent. By installing a treatment system located outside of Morgantown, WV, the impacted section of Deckers Creek will be restored to a point where aquatic life can thrive.
Using a sophisticated engineering process, water from the creek will be diverted to a treatment system that utilizes high calcium content hydrated lime to create a slurry, which will be added to the acid mine degraded water. After mixing, the metals will separate from the water in one or multiple clarifiers. The resulting sludge (precipitated metals) will then be pumped and injected into a below drainage area of the abandoned underground mine. The clean water will then be discharged back into Deckers Creek.
The average discharge rate (flow rate) of Deckers Creek is 216 cubic feet per second according to United States Geologic Survey statistics. 216 cubic feet per second calculates to more than 1.2 billion barrels of water per year. In contrast NNE utilizes on average 6.4 million barrels of surface water per year.
When the project is complete NNE’s operations will be water-neutral within two days of water flowing at the plant. Each year the project will remove 200,000 pounds of heavy metals from Deckers Creek and the downstream Monongahela River. This project will not only clean Deckers Creek but will greatly enhance the water quality of the Monongahela River, which is a source of fresh water for many downstream communities.
Northeast Natural Energy is proud to have been selected as the operator of choice to participate in the first ever Marcellus Shale Energy and Environmental Laboratory (“MSEEL”). NNE partnered with the United States Department of Energy and West Virginia University, among others, to establish a long-term field laboratory studying all aspects of unconventional resource development.
The objective of the MSEEL is to provide a long-term collaborative field site to develop and validate new knowledge and technology to improve recovery efficiency and minimize environmental implications of unconventional natural gas development and to make all of this data transparent for public review and consumption.
The MSEEL project is located on two different NNE well sites. The first wells were drilled in 2015. Water quality, air, noise, light, dust emissions and sociological impacts were all monitored throughout the sites’ life cycle. In fact, monitoring of air emissions and water quality continues today. In addition to environmental studies various innovative surface and downhole techniques were utilized and tested to improve extraction efficiency, creating more available energy per acre of disturbance.
Hundreds of scientific publications and public presentations have been written and presented to educate the scientific community and the general public on the benefits of natural gas development both from an energy efficiency and environmental sustainability perspective.
Information about MSEEL and all project datasets and scientific publications can be found at www.mseel.org