When New York’s guidelines for hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale are set in stone, officials say they will likely be stronger than those in Pennsylvania and other states that have long permitted the process.

But a major question remains: What will be done with the millions of gallons of chemical-laced wastewater and salty production brine that comes along with the process?

The wastewater, which flows back to the surface after being injected into shale formations to fracture the rock, can be cared for at treatment facilities, as long as those plants are properly equipped to remove the chemicals and the total dissolved solids in the fluid and radioactivity levels are within reason.

In New York, however, very few plants are equipped with that type of technology.

“There may be certain industrial facilities that may be qualified to handle these materials, but we don’t know of many,” said James Tierney, assistant commissioner for water resources at the state Department of Environmental Conservation. “We don’t know of anybody that is coming in right now and saying they want to be able to treat a million gallons of horizontal hydrofracking waste containing these chemical constituents.”

Accepting flow-back water from the natural gas industry could be a major revenue generator for local treatment plants, but upgrading plants to treat it would cost millions of dollars. Even with the upgrades, the composition of the fluid could be problematic.

“This stuff has a lot of iron and other things in it,” said Phillip Grayson, sewer pre-treatment administrator for the Village of Endicott’s treatment plant. “Even with some kind of pre-treating, I think it’s almost prohibitive for us because of our sewer-use ordinance. They would have to do a lot of work just to get it in the door for us.”

Gas companies reached out to a number of Southern Tier treatment plants in 2008, when the Marcellus gas rush had just begun in Pennsylvania and New York was weighing its options. In December of that year, the DEC sent out a memo reminding publically owned plants they could not accept the waste if it contained chemicals they weren’t permitted to treat, and that those plants would be required to complete an engineer-led analysis to determine whether it is feasible to fully treat the water before it is discharged. The plants would have to have a proper “pre-treatment” process, where the water is treated before it even gets to the main treatment facility.

Whether a plant could accept the water or brine would largely have to do with what kind of treatment technology it uses. In Endicott, for example, the plant uses a biological treatment process, where living, freshwater microbes clean the water. The amount of salt and total dissolved solids in the waste could harm that process.

“If all of a sudden the water taken in is salty, it could kill the microbes, and pretty significant technology is involved in desalination,” Tierney said. “That technology exists and it’s used for turning saltwater into freshwater in different technologies in places around the world, but it certainly isn’t standard and it can be costly.”

The biological treatment process could work if the salty fluid were bled in at low levels over time, allowing the microbes to become acclimated, Tierney said.

Radiation levels in the wastewater also are a concern. When the water is returned from below the ground, it collects a number of naturally occurring radioactive materials, or NORM. An analysis of wastewater samples by the Department of Health found levels of radium-226, and related alpha and beta radiation that are up to 10,000 times higher than drinking water standards.

A series of articles in The New York Times also brought to light concerns about the materials in frack water, analyzing samples from more than 300 gas wells in Pennsylvania that showed various levels of radioactivity.

In a memo sent to the DEC in 2009, state health officials said the radioactivity levels in the sample it tested “are not trivial but not insurmountable.” Health spokesman Tom Allocco said the department hasn’t tested any samples since then.

“The Department of Health is working with the (DEC) to address potential worker issues from the buildup of NORM in natural gas piping and equipment,” Allocco said. “This will be addressed in an upcoming Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Study.”

The SGEIS, an 800-page document that will guide the state’s permitting process for high-volume hydrofracking, is set to be released in June. As it stands now, gas companies would be required to set a plan for the disposal and transportation of the waste fluids before they would be able to obtain a drilling permit.

John Holko, president of Genesee County-based Lenape Resources and a board member of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York, said the industry is reusing the wastewater through closed-loop systems, and said the rate of reuse will continue to rise.

“The focus is on 100 percent reuse. I think some of the companies are there now,” Holko said. “Were they there at the beginning of 2010 or the end of 2009? I don’t think so, but by the time it happens in New York, I think the fluid handling will be easy.”