PENN TWP — The township will be home to a new wastewater treatment plant for the shale gas industry.

RESWATER-Butler LLC is building a $2.5 million facility that will treat drilling fluid, flowback frack water, and other water from shale wells, according to Andy Kicinski, company president.

The company is part of Reserved Environmental Services, a New Stanton-based water processor with treatment plants in New Stanton and Wheeling, W.Va.

Kicinski said the Penn Township plant, which will be on Hicks Road across from the existing XTO Energy gas-treatment plant, will treat used water so it can be reused for future drilling. Construction of the plant began last week and is expected to be done for a Nov. 1 opening.

The plant, which will have eight full-time employees, will be able to process from 5,000 to 10,000 barrels of waste water daily, Kicinski said, adding that each barrel holds 42 gallons of water.

Kicinski said the company’s plants are zero-discharge facilities and that all the water is recycled for fracking, which is used to extract natural gas from shale.

Clinton Bonetti, the township’s land use administrator, said plans for the project have been in the works for about five months.

Bonetti said the plant met all the requirements of the state Department of Environmental Protection and the township, and the township supervisors are confident there will be no problems arising from the plant.

Kicinski said the company chose Penn Township because it is a very active zone with many fracking producers in the area.