Milestone Environmental Services

Milestone Environmental Services, LLC (Milestone) is more than just an energy waste management firm. As a strategic carbon sequestration partner for energy companies, Milestone aids customers in their pursuit of net-zero objectives and empowers the energy industry by helping it operate in ways that go beyond compliance to eliminate negative impacts.

Another defining characteristic of the company is its independent ownership and mode of operation, which suits the energy waste market’s needs. While most competing firms are owned and operated by large municipal waste companies experienced in handling dry waste, the nature of energy waste— being fluid—demands a different approach. Unlike companies that dry out or fixate fluid waste before taking it to landfill, Milestone uses sophisticated technologies and methodologies that address energy waste in an environmentally responsible manner.

Its primary approach is ‘slurry injection,’ through which Milestone collects the heavy and viscous fluid waste and injects it through a well to over a mile below the surface, where the waste cannot harm the ecosystem. The geology into which the slurry is injected is carefully selected to ensure it is receptive to taking waste while also restricting the slurry from further migration. Without any secondary treatment or additions to the waste stream, the proprietary process tackles a colossal problem quickly and cost-effectively. Milestone is the only firm with an extensive network across the key energy basins of Texas and New Mexico to manage waste in this commendable way.

The firm also has the unique capability of characterizing hydrocarbons in waste before injecting it underground, and by doing so, calculates the waste’s CO2 equivalence or its potential to emit carbon. Therefore, by disposing of waste through Milestone, its customers can identify how much carbon they have avoided emitting into the atmosphere, right down to the very last detail.

“We have eight professionally permitted and licensed slurry injection facilities located in the heart of the energy industry,” says Richard Leaper, executive vice president at Milestone. This geographical positioning becomes a strategic advantage whereby it reduces the client’s waste handling logistics and transportation costs.

Milestone’s offering also includes energy waste landfills designed to permanently lock away solid waste while protecting the underlying and surrounding area. With the integration of redundant liners, leak detection systems, leachate collection, groundwater monitoring, and stringent maintenance programs, these world-class landfills use leading-edge protective technologies and processes that far exceed permitting requirements.

They also provide the most reliable solids disposal solution in the energy industry, despite an abundance of alternate options. A case in point involves a client who aimed to repurpose waste drill cuttings as road base material. Due to a surplus of drill cuttings and lack of demand for the repurposed material, the client was left with a substantial and growing excess of waste material to dispose of. Rather than continuing with the repurposing program, the client sought Milestone’s expertise, and the waste was efficiently disposed of in a reliable and environmentally responsible manner.

With an eye on the future, the company recently launched a subsidiary, Milestone Carbon, focused on mid-scale carbon capture and sequestration projects. This business helps midstream and other single point industrial emitters reduce their net emissions to a minimum, while allowing them to take advantage of financial and tax incentives offered in the emerging carbon economy. Milestone is also looking at avenues to augment traditional industrial waste processes in other sectors.

Through these responsible and reliable waste disposal techniques, Milestone aims to reimagine the role of a waste management solution provider altogether in shaping the future of a more sustainable world.