A method of treating a wastewater is provided and can be used, for
example, to treat a gas well hydrofracture wastewater. The method can
involve precipitating barium as barium sulfate, precipitating calcium and
strontium as calcium carbonate and strontium carbonate, precipitating
magnesium hydroxide, and filtering out the metal compounds to form a
recycle water. The recycle water produced from the method is also
provided, as is a method for using the recycle water as a gas well
hydrofracture water. In some embodiments, discharge water from a coal
mine, and/or water from an abandoned coal mine, is used as a source of
sulfate ions to precipitate barium as barium sulfate.