Shale Gas - Mod note post#117

nedzer2011 wrote: »

You throw around all these statements without any sources or founding whatsoever. People perfectly entitled to debate but unless you can back up these claims....

Environmental concerns and emerging issues

A controversy has arisen as the use of hydraulic fracturing has increased and expanded with its application to horizontal drilling. The major issues that are discussed include groundwater (aquifer) contamination by fracking chemicals, accidental chemical spills, waste disposal, air quality, the land footprint of drilling activities, pipeline placement and safety, and the amount of water used.
fracking fluids not only contain propping agents to hold the fractures open but often other substances. While the fracking fluid is typically more than 99% water, other components are used. These substances are generally considered proprietary so drilling companies are not required to disclose their content (although a few states do now require or are moving to require such disclosure). It is thought that the substances added to the fracking fluids may include potassium chloride, guar gum, ethylene glycol, sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate, sodium chloride, borate salts, citric acid, glutaraldehyde, acid, petroleum distillate, and isopropanol. These substances are added for a variety of reasons. For instance, acid helps dissolve minerals and assists with the fracturing process by creating fissures in the rock. Borate salts maintain fluid viscosity. Other substances are added to prevent pipe corrosion, minimize friction between the pipe and fluid, and to prevent scale deposits on the pipe. Proponents of hydraulic fracturing practices largely argue that for the most part these substances are non-toxic (Vaughan and Pursell, 2010).
Critics allege that some of the substances used are hazardous materials and carcinogens, toxic enough to contaminate groundwater resources and create toxic air emissions. These include diesel fuel, kerosene, benzene, toluene, xylene, and formaldehyde. There are a number of cases in the U.S. where local communities claim that their air or drinking water has been polluted by hydraulic fracturing fluids, methane, or petroleum by-products such as benzene. Incidents have been reported in several states.
For instance, in June of 2010, Houston-based EOG Resources had a blowout at a Clearfield County, Pennsylvania well that discharged 35,000 gallons of HF fluid into a state forest. As a result, the state ordered the company to suspend all gas drilling activities until an investigation of the causes of the explosion could be undertaken. In that same month, in Dish, Texas blood and urine samples taken from residents living near Barnett Shale gas wells revealed that 65% of households tested had toluene in their systems and another 53% had detectable levels of xylene. These chemicals have all been identified in Dish air samples on multiple occasions. EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) are looking into air emissions from Barnett shale gas operations (Fowler, 2010).
In Pavillion, Wyoming residents were informed by EPA in 2009 that many drinking water wells were contaminated by toxics often used in hydraulic fracturing fluids. For nearly a decade Pavillion residents had complained about miscarriages, rare cancers, and central nervous system disorders including seizures. EPA confirmed the presence of 2-butoxyethanol, a known constituent in HF fluid, in three wells (Earthworks, 2009).
Surface handling of materials have been a problem in a number of cases. In Caddo Parish, Louisiana in 2009 seventeen cattle were found dead near a drilling site. Louisiana regulators concluded that HF fluid leaked from the well pad and ran into an adjacent pasture. The private companies involved were fined $22,000. At Dunkard Creek, Pennsylvania in 2009 a 43 mile fish kill resulted from an overgrowth of algae that live in salty water. Pennsylvania officials say they have not ruled out that the cause was brine wastewater associated with HF drilling discharge to surface water bodies. In 2008 in southwest Pennsylvania, parts of the lower Monogahala River were found by the Army Corps of Engineers to have too high a salt content. The Army Corps cited drilling in the Marcellus shale as a possible cause. Pennsylvania regulators drew on the Corps findings to call for more stringent regulation. In Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania in 2009, a spill of fracking fluid into a water body resulted in a fish and amphibian kill. Pennsylvania regulators fined the responsible company $141,175. In 2009, Dimock, Pennsylvania experienced three spills of fracking fluid totaling more than 8000 gallons (30,284 l). The spills entered a nearby creek and the operators were fined $56,650 by Pennsylvania regulators (Vaughan and Pursell, 2010).
Health threats and fear of environmental contamination are critical issues in the debate over the new hydraulic fracturing techniques but land and water use issues also abound. The surface land use for conventional gas and oil wells was typically much smaller than the land space needed for a hydraulic fracturing operation. Older drilling techniques used less equipment, less water, and produced less waste. Use of the large quantities of water necessary, especially in arid locations, may be an issue for local water providers. For instance, to break the Haynesville shale of Louisiana, companies had to drill down more than 2 miles (3.2 km). The scale of these new HF drilling operations are huge in terms of the amount of rock that needs to be drilled, the trucks and other needed equipment, the miles of pipe necessary, the volume of casing cement needed, the amounts of water and energy used, and the resultant amount of wastewater produced. The intensity of shale gas production is magnified by the fact that it is a 24 h, 7 day a week operation. While many shale gas plays are relatively rural, many are not. This poses a new wrinkle in gas production. Many of the new shale gas discoveries are in highly populated regions, making the protection of the water supply and the drilling intensity a high-profile and critical issue (Vaughan and Pursell, 2010)....

Finally, another consideration is the pipeline infrastructure used to gather the gas and then to move the gas from its collection point, through refining, to end-use locations. The intricate transport network for natural gas consists of gathering systems, processing plants, pipelines, and storage fields. Gathering systems are made up of small-diameter, low-pressure pipelines that move natural gas from the well to either a processing plant or to an interconnection with a larger main pipeline. Processing plants are necessary if the gas contains impurities that need to be collected before the gas can enter an interconnection to a main pipeline. The main pipeline system consists of wide-diameter, high-pressure lines for intra- and inter-state transport. The U.S. has more than 300,000 miles (about 483,000 km) of main pipeline. Compressor (pumping) stations are required along the routes to keep the gas flowing. In the U.S. these lines and stations are operated by over 200 private companies. Since gas use is seasonal, with greater use for home heating in the winter, underground storage facilities are used to store excess gas produced until it is needed. The U.S. has about 400 of these storage facilities (which consist largely of depleted oil, gas or aquifer reservoirs or salt caverns) that are operated by over 100 private companies. Finally, there are more than 1300 local distribution companies that take the gas from the main pipelines and move it into hundreds of thousands of miles of small-diameter, low-pressure service lines that deliver to local customers (Energy Information Administration, 2010b).
Erection of new pipelines to accommodate the newly produced natural gas from shale gas plays can be an issue especially in heavily populated areas. For instance, in the Barnett shale of Texas many high-pressure gas lines are being built near homes. More than 14,000 wells have been drilled in the Barnett shale (as of 2010) and about 1200 of them are in the city of Fort Worth. By the time the Barnett shale gas play is fully established there will be about 6000 wells in the city of Fort Worth. Fort Worth is rapidly becoming the first urban gas field in the country. These pipelines provoke fear and controversy. In 2009, an older pipeline blew up in a suburb of Amarillo, Texas with the force of a magnitude 4 earthquake. It sent a column of flames hundreds of feet (more than 60 m) into the air and burned at temperatures in excess of 7000 degrees Fahrenheit (3871 °C). Pipelines are now being built within feet of residential housing, causing considerable concern (Wilder, 2010)........

conclusion
hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling of shale gas plays is fraught with contention. The strife, though, goes in two directions. Pro-drilling states, like Texas, find themselves in conflict with the federal government while anti-drilling forces (individuals or states) find themselves in conflict with drillers and advocates of drilling. This contention will not be resolved any time soon. Both the pro-drilling and anti-drilling groups will continue to use the courts and the political or administrative powers at their disposal to win their goals.
Baring a smoking gun that undisputedly ties HF techniques to drinking water contamination, hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling of shale gas plays will likely not be stopped. There is too much resource to be had, too much need to satisfy, and too much money to be made. The controversy will probably drive drillers toward discovery and use of non-toxic alternatives for fracking chemicals whenever possible. Fear of liability will impel this shift probably as much as the desire to avoid costly and time consuming conflict with opposition parties. Communities near shale gas plays will continue to be transformed by the drilling activities. Rural pastoral land will be littered with drilling rigs, pipeline will be laid, and 24-7 industrial operations will continue until the play is fully exploited. Urban populations that find themselves in the middle of shale gas plays will likewise see their communities transformed to accommodate the industry. The water resources the drillers need will be diverted from other uses to permit shale gas recovery.
The increasing demand from some states for federal oversight seems likely to produce some results. EPA will issue its report on hydraulic fracturing in 2012 and will likely continue to step in when local environmental issues cross the threshold of imminent danger. New York in particular seems poised to take action to slow the use of hydraulic fracturing out of fear for their drinking water. But whether the current horizontal drilling moratorium will be renewed is unclear. Even if the anti-drilling factions succeed in some locations, they will not in others.
Drilling will continue in Texas. Since Texas is such a large part of the future of the industry, it seems pretty clear that the industry will carry on. To what extent the federal government will involve itself in efforts to control the untoward environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing is questionable.The fact that the Obama administration is engaged in development of international partnerships suggests that the U.S. will continue to vigorously pursue production of shale gas reserves at home and worldwide.