Gas Fracking

tuppence

Update on antifracking run

http://www.mylocalnews.ie/articles/529/13/love-leitrim-260567/love-leitrim-brave-run-for-antifracking-cause-39504/

NewVision

Amish speak out against frac sand facility near St. Charles

NewVision

Don’t Drink the Water: Fracking Fluid Likely in PA Drinking Water Supply

by Tara Holmes
July 11, 2012
9:30 am

21 comments



Live in Pennsylvania? Live near a fracking well? If so, the chances of finding fracking fluid seeping into your drinking water — a major concern that’s been touted by environmental groups and independent researchers for years — may be more likely than previously thought.

Scientists at Duke University and California State Polytechnic University at Pomona found that water from wells and aquifers in Northeastern Pennsylvania contained traces of brine from the Marcellus Shale, the shale deposit found in the northern Appalachian region of North America and the deposit popularly cited for domestic fracking operations. Brine, a naturally occurring substance, is acting as an indicator to a disturbing fact: previously thought to be “contained” underground chemicals may not be so contained after all. In fact, these same chemicals could be seeping toward the surface and into our drinking water supply much more easily and frequently then predicted.

While no specific fracking chemicals were detected in this study, the mere thought that chemicals can move freely through underground rock layers more so than previously believed is very alarming. The findings also contradict the notion typically upheld by vested interests, predominately composed of oil and gas companies, that rock formations deep within the Earth will securely seal in material injected thousands of feet underground, whether through underground disposal or drilling. However, matter can’t just disappear and will inevitably end up somewhere down the line.

The joint Duke/California State University study isn’t the only one discovering a connection between injecting chemicals deep underground and local drinking water ramifications. In 2011, Duke researchers also found that “methane gas was far more likely to leak into water supplies in places adjacent to drilling.” In addition, in April of this year, Ground Water published a paper that predicted fracking fluid contaminants could “reach the surface within 100 years – or fewer if the ground is fracked.”

The oil and gas industry is not happy to hear this news, immediately questioning the legitimacy of the findings, citing “researchers do not know how long it may have taken for the brine to leak.” However, the question isn’t about how long it will take for chemicals to make their way to the surface of the Earth; the simple fact that brine can travel to the surface, therefore entering groundwater systems, is enough evidence to raise serious concern. Whether this process takes 10, 50 or 100 years shouldn’t matter. What should matter most is preventing any fracking chemicals from ever entering our water and our land, period.

Related Stories:

Accidental Vote Legalizes Fracking in North Carolina

Vermont First State to Ban Fracking

Ohio Fracking Wastewater Test Reveals Toxic Mess

Geuze

There was a special report in the Economist about shale gas this week.

One thing that interested me was a description of the impact on the site of a drilling operation.

There is a lot of truck traffic to and from the site.

The initial drilling is noisy and takes 5 days.

Overall, there is 6 months of actual activity on site.

But, after that, most of the land is reclaimed, and all that is left is a little pipework, a water tank, and the sound of gas whooshing into pipelines.

Geuze

Here is a quote from the article:

"After a little over a year of activity, at least half of which is taken up with planning and obtaining permits, most of the land is reclaimed, apart from a little pipework and a water tank on a small section of the original site. At Elias, a completed Chevron operation, the only sound to disturb the replanted clover meadow is a faint whooshing as gas passes to an underground pipe network. It is the sound of dollars clocking up, and it could go on for 30-50 years. The gas rushes out rapidly in the first year or so before tailing off quite fast to a third of the original flow and gradually declining thereafter.

The remarkable thing about extracting shale gas, says Bruce Niemeyer, Chevron’s regional boss, is “the absence of anything remarkable going on” above the ground. The Marcellus is not what you might expect a gasfield to look like: the views can be spectacularly beautiful. And not only is it good to look at, its gas is also cheap to develop and cheap to produce. The average cost per well is $6m-7m, against $7m-11m in the Haynesville shale, spread across parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. Moreover, the Marcellus is close to the big markets of the Atlantic coast, so the gas is cheap to transport too. If only every gasfield were like that."

meenaghman

Geuze,
Its amazing how the gas companies criticise those opposed to this project as unscientific, and then subject us to this waffle. I think Chevron are going for the booker prize in fiction.

Lets take the well pads. each one will take a year to plan, build, drill, frack lay pipelines and produce gas. 16 pads within 4K of the house, each the size of a housing estate of 30 houses - that's 16 years worth of industrialisation. but for the purposes of this project it will be squeezed into a smaller timescale with all those attendant problems.

If this were one or two wells, I wouldn't have an issue. But 400 gas wells within 4 K of the house, and 3000 - 9000 wells across Leitrim and Fermanagh, that's not a NIMBY issue, that's a major public health issue which needs to be studied. The destruction of the local tourism and agricultural economy through effectively making 1.5 counties into a building site for 10-15 years ( 187.5 years worth of building - 375 pads @ 6months / pad) by a non-local labour force, doesn't to me make economic sense, not when the returns to the exchequer both north and south add up to approximately 12billion pounds. 12 billion over 30-50 years [Tamboran's figures].. The govt announced a 2.5 billion euro spend yesterday and was told it was too small. The UK govt announced a 50billion pounds stimulus today. 12 billion return over 30-50 years to dig up Leitrim and Fermanagh and all the attendant health, environmental and economic problems created just doesn't make any economic sense. We haven't yet moved into the realm of what it will cost to monitor this industry, nor put right the environmental damage.
Finally these use Tamboran's figures of 11 dollar / MCF gas. Gas was trading in Europe at about 8.70 dollars/mcf today. So while there may still be profit in it for Tamboran, the returns are diminished and so is the tax take to governments. Anyone pushing the cheap gas mantra needs to look at the reality.
Its clear that the sound of gentle wooshing of dollars is going into Tamboran's pocket, and wont benefit the local economy, nor the larger macro economy as a whole.

Geuze

What I'm reading suggests the drill rig takes up 1 acre, though a photo suggests the whole site is more like 100m by 100m, so maybe a hectare.

Plus it uses a lot of water, needs a 1m gallon reservoir, and uses 5m gallons across its life (22m litres).

From this "pad", four wells can be drilled.

Over the past decade 20,000 wells have been drilled in the USA.

Are there suggestions of 3,000 to 9,000 wells in Co. Leitirm?

meenaghman

The Well pads from Tamboran are 7 acres during drilling (24 well pad) and 9 acres during drilling (48 well pad). After drilling and Fracking Tamboran claim they will reduce the size of the pad to 4 acres/5 acres. The thing is that there are other considerations with regards to run off and set back for security which means in reality they are most likely to be bigger than this.

Tamboran have said 3000 wells and up to 9000 wells in N Leitrim and W Fermanagh in their licenced area. Langco own licencing area in S Leitrim/Roscommon and have not forumlated a plan as yet and are in breach of licencing terms I believe. Langco and Tamboran both applied for the complete licencing area in Leitrim/Cavan/Roscommon/Sligo. The Petroleum Affairs Division split the licenced area between them. It seems likely that Tamboran will also want the rest of the area they bid for, so one could easily see another 3000-6000 wells in that portion of the licenced area. Only Tamboran applied in Fermanagh.

for some information on extent have a look here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irQYtqC8znY

NewVision

Fracking well pad:



Wyoming:

NewVision

ARD - Munich - Fracking German Report - concerned residents, contaminated lands (English Sub)

Also => Open letter to the members of the 31st Dáil Éireann. Hydraulic Shale Gas Fracturing - Tamborans claims - Chemicals involved in the fracking procedure

NewVision

TEDX — Chemicals in Natural Gas Operations

What you need to know about fracking

NewVision

Economic Impacts of Natural Gas Drilling

More at Shaleshock Media

NewVision

How many wells? How many pads? More questions?

Answers from Fracture Mechanic Engineer, Dr. A. R. Ingraffea, Ph.D., P.E., Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering, Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow, Cornell University, who has been working on hydraulic fracturing for decades.

NewVision

Insurer: No shale gas coverage (Times Union, 13 July 2012)

Nationwide says policies exclude hydrofracking

ALBANY — One of the nation's largest insurance companies has decided it is too risky to provide coverage on land, property or equipment involved in natural gas hydrofracking.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. released a statement Thursday that said none of its personal or commercial insurance policies were "designed to provide coverage for any fracking-related risks. ... We do not have a comfort level with the unique risks associated with the fracking process to provide coverage at a reasonable price."

...

"First mortgage companies decided not to offer mortgages to people who had fracking leases. Now it's insurance companies," said Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party, on behalf of New Yorkers Against Fracking, a coalition of environmental and community groups that don't want the state to approve drilling.

Sue Rapp, co-founder of Vestal Residents for Safe Energy, a Southern Tier anti-fracking group, said it was "terrifying that insurance companies have decided that fracking is too dangerous to insure, while our government is poised to let it go forward. Clearly insurance companies assume the risk of accidents is great enough that they will lose money, which means that our lives and livelihoods are in danger."

NewVision

David Letterman On Fracking: 'We're Screwed'

"From now on... vodka."

NewVision

From Democracy Now, April 14, 2010
World-Renowned Scientist Dr. Theo Colborn on the Health Effects of Water Contamination from Fracking

The Environmental Protection Agency has begun a review of how the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," can affect drinking water quality. We speak to Dr. Theo Colborn, the president of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange and one of the foremost experts on the health and environmental effects of the toxic chemicals used in fracking.

Nothing has changed so far.

NewVision

Whistle-blowing Truck Driver Exposes Law-Flouting Fracking Companies

" I am a truck driver. I drove their water tankers. I am going to leave the names of these companies out of it. But I tell you right now, as the low man on the totem pole you are going to be right in the middle of it. It’s a sick industry.

Now, these drivers will not get up and stand up for their wages because their wages are better, they get $15 or $20 an hour; they think they are in high cotton. But just the same, anything I had to say, when they told me go clean a frac truck out, I said under OSHA regulations I’ve got to have a haz mat suit on. They laughed me out of it.

It’s a culture of fear that’s in the oil industry right now, similar to the coal miners in WV. That told ya’, well we really did not want to tell you the truth about how bad the coal mine is. It’s bad out there, too. A majority of people at your rally last weekend [a gas industry rally in 2011?], you know, “We’re for the industry! Yeah, yeah, yeah! Because we’re making money.” But I guarantee you what’s going on, they’re dumping illegally, they’ve got these, uh, now, I’m getting angry.

I have been a truck driver for 17 years over 48 states, a flatbed driver; used to work for wood haulers for eight years. This industry is a bunch of liars. Don’t believe what they have to say. And until we find out if this stuff is safe, we need to have a moratorium."

That's the world where people like Tamboran CEO Richard Moorman is coming from.

They are telling us that Fermanagh would have shale gas enough to supply Northern Ireland for 50 years.


(Also => Fracking - A Boom and Bust)

Then they are telling us that they want to frack "chemical free". Virtually impossible and does not prevent toxic and radioactive compounds comimg up to surface with the brine.

But we also have to read that this Company behind €7bn gas fracking plan has never used process before.

Crazy!

How many more fairy tales do we have to hear? How many myths of them will still be repeated by our mainstream media. How long will it take until even the dumbest backbencher understands that we have to kick this pest out of the country?

NewVision

Contaminated Inquiry

How a University of Texas Fracking Study Led by a Gas Industry Insider Spun the Facts and Misled the Public

Frackers Fund University Research That Proves Their Case

This study was one of the few studies cited in the University of Aberdeen study commissioned by the Irish EPA, and it was cited as an example of a peer-reviewed, proper, respectable scientific study.

University of Aberdeen ties to the petroleum industry:

NewVision

More evidence for fracking causing earthquakes:

Earthquake by natural Fracking

Sensitive seismometers characterize shock that are generated from moving fluids in the subsurface


Soil column after the Yushu earthquake of 14 April 2010, which was not caused by Fracking

Taipei (Taiwan) - Moving fluids under high pressure through a deep rock, earthquakes can be triggered. This process could now examine an international team of geophysicists in an earthquake in Taiwan in more detail. This was made possible with about two kilometers deep hole that was made after the devastating Chi-Chi earthquake-1999 directly into the region in the geological fault zone. The results of this study, the researchers published in the journal "Science" could be especially important for energy companies in the shale-bound natural gas by means of compressed fluids at depth - want to promote - the so-called Fracking. "The movement of high-pressure fluids in the subsurface - either through natural processes or injected with industrial activities - has the potential to trigger major earthquakes," write Kuo-Fong Ma of the National Central University in Taiwan and their colleagues from Japan and the United States. However, this effect could be previously never studied directly in a fracture zone. Thanks to a whole network of Seimometern that can register themselves smallest earthquakes, the research team have now been able to identify a clear link between the moving fluids in the subsurface and vibrations in the rock.

Since the rock layers led around the hole itself sufficient quantities of water, the researchers needed to inject liquids. The prevailing water pressure was sufficient to produce in the fracture zone further small rock fractures. This resulted in weak shocks, which could be detected by the sensors in the borehole and the surface. Approximately 100 of these mini-quake could record the researcher during a month. Since non-classical mechanisms of earthquakes, but the water movements were responsible for these earthquakes, they gave a new name: I-type events.

Such quakes can cause damage as a result of a natural hydraulic Frackings on the surface hardly. However, fluids are injected under high pressure into the ground, are more rock quarries and thus greater earthquake in the realm of possibility. For those looking for natural gas and oil in geologically unstable areas, such as in these experiments Fracking hence carries a non-negligible risk of earthquakes.

© Wissenschaft aktuell

Source: "Isotropic Events Observed with a Borehole array in the Chelungpu fault zone, Taiwan", K.-F. Ma et al, Science, Doi. 10.1126/science.1222119

Translated by Google. Original article => Erdbeben durch natürliches Fracking


Also => Forcing fluids through a fault

The movement of high-pressure fluids -- either from natural processes or from industrial activities that inject fluids underground -- has the potential to trigger large earthquakes by opening up cavities and cracks deep underground. However, until now, researchers had never directly observed this fluid-driven process in a fault zone. By studying the fault along which the magnitude 7.6 Chi-Chi earthquake occurred in Taiwan back in 1999, Kuo-Fong Ma and colleagues identified several small earthquake-like events, which they called I-type events. This Chelungpu fault zone currently exhibits low tectonic stress and the I-type events are so small that they register negative magnitude values. But, after modeling these I-type events, Ma and the other researchers suggest that they are associated with natural hydraulic fracturing, or the break-up of rocks by high-pressure fluids. The presence and location of these events can indicate when and where such fracturing is occurring, they say. These I-type events may indicate the formation of veins or other fluid features that are often observed in rocks surrounding active fault zones, and according to the researchers they might also be similar to the events produced by industrial fracking.

NewVision

Study: Greenhouse gases, climate change and the transition from coal to low-carbon electricity



Natural gas is not an effective "bridge fuel" to a carbon-free future. Only rapid deployment of low-emission technologies will achieve substantial climate benefits.

NewVision

NewVision wrote: »

Contaminated Inquiry

How a University of Texas Fracking Study Led by a Gas Industry Insider Spun the Facts and Misled the Public

Frackers Fund University Research That Proves Their Case

This study was one of the few studies cited in the University of Aberdeen study commissioned by the Irish EPA, and it was cited as an example of a peer-reviewed, proper, respectable scientific study.

University of Aberdeen ties to the petroleum industry:

Is the Natural Gas Industry Buying Academics?

Last week the University of Texas provost announced he would reexamine a report by a UT professor that said fracking was safe for groundwater after the revelation that the professor pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Texas natural gas developer. It's the latest fusillade in the ongoing battle over the basic facts of fracking in America.

Texans aren't the only ones having their fracking conversations shaped by industry-funded research. Ohioans got their first taste last week of the latest public-relations campaign by the energy policy wing of the US Chamber of Commerce. It's called "Shale Works for US," and it aims to spend millions on advertising and public events to sell Ohioans on the idea that fracking is a surefire way to yank the state out of recession.

The campaign is loaded with rosy employment statistics, which can be traced to an April report authored by professors at three major Ohio universities and funded by, you guessed it, the natural gas industry. The report paints a bright future for fracking in Ohio as a job creator.

One coauthor of the study, Robert Chase, is prominent enough within the state's natural gas universe that his case was recently taken up by the Ohio Ethics Commission, whose chairman called Chase "more than a passing participant in the operations of the Ohio oil and gas industry" and questioned his potential conflicts of interest. As landowners in natural-gas-rich states like Texas and Ohio struggle to decipher conflicting reports about the safety of fracking, Chase is a piece in what environmental and academic watchdogs call a growing puzzle of industry-funded fracking research with poor disclosure and dubious objectivity.

"It's hard to find someone who's truly independent and doesn't have at least one iron in the fire," said Ohio oil and gas lease attorney Mark F. Okey. "It's a good ol' boys network and they like to take care of their own."

...

garth-marenghi

There are "Farming not Fracking" and Love Football-Hate Fracking" t-shirts available (proceeds go back to the voluntary movement" Love Leitrim") and we are trying to promote people to wear them at different events to create visibility. If you would like them please pm me. Ive attached pictures of the t-shirts.

Here is one of the events coming up that we would like people to wear them at. There is a 10km Run/Walk in Glenfarne this Saturday August 4th (part of the Glenfarne Gala Festival. Registration is from 11-12.30 on the day at the Glenfarne Football Field or online(link below). Cost is 10 euro. Its an event for people of all abilities.

Glenfarne is right in the heart of the proposed Gas Mining area (using Fracking) so come along and enjoy the unspoiled beauty of an area that is under threat.
Thanks a lot

http://www.glenfarne.com/
http://www.runireland.com/events/gle...k-fun-run-walk

NewVision

Green groups call for halt to fracking (The Irish Times - Tuesday, August 7, 2012)

A COALITION of 27 environmental groups has called on the Government to “put a stop to all fracking activity” in Ireland because its “known impacts are so serious”.

...

“Many of these impacts are not only local but can be felt regionally and even globally. Without a comprehensive scientific assessment of the impacts of fracking in Ireland and across Europe, an unconventional gas boom would be an enormous experiment on the environment and human health.”

...

Membership of the Environmental Pillar, which was set up in 2009, includes An Taisce, Birdwatch Ireland, Feasta, Friends of the Earth Ireland, the Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, the Irish Wildlife Trust, the Organic Centre, Sonairte and Voice.

garth-marenghi

Nnimmo Bassey, Chair of Friends of the Earth International, visiting Ireland to speak about community opposition to the fossil fuel industry

Friends of the Earth is very excited and honoured to welcome the Chair of Friends of the Earth International, Nnimmo Bassey, as our guest to Ireland this August. While here he will speak at events in Leitrim, Mayo and Dublin. Nnimmo is an award-winning environmental activist and is best known for his organisation's work to prevent and reverse the negative impacts of Shell's activities in Nigeria.


More details available in the link provided. He will be speaking on Friday 17th at 8pm in Manorhamilton.

http://www.activelink.ie/node/9786

tuppence

Another good article by Sligo today, covering this issue in far more depth than many more others out there, who should be.
http://www.sligotoday.ie/details.php?id=21456&PHPSESSID=41c0e8effdb2530bb8e508115af5ac2b

NewVision

Researchers Find Substantial Water Pollution Risks From "Fracking" To Recover Natural Gas

General University News, 6 August 2012

Study recommends consideration of additional regulations to protect drinking water and encourages future research efforts into disposal of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing

Stony Brook University scientists have found that the disposal of contaminated wastewater from hydraulic fracturing – commonly known as “fracking” – wells producing natural gas in the Marcellus Shale region poses substantial potential risks of river and other water pollution that suggests additional regulation to reduce the potential of drinking water contamination.

In a paper titled “Water Pollution Risk Associated with Natural Gas Extraction from the Marcellus Shale,” which appears in the August 2012 issue of the journal Risk Analysis, published by the Society for Risk Analysis, Stony Brook doctoral student Daniel Rozell, P.E., and Sheldon Reaven, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Technology and Society and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, found that “Even in a best case scenario, an individual well would potentially release at least 200 m3 of contaminated fluids.”

NewVision

tuppence wrote: »

Another good article by Sligo today, covering this issue in far more depth than many more others out there, who should be.
http://www.sligotoday.ie/details.php?id=21456&PHPSESSID=41c0e8effdb2530bb8e508115af5ac2b

Thanks for that.

If we are to have any chance of stopping large areas here being despoiled by “fracking”, we must learn how the battle in the US is being fought.

NewVision

tuppence wrote: »

Another good article by Sligo today, covering this issue in far more depth than many more others out there, who should be.
http://www.sligotoday.ie/details.php?id=21456&PHPSESSID=41c0e8effdb2530bb8e508115af5ac2b

Why did minister Pat Rabbitte order an EIA from Aberdeen University which is directly connected to the oil and gas industry?

And this desktop study is citing tainted papers directly sponsored by the industry.
=> https://sites.google.com/site/frackingireland/news#Frackers_Fund_University_Research_That_Proves_Their_Case
=> https://sites.google.com/site/frackingireland/news#Is_the_Natural_Gas_Industry_Buying_Academics

Meanwhile, the government of the German state, North Rhine-Westphalia, has put a moratorium on fracking. The final decision whether they will give a go-ahead or introduce a ban will be made after the arrival of an environmental impact assessment which is expected for this autumn.

The minister for environment of North Rhine-Westphalia stated in public that the applicants who want to carry out this EIA have to sign an affirmation that they are not working for the petroleum industry. (http://www.ardmediathek.de/wdr-fernsehen/lokalzeit-ruhr/gutachten-zu-erdgas-bohrungen?documentId=8600720)

Why can Pat Rabbitte not demand the same assertion from the institutes he is hiring?

Why does this minister not even bother to answer an open letter sent to him?

NewVision

Louisiana sinkhole remains unexplained by Texas brine company

Officials at a Houston-based brine company said Friday it will be at least 40 days before they get definitive answers about an enormous Louisiana sinkhole that opened up in Assumption Parish.

Mark Cartwright, president of United Brine Services, a subsidiary of Texas Brine Co., said the company spent the last week "intensely focused" on an emergency response as they try to figure out the cause behind a sinkhole near Bayou Corne.

(See a YouTube video on the sinkhole below.)

Cartwright said they'll be drilling a relief well to investigate a brine cavern they own, which is housed within the Napoleonville salt dome. It will take at least 40 days to drill the well, and scientists have speculated that the 372-foot-wide and 422-foot-deep sinkhole might be related to structural problems within the cavern, he said.

"Our efforts are going to be more focused on diagnostics, and looking into what caused this event," Cartwright said at a press conference in Gonzales.

Commissioner of Conservation Jim Welsh ordered the company Thursday to drill a well and investigate the salt cavern and "further evaluate potential causes of the subsidence near its well site," as well as obtain samples of cavern content.

Cartwright said the company was just as shocked as anyone else when the sinkhole erupted last Friday, swallowing up an acre of bald cypress trees and leaving diesel fumes and slurry water in its wake.

NewVision

Shale Gas Exploitation in Romania can be Postponed at Least Another Two Years (Natural Gas Europe)

Romania's Minister of Environment and Forests has said that shale gas exploitation is evidence of irresponsibility to the natural reserves of Romania.

In an interview with Agerpres, Rovana Plumb was critical of past governments for their pro-shale gas position.


Shale gas exploitation in Romania has been on hold since May, when the new government led by Prime Minister Ponta introduced a moratorium on development. The moratorium, part of the program of the center – left Cabinet, proposed:

"immediate establishment of a moratorium on shale gas operation to complete studies that are ongoing at European level on the environmental impacts of hydraulic fractionation process."


Moratorium on the exploitation of shale gas extraction means the cessation of any activity or licensing of shale gas exploitation, the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing.