Casey slips ‘fracking’ rules into energy bill
http://citizensvoice.com/news/casey-slips-fracking-rules-into-energy-bill-1.908306
Casey slips ‘fracking’ rules into energy bill
BY BORYS KRAWCZENIUK (STAFF WRITER)
Published: July 29, 2010
A provision to require disclosure of all chemicals used in fracturing Marcellus Shale to extract natural gas could wind up as part of the scaled-down national energy bill the U.S. Senate might consider soon.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said he convinced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to fold disclosure provisions of his Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act into the energy bill.
“It’s a great breakthrough,” he said. “It’s a substantial step forward. It gives people information they wouldn’t have otherwise about what’s happening underneath their property.”
Senate leaders are hoping to pass the bill before the summer recess Aug. 6 after realizing they did not have the votes to pass a more comprehensive energy bill. Even if the smaller energy bill gets through the Senate, the House would have to pass it before President Barack Obama can sign it. Neither is assured.
Industry groups said the fracturing chemicals are already well-known to the public and state regulators and further disclosure would harm the development of natural gas.
“We fundamentally believe that regulation of hydraulic fracturing is best addressed at the state level, and we have been unable to reach a consensus with congressional advocates on how this program would be overseen by the federal government,” America’s Natural Gas Alliance said in a statement.
Congress and the federal Environmental Protection Agency are studying whether the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing of shale contaminate drinking water.
Energy In Depth, an industry group, argues regulation should be left to states, which “have effectively regulated hydraulic fracturing for over 40 years with no confirmed incidents of groundwater contamination associated with (fracturing) activities.”
At public meetings on gas drilling, local residents regularly dispute the claim.
Though the industry argues the chemicals it uses are well known, a Times-Shamrock newspapers investigation determined that DEP scientists who analyzed spilled fracturing chemicals at a Susquehanna County well site in September found 10 compounds never disclosed on the drilling contractor’s material safety data sheet.
None of the 10 was included in a state Department of Environmental Protection list of chemicals used in fracturing, a list developed by the industry. When DEP posted a new list earlier this month, none of the 10 was on it.
Casey dismissed the industry criticism.
“That’s why I called it a substantial step forward if they’re attacking it,” he said. “If they’re feeling that this is giving information to people that they are reluctant to disclose, that’s why I think it’s an important change, and it’s progress on an issue that some would have thought would have taken years to get done.”
Casey’s legislation would amend the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, which requires employers to disclose what hazardous chemicals they use.
The amendments would require:
> Well-drilling operators to disclose to state regulators and the public a list of chemicals used in fracturing, commonly known as fracking. The requirement would cover chemical constituents but not chemical formulas whose manufacturers are allowed by law to keep the formulas secret, according to Casey’s office.
> Disclosure to be specific to each well.
> Disclosure of secret formulas or chemical constituents to doctors or nurses treating a contamination victim in an emergency.
> An end to thresholds for reporting chemicals normally required by law so all amounts of chemicals are reported.
In an analysis of the legislation, Energy In Depth said it would “chill” investment in innovations in fracturing and place “unrealistic burdens” on natural gas producers by requiring them to disclose secret chemical compounds whose composition they legally can know nothing about.
In an interview, DEP Secretary John Hanger said he welcomed the federal legislation, argued Pennsylvania already requires more disclosure than his bill and believes companies should disclose the volume and mix of chemicals they use in fracking.
bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com
Wastewater tracking bill introduced
http://citizensvoice.com/news/wastewater-tracking-bill-introduced-1.908232
Wastewater tracking bill introduced
BY ELIZABETH SKRAPITS (STAFF WRITER)
Published: July 29, 2010
State Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, said Wednesday she is introducing legislation that would create a system for tracking and reporting the disposal of the polluted water that is a byproduct of natural gas drilling.
“My legislation would allow the public to track wastewater produced by this quickly growing industry from cradle to grave,” Mundy said in a prepared statement. “It would help promote public confidence that natural gas well operators are following the law on the treatment and disposal of wastewater, which can contain brine and chemicals.”
Companies with natural gas wells in the Marcellus Shale already have to make semi-annual production reports to the state Department of Environmental Protection. Mundy’s proposed legislation would expand that to include the wastewater from hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells, and DEP would make the information available on its website.
Hydraulic fracturing, also called “fracking,” involves blasting millions of gallons of chemical-treated water thousands of feet underground to break up the shale and release natural gas.
Mundy explained the bill, which she worked on with Penn Future, is to ensure the chemical and salt-laden wastewater isn’t dumped where it’s not supposed to be.
“I think that’s a concern people have: where’s the water coming from, and where are they disposing of it?” she said. “Because it’s toxic and it’s polluting. We want to know where it’s going.”
Mundy previously introduced House Resolution 864, which urges Congress to pass U.S. Sen. Bob Casey’s Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act.
The FRAC Act is intended to close the “Halliburton Loophole” in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which exempts oil and gas companies from restrictions on hydraulic fracturing near drinking water sources. The FRAC Act would also require oil and gas companies to disclose all the chemicals in their hydraulic fracturing solutions.
Casey announced Wednesday provisions from the FRAC Act have been included in the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act, which will be considered ion the Senate floor.
“This is great. The more activity the better,” Mundy said when told about the new development. However, she noted, “There’s many a slip between introducing the legislation and getting it passed into law, at any level.”
If the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act doesn’t pass by the time the state legislature reconvenes in September, Mundy said she will urge leaders to bring her resolution up for vote, to show support for Casey’s efforts.
Mundy also sponsored two other pieces of natural gas drilling-related legislation. One is House Bill 2609, which would establish a one-year moratorium on issuing of new natural gas well drilling permits to give state officials more time to put appropriate regulations in place.
The other is House Bill 2608, which would prohibit natural gas companies from drilling horizontal wells or doing hydraulic fracturing within 2,500 feet of a drinking water source, instead of the current restriction of 100 feet.
eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072
Complete coverage of natural gas drilling in Northeast Pennsylvania
http://republicanherald.com/news/gas-drilling
Gas Drilling Headlines
Let tax help responders
A fire last week at a natural gas drilling site in Susquehanna County was handled quickly and correctly by driller Chesapeake Energy and local volunteer firefighters, according to state regulators. No one was injured, there was no detectable contamination.
• Opinions differ on fiscal bill provision
• State rule targets chloride levels
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• State puts natural gas drillers on notice
• DEP gas drilling violations database
• Natural gas companies aim to acquire all of Wyoming County’s mineral rights
• DEP shale chemical lists at odds over inclusion of above ground substances
Natural gas, unnatural risk: Hydrofracking endangers our water
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/07/25/2010-07-25_natural_gas_unnatural_risk.html
Sunday, July 25th 2010
Natural gas, unnatural risk: Hydrofracking endangers our water
There is no higher priority for New York’s state and federal legislators than to put the brakes on the idea of opening areas upstate to the controversial form of natural gas drilling called hydraulic fracturing – “fracking,” for short.
While the technique has been around for 60 years, critics say the modern version of fracking is unsound, leaving broad swaths of land poisoned and polluted.
“Gasland,” an award-winning documentary that airs tonight on HBO (gaslandthemovie.com), shows communities in Pennsylvania, Colorado and elsewhere rife with sick people, animals that have lost their fur, and water so polluted that it actually ignites when a match is held near a kitchen tap.
The problem is a byproduct of modern fracking, which involves shooting millions of gallons of water and a cocktail of extraction chemicals deep underground – on average, 8,000 feet below the surface. The pressurized water and chemicals shake loose natural gas that is then captured and piped away.
Remnants of the chemicals and half of the millions of gallons of water, however, stay behind and begin rising. The tainted water can end up polluting fresh drinking water, which tends to be only 1,000 feet below the surface.
Worst of all, a mysterious process called methane migration can leak combustible gas into the water table as well. That gives some residents in fracking areas tap water that explodes on contact with an open flame.
“It’s really quite shocking and strange and, and weirdly kind of thrilling when you see it,” the director of “Gasland,” Josh Fox, told me when describing the polluted water that turns to fire. “And then all of a sudden it hits: It’s really a huge problem.”
The film shows people assembling complicated 500-gallon bottled water systems, bemoaning lost property values and complaining of brain lesions, exhaustion and other health issues.
Fox blames the problem on the so-called Halliburton loophole of 2005, provisions in that year’s Energy Policy Act that exempted gas drilling companies from the Safe Water Drinking Act of 1974 and allowed them to not disclose the 500-plus chemicals that get shot underground during fracking.
Passage of the law set off a wave of fracking that has reached 34 states. Fox himself became aware of the trend when a gas company offered him $4,000 per acre to let them frack on land he owns near Delaware – an offer that would have brought him $100,000. After studying the process and its effects around the country, Fox rejected the money outright.
His land, like all of upstate New York, sits atop a vast underground deposit of natural gas, the Marcellus Shale, that stretches from New York to West Virginia and could be a veritable Saudi Arabia of natural gas.
Hopes of exploiting these and other major gas reserves are the reason energy magnate T. Boone Pickens made TV ads advocating more extraction of “clean, natural gas” to wean America off of foreign oil. Pickens was persuasive, patriotic and profit-driven. I just hope he plans more commercials to explain the potential of frack-induced pollution.
A growing number of people are already saying: Not so fast. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has warned that fracking near the upstate watershed could pollute the drinking water for the 16 million people who live in or near our city.
Environmental groups are calling for a moratorium on leasing any land in New York for fracking, and Albany is considering a law imposing a one-year moratorium on fracking. A federal bill would give the federal Environmental Protection Agency the power to regulate fracking.
These are all good starts at what must be a top priority for elected officials: saving New York from environmental horrors that have already shown much of America the false promise of fracking.
elouis@nydailynews.com
Shale drilling, what is it?
http://www.tnonline.com/node/118669
Shale drilling, what is it?
Reported on Friday, July 23, 2010
By MICHAEL NEWTON TN Correspondent tneditor@tnonline.com
A lack of knowledge among citizens of Carbon County about the issue of shale drilling is seen as a major problem by the Kidder Township Environmental Advisory Committee. < http://www.americantowns.com/pa/lakeharmony/events/environmental-advisory-council >
“People have no idea,” said committee member Bob Dobosh at the EAC’s meeting this week.
This lack of knowledge is seen as a problem because choices made about shale drilling will have an immense impact on the future of both the state and the nation. Debate has raged between proponents, who view it as a vital part of the nation’s energy plan, and detractors who fear that the environmental impacts are not properly understood.
Shale drilling is a complex process and the technological advances that have made it possible have outpaced research into its consequences.
“Nobody is asking the question of what happens 10 years from now when we’re out of water,” said EAC member Hank George.
It is currently believed that there is more than 363 trillion cubic feet of harvestable gas in the Marcellus shale bloom. That is enough to supply all of the nation’s energy needs for 15 years. A typical well located on an 80-acre space, is expected to produce around 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas over the course of its operations. The gas is found in small cracks and fissures running through the porous rock.
The process of extracting the gas is complicated and relies primarily on two techniques hydrofracing and horizontal drilling. Hydrofracing is a process where a ‘mud’ made out of water and chemicals, is shot down into the well in order to break up the shale and allow the gases in between cracks in the rock to flow to the surface. Horizontal drilling is a process whereby the well is slowly turned at a 90 degree angle. Using horizontal drilling, a typical well can extract gas in a radius of over a mile.
According to a report issued by the United States Geological Society, shale drilling presents three main areas of concern over water quality. The first is the massive amount of water needed to perform hydrofracing. Each round of hydrofracing can use up to 3 million gallons of water. Thus, concerns have risen among local municipal water authorities as to where all that water will come from. If too much is used from local water sources, they can be damaged or depleted, leading to unnatural drought conditions.
The shipment of water and materials in extremely heavy trucks over small mountain roads may lead to erosion, which could further damage water tables. In addition, there is no way to know exactly how much material and chemicals will leak out of the trucks over time.
Once the hydrofracing solutions have been used they must be properly disposed. A typical 3-million gallon hydrofracing job can be expected to produce at least 15,000 gallons of contaminated water. Not only is the solution full of chemicals, many of which are guarded company secrets, but being in contact with rock formations means that when the solution comes to the surface, it brings along large amounts of silt and possibly harmful minerals. This presents difficulties because water treatment plants are not able to adequately remove these contaminants. Several alternative solutions have been proposed, such as reinjecting the hydrofracing solutions into shallow pits, but there is no clear consensus or across the board standard.
Knowledge about the process of shale drilling and the issues that go along with it can help citizens make informed decisions about the future of the state. Toward that end, the Kidder EAC is going to prepare informational newsletters and distribute them to the various homeowners’ associations in the websites.
Local zoning is perhaps best control over Marcellus play, planner says
Local zoning is perhaps best control over Marcellus play, planner says
With Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale-gas epoch still in its infancy, some experts doubt we have seen one-tenth of what is yet to come and recommend that municipalities brace themselves for rapid change. “People who are not in the Marcellus areas have no clue how big this is going to be,” said Kurt Hausammann Jr., planning director for Lycoming County. “This has the possibility to change our whole way of life.”
Read the full story on Live: http://live.psu.edu/story/47431/nw69
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Local zoning is perhaps best control over Marcellus play, planner says
Marcellus Shale Regulations Regarding Drinking Water in PA
Bryan Swistock, Penn State Water Quality Extension Specialist, discusses the Marcellus shale regulations regarding drinking water in PA.
Safe Drinking Water workshop
http://www.americantowns.com/pa/hawley/events/safe-drinking-water-workshop
Safe Drinking Water workshop
Penn State Cooperative Extension will present a Safe Drinking Water workshop on July 13, 7:00 – 9:00 PM, Pike County Conservation District office, 556 Route 402, Blooming Grove. The cost is $7.00 per person or couple. Pre-registration, including payment, is required by July 9.
If you depend on your own well or spring for your drinking water, it is your responsibility to have your water tested periodically at a certified water testing lab. Water testing will be available for participants at a discounted fee through Prosser Labs.
For a printable flyer go to http://tinyurl.com/yycbns3
For more information contact Penn State Cooperative Extension in Pike County by phone at 570-296-3400, by fax at 570-296-3406, or send an e-mail message to PikeExt@psu.edu. Please be sure to include your full name and surface mail address.
Marcellus shale well accident reinforces need to guard water quality
http://live.psu.edu/story/47244/nw69
Monday, June 21, 2010
University Park, Pa. — The recent eruption of a Marcellus shale gas well in Clearfield County, Pa., has triggered investigations by state agencies. A Penn State Cooperative Extension water specialist said it also should remind Pennsylvanians that drilling can impact surrounding water resources, and well owners near any drill sites should take steps to monitor their drinking water.
The contaminated water spewed by the natural-gas well for more than 15 hours may have entered a local aquifer. Bryan Swistock, senior extension associate in the School of Forest Resources, said the state Department of Environmental Protection will probably check local streams for contamination, but it may be prudent for water-well owners living near the spill to have an independent laboratory test their well water. He said the tests for various contaminants have a range of costs and implications.
“Things like methane, chloride, total dissolved solids and barium are very good indicators and are relatively inexpensive to test for — most labs can do them,” Swistock explained. “When you move down into the organic chemicals that might be used in fracturing, the cost to test for them goes way up. The risk is much less for those, typically, so it’s not quite as important, but again, if you can afford to do that testing, that’s great.”
The Department of Environmental Protection ordered a contractor hired by the gas-well owner to stop some of its work in the state, hand over equipment records and provide access to employees as DEP investigates the equipment used by the company.
“They haven’t determined how the blow-out happened, but it appears that it allowed a lot of gas and hydrofracturing fluid to escape on the ground into nearby streams,” Swistock said. “That reinforces how important it is for people who live near natural-gas drilling to document their water quality before the drilling, so that if any incidents do occur, you can prove they happened. And that includes testing of wells, streams, ponds and any water resources that you’re concerned about before the drilling occurs.
“It’s hard to document anything if you don’t have any pre-existing data,” he added. “It’s important that homeowners have an unbiased expert from a state-certified lab conduct the tests, in case the sample results are needed for legal action.”
Water forced into subterranean pockets as part of the drilling process dissolves many chemicals out of the rock, Swistock said, and may gather large amounts of iron, calcium, magnesium, strontium and barium, and small amounts of arsenic and lead. There also are enormous amounts of sodium and chloride as water dissolves chemicals left behind by ancient sea water.
Swistock said balancing frequency of testing with the proximity of the drilling activity is an individual decision for each well owner.
“Fracking is a very intensive industrial activity, and these kinds of incidents are going to happen,” he said. “They don’t happen very often if we look at the history of the industry, but people have to decide on their own how concerned they are and how much testing they want to go through. Certainly, water supplies within 1,000 feet of the drilling are considered at higher risk. Beyond that, it’s up to the homeowner to decide. If some people 5,000 feet away are concerned and want to get testing done, that’s really their choice.”
About 3.5 million Pennsylvanians get their water from private wells and springs, according to Swistock. He said residents who want more information on Marcellus shale gas exploration can find it online at Penn State Cooperative Extension’s Natural Gas website at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/.
Vigilance vital as gas boom envelops region
http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/editorials-columns/guest-columnists/vigilance-vital-as-gas-boom-envelops-region-1.843336
Vigilance vital as gas boom envelops region
Published: June 13, 2010
Natural gas will soon be the new anthracite coal for our region. Significant drilling is taking place in Bradford, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties, exploratory drilling has begun in Wayne County, several wells are planned for Luzerne County, and northern Lackawanna County probably won’t be far behind.
We’ve done – and will continue to do – a lot of reporting on the pros and cons of the natural gas industry. We will continue to advocate for tougher environmental standards and for a severance tax on the gas extracted.
We also feel that it’s important to get the gas industry’s perspective, and to get a better understanding of the drilling process. So we visited with officials of Chesapeake Energy in Bradford County and toured one of its active drilling rigs.
Matt Sheppard, Chesapeake’s senior director of corporate development and government affairs, and Brian Grove, director of corporate development, met us in Towanda and presented an overview of the development and production process for a natural gas well site.
The presentation reinforced that the industry will be a fixture here for decades. Conservative estimates call for a successful gas well to produce for 30 years. Some wells elsewhere continue to produce for decades more.
The drill sites are substantial. The well pad is 300 by 400 feet with a tower over 90 feet tall. The pad and supporting equipment, tanks and trailers cover about three acres initially. The tower, I was surprised to discover, has little to do with the actual drilling. It is 90-feet high because the drilling pipe is added in 90-foot increments, so the tower basically acts as a crane to raise the pipe into place over the well.
During the drilling period, which typically lasts 25 to 35 days, drilling is continuous , with a five-man crew and a supervisor always on site.
The safety and groundwater protection systems are impressive. No manmade system is perfect, but according to Mr. Sheppard and Mr. Grove, Chesapeake is doing its best to come close, and it exceeds industry and state Department of Environmental Protection standards.
Each well is equipped with a blowout preventer – a device made famous in the tragic BP accident that continues to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Sheppard and Mr. Grove are quick to point out that gas drilling is different from oil drilling – particularly off-shore drilling. Oil rigs have the same type of blowout preventer as natural gas rigs with one major difference: for a natural gas well, the blowout preventer is at ground level, 30 feet beneath the main rig platform; BP’s rig had a blowout preventer on the seafloor nearly a mile below. When the BP blowout preventer failed, there was no easy way to access the area.
On land wells, to protect groundwater, there are three rings of steel casing, with two rings of high-grade cement between them, surrounding the drill bore. This is to prevent any breach of the well where groundwater may be found.
The most controversial part of well-drilling is the hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking” – process. The gas is contained within the shale rock itself, so the rock must be fractured to release the gas. For this process, water is mixed with sand and pumped into the well under high pressure. The sand acts as tiny wedges to hold open the small fissures created in the rock to release the gas. Water and sand make up 99.5 percent of the fracking mixture. The other 0.5 percent is a mixture of 12 other chemicals, which are listed on Chesapeake’s website (see www.chk.com/media/pages/mediaresources.aspx and click on “Hydraulic Fracturing Fact Sheet”).
During the fracking period, which can last for several days, Chesapeake uses 5.6 million gallons of water per day. So, while 0.5 percent seems like a small amount, it’s actually 28,000 gallons of chemicals per day. At issue is how much of each of the 12 chemicals is actually used (specific chemical mixtures are considered proprietary and not disclosed) and what compounds do the combinations of these chemicals create. Compounds created by the combination of chemicals would have different properties and therefore a different effect on the environment if leaked.
Most of the fracking mixture (about 4.9 million of the 5.6 million gallons) remains in the porous Marcellus shale. The remaining 700,000 gallons returns to the surface in a “closed loop” system that then recycles the water and separates the chemicals for disposal.
Once the well is producing gas, the rig and most equipment are removed, and the gas goes directly into a pipeline system for sale to market. The well site is reduced from 3 to 1.5 acres.
Anthracite coal defined our region for generations. It’s the primary reason many of our ancestors came to this area. It left us with a powerful industrial history and beautiful architecture built on the wealth generated by coal, but it also left us with significant scars and environmental damage that we still deal with today, 50 years after most coal mining ended.
How can we ensure that our area benefits from the gas industry without being left years from now with environmental (and therefore economic) fallout? Any industrial process will create byproducts, some of which may be harmful. The key to protecting our environment isn’t eliminating the process, but ensuring oversight and accountability.
Natural gas will bring enormous amounts of money and jobs into our region. In coming years, despite the best safety systems that will be put in place, accidents will happen and the environment and groundwater will be put at risk. Hopefully, federal, state and local governments will have the laws and resources in place to deal with them effectively and protect our natural resources.
GEORGE LYNETT is publisher of The Times-Tribune. E-mail: publisher@timesshamrock.com.