Chemical industry looking to expand in Pennsylvania because of Marcellus Shale
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/05/chemical_industry_looking_to_e.html
Published: Friday, May 20, 2011, 1:55 PM Updated: Friday, May 20, 2011, 6:00 PM
By DONALD GILLILAND, The Patriot-News
The chemical industry — newly optimistic because of natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale — is looking at Pennsylvania as a venue for expansion.
Secretary of Community and Economic Development Alan Walker said Friday morning that “Three very large international chemical companies came to us and expressed interest in billion-dollar-plus investments in Pennsylvania.”
“We really have to focus on how we attract them,” he said.
Walker made the comments during the meeting of the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission.
Walker also said there is “a need for an ammonium nitrate plant in Pennsylvania” because the two main ingredients are natural gas and water, both of which Pennsylvania has in great supply. Ammonium nitrate is an ingredient in agricultural fertilizer, which is used in huge quantities in the state.
Walker said his assistant Ashe Khare is on “a national search” to find a manufacturer to set up shop in the commonwealth.
Walker wasn’t the only state official at the meeting to drop tantalizing bits of news.
Secretary of Conservation and Natural Resources Richard Allan announced that his department was preparing a plan to replace its aging fleet of trucks with a fleet powered by natural gas.
Republican legislators have introduced a series of bills aimed at promoting the conversion of large parts of the transportation sector to natural gas.
Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley said, “We need to look beyond drilling. We must not only extract the gas in Pennsylvania, we must use the gas in Pennsylvania.”
The idea has the backing of environmental groups like PennFuture because heavy diesel truck traffic is one of the biggest contributors to air pollution in the midstate. Natural gas emits far fewer pollutants than diesel and gasoline.
Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group representing the top 20 drilling companies in the state, said the benefits of converting transportation to natural gas “accrues most to our cities” where vehicular air pollution is worst. In that way, she said, places like Philadelphia — outside the Marcellus region — stand to benefit from its development.
Klaber also addressed the issue of gas migration into private water wells, calling it a serious and perplexing issue.
No other topic has so seriously damaged the industry’s reputation, as evidenced by the movie “Gasland,” which uses gas migration as the starting point for a host of other — largely unfounded — claims of pollution.
State regulators have fined drilling companies for causing gas to migrate into private wells, the most recent and serious fine — more than $1 million — being just last week.
Yet, in the northern tier where most of the gas migration has occurred, there is naturally occurring methane in the water supply. Companies have argued with regulators — at varying degrees of acrimony — over the extent to which their operations have caused or exacerbated the problem.
Klaber said her member companies have begun testing private water wells in the area before drilling, to establish a baseline. The problem is when they discover polluted wells — before any drilling begins — it’s the industry that has to go knock on the door and inform the citizens.
Klaber noted that Pennsylvania does not regulate or set standards for drilling private water wells, many of which are polluted well before the gas industry arrives.
Nicholas DeBenedictis, former Environmental Resources Secretary under Gov. Dick Thornburgh and current CEO of the water supply company Aqua America Inc., said his company and others have done comprehensive testing and found no contamination from drilling.
Dr. Terry Engelder, PennState geologist credited with advancing the exploration of the Marcellus, said the recent study from Duke University lends additional support to the water companies’ results: It found zero evidence that fracking fluids had contaminated the water supply.
Engelder said the reason is very simple: The fracking occurs about a mile below the aquifer and “Water does not flow uphill.”
Thank you for a well-written and informative article. I would disagree a bit with Dr. Engelder’s statement about water flowing up hill. During “fracking” a million or more gallons of frac fluid is injected into the gas well under pressure. This pressure is required to fracture (hence the name ‘frac.’) the shale to release the gas. This pressure also makes for a return to the surface of about 1/3 of the amount of fluid that was injected. That return fluid came up the well, not , however, through the aquifer.
Dr. Engelder is right in stating that the fluid doesn’t contaminate the aquifer. When all goes well, the frac fluid is captured by the company and processed to remove most of the contaminants before being reused to frac the next gas well.
I live in Susquehanna County. Our farming community needs clean land and water to produce the safe and plentiful food needed by the American people. At the same time, we need the added revenue stream from gas leases and, ultimately, royalties. We need the job opportunities for our citizens from Marcellus development.
At the outset, there were mistakes and a learning curve for companies, regulators and landowners. We hope we’ve solved some of the worst problems. We’re still learning, still improving and will continue to address problems as they occur. All parties are taking this development and its possible environmental problems seriously.
Having made the commitment to drill for gas here, it is exciting to know that the legislature and the administration promote developing natural gas industries, such as transportation fuel and fertilizer here in Pennsylvania rather than piping this resource out of state.
Thanks again for the article.