All About the Water - by marcellus-wv.com

8/8/2019 All About the Water - by marcellus-wv.com

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All About the Water and the air and the roads and the noise

and«.

The Potential Impacts

of Gas Drilling on

West Virginia







Chesapeake antes up µbig¶ deal

9/16/2009 Scranton Times-Tribune.

600 Friendsville Group property owners of some 37,000 acres in Wyoming County,PA received a final offer on Tuesday,Sept. 15, 2009, of $5,750 an acre and

royalties of 20 percent.



www.wvsoro.org



Scale of everything greater Larger - well pad is 3 to 6 acres (plus more for water storage)Deeper ± 5,000 to 7,000 feet in WVLonger - drilling and fracking time is weeks or

months with lights, dust and noise fromequipment 24/7Hundreds of tractor trailersWater used is 1 to 6 million gallons per frack per

well - with several wells on each well pad and

multiple fracks per wellWastewater is millions of gallons too,

although most of it stays in the ground









Well site during active drilling to the Marcellus Shale formation in Upshur County, West Virginia, in 2008. (An additional water storage pit is not inthe photo.)





The Jonah natural gas field, in Wyoming's upper Green River Valley





Clearing for well pad







Trucks are the first set of problems people have to

contend with

































Route 89 West of Blake Ridge closed for long period of time without

9-1-1 being notified. April 19, 2010.















Consumption ± where will it come from?Wastewater disposal ± where will it go?

TDS (total dissolved solids)

Fracing fluids ± what are they?Land application (Fernow)UIC

Water treatment plantsGroundwater contaminationDrilling problems (cementing)Pit burial

Water Issues



Pa. Streams Drained Dry By Drillers

WTAE-TV November 13, 2008

Aug. 27, 2008: Pennsylvania's DEPinvestigates reports that a gas drillingcompany "pumped dry" Sugarcamp Run

in Independence Township, WashingtonCounty.

Aug. 1, 2007: A driller pumps water from

Cross Creek in Hopewell Township,Washington County, "down to the rockson the bed of the stream," according toDEP.



Quiet Dell residents concerned aboutwhat trucks are doing along the banks

of Suds RunThe Exponent Telegram (Clarksburg) October 12, 2009

For about a year now, Cecilia Rochinich has seenwhite oil and gas industry trucks parked along

the banks of Suds Run with hoses leading intothe water. The number of trucks greatlyincreased during Labor Day weekend, ³OnSaturday, Sunday and Monday, I counted howmany trucks were there at a time,´ she said. ³I¶m

minimizing when I say that I saw two dozentrucks in just those three days. I just think it¶sweird, you know, that you would take the water out when it¶s so low.´





Fracing fluids ± what are they?Land application (Fernow)UICWater treatment plants

Groundwater contaminationDrilling problems (cementing)Pit burial

Water Issues



Monongahela River entering PA exceeded the limitof 500 mgl causing expensive operational and

emission problems for U.S. Steel at its ClairtonCoke Works and the Green Co power plant, andcited damage to residential hot water heaters,dishwashers and washing machines.

The COE ordered releases from Tygart andStonewall dams to dilute the Mon River duringdrought conditions causing potential threats toaquatic life, municipal water supplies and river

navigation.PA ordered several waste treatment plants to stop

receiving drilling wastewater.







Water Issues



Fracing Fluid Contents

Halliburton said 99 percent of its fluid wasmade up of sand and water, and theremaining chemicals complied with stateand federal regulations.

This is completely disingenuous, since theyare exempt from regulation.



Petroleum Distillates are a Major

ConcernDecember 12, 2008

The leading reason to prevent natural gas drilling

and hydraulic fracturing near drinking water supplies is the use of petroleum distillates.

Petroleum distillates are likely to contain benzene.

The EPA has found benzene to be a known

human carcinogen that is toxic in water at levelsgreater that five parts per billion.



Figures from NY DEC¶s draft EIS

Water to fracture a well = 1 ± 8 million gallons

Friction reducer (petroleum distillates) = .08%

Petroleum distillates (PD) = 800 ± 6,400 gals/well

Levels of benzene in PD = 700 ± 93,000 ppm(published levels of benzene in PD likely to be used)

So, levels of benzene for one well range from140

,000

times to18

.6

million times the EPA¶ssafe level

It would take 896 million to 119 billion gallons of water to dilute the benzene to EPA safe levels.









Water Issues











Water Issues



Out of site, out of mind?







Water Issues







Water Issues



Cementing phase

This is the most critical phase of drilling

Inspectors should always be there

It takes 8 hours for the cement to setIf drilling begins again before the cement

sets, it can cause cracks and spaces upand down the cementing of the casing.

Bad cement jobs are a leading cause of groundwater contamination







Water Issues





















Things that can gowrong



THE TIMES LEADER

August 10

Report: Firms commit 1,435

infractions in Pa. in 30 months

DEP lists 952 of them as ³having or likely to have

an impact on the environment.´



Methane Leaks

Methane is the largest component of natural gas. Since it evaporates out of

drinking water, it is not consideredtoxic, but in the air it can lead toexplosions. When methane is found

in water supplies, it can also signalthat deeply drilled gas wells are linkedwith drinking water systems.

Gas leak prompts evacuation in Jackson



Gas leak prompts evacuation in JacksonCounty

Charleston Gazette November 16, 2009

WALTERS RUN, W.Va. -- A major gas leak in JacksonCounty prompted an evacuation of the Walters Run areaon Monday evening.

The gas line was ruptured about 5 p.m. and was stoppedafter more than an hour, but emergency crews weretesting the air quality in the area before allowing peopleto go back to their homes, according to a JacksonCounty 911 dispatcher.

People in the area were told to evacuate and head north onW.Va. 21, according to the dispatcher.

The gas leak shut down a two-mile stretch of W.Va. 21 inboth directions. The dispatcher said people wereexpected to be allowed to return to their homes around 8 p.m.



EXPLOSIONS





Methane was found in the water at 16

homes in the small town of Dimrock, PADimock resident Norma Fiorentino's

drinking water well exploded on New

Year's morning. The blast was so strong ittossed aside a several-thousand-poundconcrete slab.

A methane leak led to an explosion that

killed a couple and their 17-month-oldgrandson.



171 Mardi Gras Drive. Plum Borough, PennsylvaniaMarch 5, 2008





SPILLS



Answers few in fracking fluid spill

Clarksburg Exponent Telegram Friday, October 23, 2009

Nearly two months after a large fracing fluid

spill was discovered in a DoddridgeCounty stream, state environmentalinspectors still say they don¶t know what

caused the contamination.







PROBLEMSTruck trafficDraining of streams and riversTDS on land and in surface watersContamination of groundwater with fracking fluid

Future impacts of UIC?Pits and liners ± buried on siteImpoundment failuresMethane leaks

ExplosionsSpills



More Problems

Unknown effects of drilling in karst

Air pollution from compressor stations

Venting and FlaringNoise

NORMS (Naturally Occuring

Radioactive Materials)Eminent Domain for pipelines



NORMS

The organic matter in black shales is the materialthat generates the gas. It also has an affinity for attracting radionuclides, mainly uranium. In fact,the drillers target intervals for horizontal boreholesand hydrofracturing based on radioactivity

measured with a wireline gamma ray log. The drill cuttings from the horizontal boreholes are

often from the most radioactive zones in theformation. There are many tons of thesegenerated from borings that may be thousands of feet long that will then leach radionuclides as theyare exposed to oxygen and rain water.

The second NORM issue is the possibleentrainment of radionuclides in the flowback water



Eminent Domain for Pipelines

Though pipeline companies areprivate, federal law gives them theright to take property for pipelines

through eminent domain

They must go through a hearing

process, so they look for alternativesfirst.



Pipelines mean compressor stations

Compressor stations mean methaneleaks

Methane is 20 times more potent than

CO2

as a greenhouse gas



Photographs by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

To the naked eye, no emissions from an oil

storage tank are visible. But viewed with ainfrared lens, escaping methane is evident.



NO PROTECTION

WV DEP has no restrictions on water withdrawal

WV DEP has no TDS limit

WV DEP has no requirements on disposal of

fracking fluids or disclosure of their contents

Gas drilling is exempt from:

Safe Drinking Water Act

Clean Water Act

Clean Air Act



Regulation?

There are more than 45,000 active gas wells inWest Virginia. The number of well work permitsissued varies from 900 to 3,000 each year (which is projected to increase dramatically with

Marcellus shale drilling).The drilling of new wells requires several visits by

an inspector, and each active well should beinspected at least once annually.

Yet, WV has a total of only 17 inspectors (3 hiredin the last 2 years).



SO WHAT CAN WE DO?



Local actions

Talk to your neighbors (educate them)

Write letters to the editor

Write to your state representativesCall on them

Take a group to the County Commission

Take picturesGather stories



WV Legislation needed



WV Legislation needed

1) Control of water withdrawals2) Deep well spacing for Marcellus shale wells3) Establishment of TDS limits4) Disclosure and control of fracturing fluids

5) Increased permit fees6) Synthetic liner requirement for all pits & impoundments7) Removal of all wastewater, pit contents and pit liners

to authorized waste disposal facilities9) Documentation of where all waste is taken

10) Emergency plans for spills and accidents includingnotification of down gradient landowners

11) More««.

While natural gas is a valuable commodity



While natural gas is a valuable commodity,it is not as valuable as clean water.

We cannot survive without clean water.If the aquifiers are contaminated we will nolonger have clean water, any of us.



All About the Water - by marcellus-wv.com

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