Article Title: Fracking
Author: Chris Mooney
There is a controversy on whether fracking is guilty for infusing toxic chemicals and gas into drinking-water supplies. Hydraulic fracturing has been used in conventional-style wells since the late 1940s. When a vertical well shaft hits a layer of shale, chemically treated water and sand are blasted down at high pressure to crack open the rock and liberate natural gas. Recently, this technique has been combined with a newer technology called directional, or horizontal, drilling—the ability to turn a downward-plodding drill bit as much as 90 degrees and continue drilling within the layer, parallel to the ground surface, for thousands of additional feet. Horizontal fracking requires enormous volumes of water and chemicals, unlike vertical fracking, and huge tanks are needed to store the chemically laden “flowback water” when it comes back up the hole after wells have been fractured. Scientists dismiss the idea that fracking has polluted water wells because the shale layers are a mile or more deep, separated from shallow aquifers by thousands of feet of rock. However, since water blasts deep underground, it can directly contaminate drinking water, by creating unexpected pathways for gas or liquid to travel between deep shale and shallow groundwater. Fracking is not powerful enough to break through that much rock that connects horizontal well bores, called laterals, to groundwater near the surface.
However, to maximize access to gas, companies may drill a dozen or more vertical wells that are closely spaced at a single site. They may frack the lateral for each well in multiple sections and maybe even multiple times. This task requires an amount of two to four million gallons of water for a single lateral, as well as 15,000 to 60,000 gallons of chemicals. Transporting the liquids involves fleets of tanker trucks and large storage containers. Also flowback water has to be managed because up to 75 percent of what is blasted down comes back up. It is full of chemicals; which are used to protect the pipe and kill bacteria, helping the fracking fluid flow, but often full of with radioactive materials and salts from underground layers. Improper drill practices are also another culprit for contaminated water. If the company is at fault, that does not mean fracking in the ground caused the problem. Many “gas flow pathways” were involved. Gas could have traveled all the way up from the fracked shale through an unknown path. Or a faulty cement job on the vertical part of the well, much closer to the surface, could have done it. The likeliest cause of the contamination was faulty cementing and casing of well. A casing failure might allow the chemical flowback water, propelled by the pressure released when the shale is cracked, to leak out. The culprit of water contamination has not been declared yet. The EPA is examining a variety of ways in which drilling could contaminate water supplies, such as unlined and leaky storage pits, faulty well cementing, possible communication of deep fractures with the surface. The agency will also monitor future drilling activities from start to finish at two sites. It will also use computer technology to see what is going on deep underground.
It's so stupid that companies are wasting thousands of gallons of water to use for fracking. And they're just chemicls? Also, it bothers me that companies are blaming the residents for not noticing the contaminated water"when really, they were the one drilling improperly. Ugh, another problem that humans caused that we have to fix. One solution is to only store flowback water in watertight tanks because pit linings can tear and heavy rains can cause pits to overflow. Some advise from Anthony Gorody and Lisa Jackson is that the EPA should monitor chemistry in drinking-water wells before and after drilling begins at new sites. If chemicals are only found after drilling starts, it would prove that industries are wrong for arguing that water was naturally contaminated before drilling arrived but that the residents just didn’t notice. Also,
Geoffrey Thyne suggests that companies put an easily identifiable chemical tracer into their fracking fluid mixture. I think these are all great ideas and we should start implementing all of them. We need to put a stop to water pollution and hopefully we can stop fracking or drilling, once we find out who's guilty.
Author: Chris Mooney
- There is a controversy on whether fracking is guilty for infusing toxic chemicals and gas into drinking-water supplies.
- Hydraulic fracturing has been used in conventional-style wells since the late 1940s. When a vertical well shaft hits a layer of shale, chemically treated water and sand are blasted down at high pressure to crack open the rock and liberate natural gas.
- Recently, this technique has been combined with a newer technology called directional, or horizontal, drilling—the ability to turn a downward-plodding drill bit as much as 90 degrees and continue drilling within the layer, parallel to the ground surface, for thousands of additional feet.
- Horizontal fracking requires enormous volumes of water and chemicals, unlike vertical fracking.
- Huge ponds or tanks are needed to store the chemically laden “flowback water” when it comes back up the hole after wells have been fractured.
- Scientists dismiss the idea that fracking has polluted water wells because the shale layers are a mile or more deep, separated from shallow aquifers by thousands of feet of rock. Fracking is not powerful enough to break through that much rock, connecting horizontal well bores, called laterals, to groundwater near the surface.
- However, to maximize access to gas, companies may drill a dozen or more vertical wells that are closely spaced at a single site. They may frack the lateral for each well in multiple segments and maybe even multiple times.
- This task requires an amount of two to four million gallons of water for a single lateral, as well as 15,000 to 60,000 gallons of chemicals; multiply those quantities by the number of wells drilled at one site. Transporting the liquids involves fleets of tanker trucks and large storage containers.
- Also flowback water has to be managed; up to 75 percent of what is blasted down comes back up. It is full of chemicals; which are used to protect the pipe and kill bacteria, helping the fracking fluid flow, but often with radioactive materials and salts from underground layers.
- The toxic water is stored on-site and later transported to treatment plants or reused. Most companies use open-air pits dug into the ground. Many states require the bottoms of the pits to be lined with synthetic materials to prevent leakage. Some also require the pits to be a sufficient distance from surface water. However, pit linings can tear, and in heavy rains the pits can overflow.
- New York only allows watertight tanks store flowback water, and runoff precautions must be made.
- Faucets in homes have lit on fire and some families’ water wells have been contaminated with methane as a result of improper drilling practice in Pennsylvania.
- The idea that water blasts deep underground can directly contaminate drinking water, by creating unexpected pathways for gas or liquid to travel between deep shale and shallow groundwater.
- Two residential drinking-water wells near two of a company’s gas wells in Texas were contaminated with "thermogenic" methane. This kind of gas originates in shale layers, unlike “biogenic” methane, which is produced by microbes in pockets closer to the surface, where aquifers typically are.
- Another well contained chemicals sometimes used in fracking, such as benzene, and was delivering
- flammable water.
- The EPA ordered the company to provide clean water to the affected families and to determine if any other nearby wells were contaminated.
- If the company is at fault, that does not mean fracking in the ground caused the problem. Many “gas flow pathways” were involved. Gas could have traveled all the way up from the fracked shale through an unknown path. Or a faulty cement job on the vertical part of the well, much closer to the surface, could have done it.
- Faulty cementing is the leading suspect in possible sources of contamination, and is not part of fracking.
- Every well has to pass through the near-surface layers that contain groundwater, and it could also pass through unknown pockets of gas. Drillers fill the gap between the gas pipe and the wall of the hole with concrete so that buoyant gas cannot rise up along the outside of the pipe and possibly seep into groundwater. A casing failure might also allow the chemical flowback water, propelled by the pressure released when the shale is cracked, to leak out.
- If you installed the wall casing poorly, you could possibly opened a pathway for the gas to leak out.
- The likeliest cause of the contamination was faulty cementing and casing of well.
- If hydraulic fractures connect with preexisting fissures or old wells, the chemicals could pose a risk to groundwater.
- New wells connecting with old wells is called "fracture communication".
- The EPA is examining a variety of ways in which drilling could contaminate water supplies, such as unlined and leaky storage pits, faulty well cementing, possible communication of deep fractures with the surface. The agency will also monitor future drilling activities from start to finish at two sites. It will also use computer technology to see what is going on deep underground.
- Anthony Ingraffea’s advice is to develop a powerful model that can iterate a scenario of multiple wells, multiple fracks, and gas and liquid movements within a cubic mile of rock.
- Anthony Gorody and Lisa Jackson agree that the EPA should monitor chemistry in drinking-water wells before and after drilling begins at new sites. If chemicals are only found after drilling starts, it would
- significantly weaken the common industry argument that water was naturally contaminated before drilling arrived but that the residents just didn’t notice.
- Geoffrey Thyne suggests that companies put an easily identifiable chemical tracer into their fracking fluid mixture.
There is a controversy on whether fracking is guilty for infusing toxic chemicals and gas into drinking-water supplies. Hydraulic fracturing has been used in conventional-style wells since the late 1940s. When a vertical well shaft hits a layer of shale, chemically treated water and sand are blasted down at high pressure to crack open the rock and liberate natural gas. Recently, this technique has been combined with a newer technology called directional, or horizontal, drilling—the ability to turn a downward-plodding drill bit as much as 90 degrees and continue drilling within the layer, parallel to the ground surface, for thousands of additional feet. Horizontal fracking requires enormous volumes of water and chemicals, unlike vertical fracking, and huge tanks are needed to store the chemically laden “flowback water” when it comes back up the hole after wells have been fractured. Scientists dismiss the idea that fracking has polluted water wells because the shale layers are a mile or more deep, separated from shallow aquifers by thousands of feet of rock. However, since water blasts deep underground, it can directly contaminate drinking water, by creating unexpected pathways for gas or liquid to travel between deep shale and shallow groundwater. Fracking is not powerful enough to break through that much rock that connects horizontal well bores, called laterals, to groundwater near the surface.
However, to maximize access to gas, companies may drill a dozen or more vertical wells that are closely spaced at a single site. They may frack the lateral for each well in multiple sections and maybe even multiple times. This task requires an amount of two to four million gallons of water for a single lateral, as well as 15,000 to 60,000 gallons of chemicals. Transporting the liquids involves fleets of tanker trucks and large storage containers. Also flowback water has to be managed because up to 75 percent of what is blasted down comes back up. It is full of chemicals; which are used to protect the pipe and kill bacteria, helping the fracking fluid flow, but often full of with radioactive materials and salts from underground layers. Improper drill practices are also another culprit for contaminated water. If the company is at fault, that does not mean fracking in the ground caused the problem. Many “gas flow pathways” were involved. Gas could have traveled all the way up from the fracked shale through an unknown path. Or a faulty cement job on the vertical part of the well, much closer to the surface, could have done it. The likeliest cause of the contamination was faulty cementing and casing of well. A casing failure might allow the chemical flowback water, propelled by the pressure released when the shale is cracked, to leak out. The culprit of water contamination has not been declared yet. The EPA is examining a variety of ways in which drilling could contaminate water supplies, such as unlined and leaky storage pits, faulty well cementing, possible communication of deep fractures with the surface. The agency will also monitor future drilling activities from start to finish at two sites. It will also use computer technology to see what is going on deep underground.
It's so stupid that companies are wasting thousands of gallons of water to use for fracking. And they're just chemicls? Also, it bothers me that companies are blaming the residents for not noticing the contaminated water"when really, they were the one drilling improperly. Ugh, another problem that humans caused that we have to fix. One solution is to only store flowback water in watertight tanks because pit linings can tear and heavy rains can cause pits to overflow. Some advise from Anthony Gorody and Lisa Jackson is that the EPA should monitor chemistry in drinking-water wells before and after drilling begins at new sites. If chemicals are only found after drilling starts, it would prove that industries are wrong for arguing that water was naturally contaminated before drilling arrived but that the residents just didn’t notice. Also,
Geoffrey Thyne suggests that companies put an easily identifiable chemical tracer into their fracking fluid mixture. I think these are all great ideas and we should start implementing all of them. We need to put a stop to water pollution and hopefully we can stop fracking or drilling, once we find out who's guilty.