Deep concerns
By Greg Bock, gbock@altoonamirror.comArticle Photos
With area residents and municipalities looking to cash in on record prices being offered for gas drilling rights, the sight of towering drilling rigs soon will pepper the landscape.
With the drilling also comes the infrastructure, including pipeline, needed to get the gas from the ground and into the market.
Just how soon - and how much - drilling will take place remains a difficult question to answer, even for those drilling for this vital resource.
Tapping the natural gas trapped deep in the Marcellus Shale formation will require tapping another vital natural resource: Pennsylvania's water.
But getting the necessary water, anywhere from 1 million to 4 million gallons for each of the potentially thousands of natural gas wells expected to follow the current rush for Pennsylvania landowners' gas rights, won't be as easy as turning on a tap.
Then there is the question of how to treat the water, contaminated by an array of chemicals and sand, after it is used in the hydraulic fracturing process.
Called ''fracking'' in the oil and gas industry, once the fluid fractures the shale, the deposited sand keeps the small fissures open so then-freed natural gas can flow up and out of the well, into the pipeline and on to consumers.
''It is a water-intensive industry and we are obviously heavily involved,'' said Susan Obleski, spokeswoman for the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.
The commission was formed in 1970 through a compact among New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and the federal government - represented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - to manage the river basin's water resources.
The Delaware River Basin Commission oversees activity in the eastern part of the state, while the Ohio River lacks a regulatory body.
Taking control
Anyone who wants to draw large volumes of water - from the ground or surface - from the watershed needs approval from the SRBC.
This spring, the arms of government that watch over Pennsylvania's water flexed their muscles, shutting down drilling operations that failed to follow regulations.
The state Department of Environmental Protection and the SRBC not only have shut down individual projects but also have taken steps to inform the industry as a whole of what is required before drilling can start.
''It was new to a lot of drilling companies,'' Obleski said, referring to the SRBC's June blanket notification to 23 companies involved in current or planned drilling within the watershed of the 444-mile river that extends from New York to Maryland. ''We're looking at these things very carefully,'' she said.
In May, the DEP and SRBC ordered two companies - Chief Oil and Gas and Range Resources - to shut down operations because they didn't seek prior approval before withdrawing water in Lycoming County.
Rodney Waller, senior vice president and chief compliant officer for Range Resources, said his company wasn't alone in the confusion over the SRBC's withdrawal limits that led to the permit oversight.
He said the company since has complied with each entity's permit process and resumed operations.
Last month, the SRBC granted temporary ''approval by rule'' to several companies, including Range Resources and Chief, to purchase water from already permitted facilities such as municipal water systems. Instead of impounding water from a source near the drilling site, the companies will have to truck in the water.
Monitoring use
As Obleski points out, the remoteness of many sites increases the importance of diligently monitoring how much water is consumed in drilling operations.
''It raises issues for some of the best sources for natural gas in areas where you have head water streams,'' she said, explaining that removing water at these sources can dramatically affect water supplies downstream.
Kristi Gittins, spokeswoman for Chief, said both sides of the water issue - withdrawal and disposal - are challenges the industry will have to address as production increases in the state.
''We know it needs to be addressed long term,'' Gittins said, adding that Chief and eight other producers have formed a consortium dubbed the Appalachian Shale Water Conservation and Management Committee to work together and with regulators on water issues.
Gittins said the consortium's goals are to ensure availability of water for energy needs while seeking ways to lessen impacts on streams and municipal water supplies.
Still, Gittins and Waller pointed out that the oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania doesn't use as much water as one nuclear reactor.
''That doesn't mean we're not looking at product recycling as an industry,'' Gittins said, touching on what some see as the more serious and unknown aspect of natural gas drilling: the wastewater.
Handling waste
A large amount of fluid pumped thousands of feet below ground during the fracking process comes back to the surface, where it is retained in open-air, lined retention ponds before being trucked off to a sewage treatment plant.
Whether Pennsylvania's sewer plants are prepared, or even willing, to treat the millions of gallons of contaminated frack water remains fuzzy.
''Some of them are not equipped to handle [drilling] wastewater,'' said Gittins, adding that the company has an agreement with Jersey Shore's plant to take frack water for its Lycoming County operations.
Jeff Williams of the Clearfield Municipal Authority said it has received ''a couple of calls'' about taking drilling wastewater, but he didn't see it playing any role in the sewer plant's future.
''I have no interest in taking frack water or additional brine,'' Williams said, referring to another waste byproduct created by natural gas wells. Brine, or salt water, is separated from the gas at the surface, stored in tanks then shipped off to treatment plants.
Williams said Clearfield has dealt with a gas consortium for 20 years, taking its brine and treating it at a small, companion plant. He said the authority neither has the room nor interest in expanding it to take any more.
''I'm not willing to take $200 a month for a $200,000 loan payment,'' he said.
Also, with costly upgrades needed for the plant to comply with the Chesapeake Bay watershed restrictions on nutrient releases, upgrading to take drilling waste isn't a priority, he said.
''I have no desire to get into it when we don't know what we're dealing with,'' Williams said, referring to the relative secrecy of frack fluid recipes because of their exemption from federal compulsory disclosure laws.
''Wastewater treatment plants, in many cases, have a difficult time treating these high concentrations of chemicals,'' said Harry Campbell, a scientist with the water quality watchdog Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Dangerous byproduct?
Campbell said frack water used in other states has included 154 hazardous and toxic substances, including formaldehyde, benzene and chromates.
Another potential hazard of the fracking process is the release of natural occurring radioactive isotopes such as radon, said Bryan Swistock, water quality specialist with Penn State's Cooperative Extension.
''It's not uncommon in Pennsylvania groundwater to begin with,'' Swistock said, adding that the brine that comes with gas production also contains metals such as iron and manganese and traces of barium, lead and arsenic.
Swistock said although highly diluted with water, the proper treatment of waste frack fluid is a big issue and suggested the state update its regulations to address issues such as the 200-foot setback to wells and structures.
Given the separation of thousands of feet between the shale and the more shallow aquafers supplying drinking water, risk to wells is minimal, Swistock said.
However, people who live close to drilling operations (those within 1,000 feet are supposed be notified in writing prior to drilling) should have their water tested by a third party, DEP-approved lab.
''The message we're trying to get across is test your water before the drilling begins,'' Swistock said, adding that once a company has drilled, it's too late because there won't be a record of the well water's quality before drilling.
Waller said most fracking fluid is basically the same from one company to the next and it shouldn't pose problems for sewage plants.
What does become a challenge, he said, is dealing with what else comes with the fluid, which can vary from one geographical area to another. Waller said things such as heavy metals can be addressed through pretreatment.
''You need to be prudent about what you are doing,'' he said. ''We're not doing any backyard disposal methods.''
Watching the watchdog
''There are a lot of agencies out there with their eyes open because of how this effects their resources,'' DEP spokesman Tom Rathbun said, adding that the state's past experiences with irresponsible coal mining and oil drilling offered ''hard lessons'' about the need for diligence. ''Suffice to say we're going to be watching this very closely.''
Not everyone is convinced the state's prepared.
Pat Carullo, spokesman for the Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, a grass-roots group in Wayne County, calls the oil and gas producers in Pennsylvania ''unregulated, unaccountable and unlimited,'' citing the 2005 Energy Act as stripping away clean water and air protections for the sake of profits.
''They're injecting millions of gallons of water into the ground laced with toxic chemicals,'' Carullo said.
The 2005 Energy Act designates fracking fluids proprietary and exempts companies from having to disclose what is used in the process.
Carullo, like Swistock and Campbell, called into question the DEP's ability to handle the job in light of lacking federal environmental protections. Carullo expressed concern that natural gas companies would sue their way past the DEP's regulations because it already has started at the local level.
Local regulations
Nancy Janyszeski, supervisor of Nockamixon Township in upper Bucks County, is being sued by Arbor Resources of Michigan.
That company wants to extract gas without the restraints of the township's 20-year-old gas and oil drilling ordinance.
The ordinance sets additional parameters on drilling operations not covered by the DEP, addressing concerns such as setbacks, noise and light.
Two municipalities in western Pennsylvania, which lost challenges to local regulation in the lower courts, have appealed to the state Supreme Court, and Nockamixon Township, along with the Damascus group and others, have filed a brief in support of the communities.
In its lawsuit, Arbor Resources maintains that the DEP is the sole regulatory authority over the industry in Pennsylvania.
Janyszeski said it isn't about stopping drilling, but rather ensuring companies do it in a responsible way. She said Arbor chose to apply for drilling in areas not zoned for it.
"Municipal rule is absolutely at stake,'' Janyszeski said.
Rathbun points out that Pennsylvania's gas and oil regulations and Clean Streams Law closes the federal loopholes, and the department is gearing up to expand its small oil and gas bureau to meet the increase in drilling
Drillers are required to file for a permit that includes a pollution prevention plan and abide by the state's Right-To-Know Law by divulging data on what is used in fracking fluids.
The DEP also will ensure drilling doesn't occur in wetlands and where roads have to be built, and that streams are protected.
The safety of dams built to withdraw water, when permitted by the SRBC, also will be monitored, Rathbun said.
To do all that, the DEP has 32 people in the field dedicated to oil and gas, with 16 working as drilling operations inspectors. Rathbun said that with the expected increase, the DEP is looking to add four inspectors.
So far, the department has issued 250 permits for Marcellus Shale drilling.
Chief and Range Resources note they already have disclosed to the DEP what chemicals they use in fracking wells.
Those company officials also stressed that development of Pennsylvania's natural gas resources won't be done hastily or recklessly.
A slow rush
Chief spokeswoman Gittins said less than 25 Marcellus Shale wells have been drilled so far in Pennsylvania - not enough to give the industry a clear picture of the best places to drill.
''Until we have more answers, that can only be obtained by drilling and testing wells, followed up by commitments from the service companies to relocate services to the area, additional investments to add rigs and people and pipeline companies to commit to building infrastructure, the Marcellus Shale will not move to a development field,'' Gittins said.
Gittins and Waller of Range Resources pointed to the limited availability of not just water, but also drilling rigs, adequate gas pipeline infrastructure and qualified, experienced personnel and the competition to secure those resources as reasons Pennsylvania won't be overrun in a gas rush.
As Waller advised, drilling likely will occur in areas where infrastructure and services are established.
With the goal to produce the gas for the least amount of money, the development of the resource likely will start in areas closest to the infrastructure, including water roads and pipeline, as opposed to remote areas.
''People should not be concerned there's a swarm of locusts coming,'' Waller said.
|
Twitch
|
|
|---|---|
|
07-28-08 11:58 AM
|
To everyone that doesn't want windmills heres the alternative.
|
|
Chuxspringer
|
|
|
07-27-08 10:23 PM
|
Aren't these just a NEW crop of speculators like the ones that gave us the GIFT of acid mine drainage. We are to believe after the money is collected these guys will CARE about the negative results? I'm curious. What will become of the windmills AFTER they are no longer functional?
|
|
Patience
|
|
|
07-27-08 6:10 PM
|
VigilanteAdvocate: Would you like to be called a "retard?" Is your IQ 70 or below? A little bit of education spreads like wildfire and goes a long way. So back up for just a moment and think. You are free to stop reading my posts. You actually might learn something! Altoona may be traditionally blue collar but people do not need to enter into name calling (stigma labeling) especially in a public forum. Enough said.
|
|
VigilanteAdvocate
|
|
|
07-27-08 1:54 PM
|
I'm really losing patience with "Patience"s politically correct explanations and wheretowithalls. Buddy, it's a public forum and the public we're talking about is from Altoona. If they want to be ignornant dillweeds and use language (YOU) might find offensive, let it be.
|
|
97neon
|
|
|
07-27-08 12:33 PM
|
*******plummershollow.wordpress****/2008/07/20/horizontal-gas-drilling/
|
|
97neon
|
|
|
07-27-08 12:23 PM
|
Greg Bock's article has convinced me that drilling for natural gas in a municipal water supply area is a bad idea.
|
|
Patience
|
|
|
07-27-08 10:26 AM
|
Please read the article carefully (97neon) and research additional information on drilling for natural gas, if you truly have an interest in this subject. Your comments indicate a lack of understanding of the pros and cons regarding this issue. Your ending comment is truly inappropriate and adds nothing of value to a discussion on this subject. The infrastructure for drilling is burdensome on our environment as is the need for the water required for the process. It would be interesting to hear additional constructive input regarding the pursuit of this natural resource. We need to boost our access to all forms of reliable energy. With additional knowledge, make your concerns regarding our watersheds known via a letter to the Altoona City Water Authority. Thank you.
|