fracking and water

[Lonecowboy]

Chemicals used to tap natural gas wells in the booming practice known as fracking may be responsible for groundwater contamination in a small town in Wyoming, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.

The finding - the first of its kind for the agency - could pose a major stumbling block to U.S. energy firms, whose rush to employ the new drilling technique has sparked economic booms, soaring land values and political debates in rural Pennsylvania, the North Dakota plains and other areas across the country.

EPA researchers studied water pollution complaints in Pavillion, Wyo., for the past three years and found “methane, other petroleum hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds” in the aquifer, possibly as a result of hydraulic fracturing in the area. Fracking uses a mixture of water, sand and chemicals to crack underground rock and allow natural gas to flow freely.

Critics have long claimed the technique can contaminate local water supplies, but the gas industry has denied those charges. Some have even questioned the EPA’s role in regulating the fracking boom, saying oversight was best left to state-level regulators.

Daniel Kish, senior vice president for policy at the pro-fracking Institute for Energy Research, said the EPA’s preliminary finding on water contamination deserves “the strictest scrutiny” given past reports that were later disproved.

“Under Administrator Lisa Jackson, the EPA has played an increasingly politicized role in regulatory enforcement,” Mr. Kish said in a statement Thursday. “Demonstrating the validity of this report in the face of 50 years of safe hydraulic fracturing without any evidence of contamination is a burden that Administrator Jackson must now bear.”

Thursday’s EPA report marks the first time that federal investigators have found fracking chemicals in drinking water supplies, though the agency stressed that the “findings are specific to Pavillion,” where the process is taking place in proximity to wells for drinking water.

The vast majority of fracking occurs at depths far below the water table, and drilling firms routinely seal their wells with layers of cement and piping to protect drinking supplies.

The EPA’s findings will be turned over to an independent scientific panel for review, the agency said.

The owner of the Pavillion gas fields, Encana Corp., expressed skepticism of the EPA’s assertions and said he feared the agency could hand-pick a review board fundamentally opposed to fracking.

“What they have here really isn’t a conclusion,” Encana spokesman Doug Hock said Thursday. “We would like to see a true peer review. Let’s get a credible third party to this.”

The EPA has advised the 170 residents of Pavillion to avoid using well water for drinking or cooking. Mr. Hock said his firm is now providing clean water to nearly two dozen families in the area, and Encana is committed to “a long-term solution so those folks have good water.”

The federal report could have a major impact beyond Pavillion as several states decide whether to outlaw fracking entirely. In August, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, imposed a one-year moratorium on fracking in the Garden State, and he will make a final decision after seeing the draft results of an EPA investigation due for release next year.

New York has implemented a temporary ban on gas drilling permits as regulators wait for the results of a three-year environmental study of the practice. The state’s draft findings will remain open for public comment until Jan. 13. Officials then could issue permits if they are convinced that fracking won’t pollute drinking water or harm the environment. Several upstate communities already have urged a ban on the procedure in the state.

Colorado and other states are considering laws that would force natural gas companies to publicly disclose all products used in the construction of fracking sites.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/8/bad-water-found-at-fracking-site/

[jingo2]

This is the same bulshite as Global Warming.

There is natural elements in the ground that will cause water to burn.


how do we know that the drilling of water wells didn't release unwanted chemicals.



I call gov't bullshite on this one. They're wanting to control our water...as water is the new gold

[Red Barn Angus]

They have no tests that test the water prior to fracking. Who is to say that what they found isn't in the ground already and always has been?

[cowboykell]

Isn't there an old saying " Don't pee down my back and tell me it's raining."

[Mntngoat]

weather channel claims fracking leads to earthquakes too.
Don't drink the Koolaid folks.


ML

[ltdumbear2]

I've worked/lived there (and in numerous other places where fracking goes on, I've smelled the water, it stinks like methane, I've drank the water after boiling it, and it still gave me the runs.

On a day where another hired-hand and myself 'traded' water-duties (we parked a large water-truck next to storage-tank where supposedly 'clean' water derived from fracking-process was stored for our use, and hooked up a flexible-hose to empty the tank into our water-truck, and then drove around to fill empty tanks for cows to drink from) he sat up top of the tank (while waiting for it to fill) and lit a cigarette; the blue-flame that erupted from the water was enough to blow his hat off and singe his eyelashes. That is NOT healthy water to put out for cows to drink, gestating or not.

I'm patiently waiting for the day when the ranchers I've worked for tally thier losses over the yrs, and end up tracking most of the losses due to the water offered to the rancher (for stock-tanks) as part-compensation for raping his land of oil and methane.

I know it will happen; the question is, will the energy companies be able to compensate the rancher for his losses ? ? ?

Or how about the losses incurred by medical-bills associated with 'sickness' brought about when humans are exposed to that water-supply for long periods of time ?

[101]

I have lived in central SD all my life ltdumbear2, and most of the folks that live here consider it good cattle country, there are some places in the state that might have a harder grass than I do, but where I'm at it is much better than the folks have in the Eastern half of the state? Now the water here is a whole different story, The water we catch from snow run off is good but on my place all the shallow water wells are very hard and so Alkali that the cattle will not drink it , We've had to drill deep wells to water our cattle, the first was over 1600 ft. and my father in law put a hood over the tank and caught the gas and heated his house for 20 years with it, the last well I had dug is 2680 ft deep and has more gas than the first one but too much other stuff in to work in our house, I have throwed a match on the water tank and it will burn a pretty blue flame most of the time. Not all of the shallow water is bad but here we have a lot of shale and that is where the bad water is, My point is the oil and gas is here and some of it is already in our under ground water and as far as know there has been no fracking in this country?? 101

[Oldtimer]

Well- There goes "DRILL BABY DRILL-- I guess we need to buy more ARAB oil or build more windtowers and solar fields..

My 60 foot river bottom wells if left to set for awhile- will pump black water- and put out enough gas to light a flame-- BUT-- nobody Fracked around us at all- and the water (when analyzed) contains enough minerals that you do not have to put out any mineral for the cattle- as they won't eat it anyway...!

The major damage I've seen locally on the pasture drainage fields is the heavy use/overuse of chemicals on the upstream and adjoining farm lands-- sprays and minerals that run off those fields during high precipitation events...

Some of these same folks/groups have opposed open pit coal mining for the last 20/30 years...Areas like Colstrip MT- which I dare anyone to go look at- and jump in a plane and fly over and look at (and see where the cows and wildlife are grazing) and how the land has been recovered by these coal companies....Almost looks like an Oasis in the desert.....

[hypocritexposer]

"Fracking fluid" is 90% water, 9.5% sand and the other 0.5% is made up of other "chemicals" that you expose yourself to on a daily basis.....when showering, bathing etc.....






How many people shy away from a product that is 99.5% "all natural"

[ltdumbear2]

please don't misunderstand; I am NOT (under ANY circumstances) suggesting that we just 'stop' finding ways to get off Middle-Eastern oil-train...God knows they don't want us there, and we have no business getting involved in thier personal-affair$ in order to better secure-ourselves a place at the OPEC tables...

...and there would be far too many more people dumped on an already overwhelmed unemployment-situation if the jobs evaporated-away, once the fracking stops...

...but the human race does need to find a way to cut-back on our dependance on oil somehow.

My best immediate thought is that the human-race needs to stop 'racing around' and slow the 'eff' down for a generation or two, because the 'race to always improve and progress, no matter HOW expensive it gets' is a non-sustainable course of action.

We all need to slow down...until thing$ balance-out again.

It's really just that simple.

...and I still think there's something wrong with the water...

[Shortgrass]

30 years ago, when I delivered fuel to the State of South Dakota, Fort Pierre had a flaming fountain on the Capitol grounds. The water came up in a spring, and ran into a lake. It was on fire all the time, and often the flames ran way out into the lake. Is that still there? I supposed it was natural, and not the result of fracking. I also doubt it was the only water with Methane in it up that way. Fracking is not new, but there may be new methods that are causing problems. I rather suspect a new administrator in the EPA may be the problem. This may be like the Farm Dust issue.

[George]

Back in the 1960s at Martinsville Indiana we young pups in High school loved to set the water fountain on fire at the United gas station at ST Rd 39 and St Rd 67.

Sometimes we could get about a 3" flame.

I never heard of Franking back then, just drilled to far into the shale looking for water.

Many of the private wells in the area could maintain a flame, and stank to high heaven. We would put Kool-Aid in the water tanks so that the horses would drink when hauled to horse shows out of the area as they would not like water that smelled ( or didn't smell ) different. We would make all water smell the same so they would drink.

You could heat ( to some degree ) a small shop off the gas collected from many of the artesian wells in the area.