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Comments
07/24/2011
Paul
Easley
Author's Response: In fairness, many companies are taking steps to reduce potential environmental contamination from these processes and are developing innovative methods to mitigate the negative effects of drilling and its residuals. Although the industry has procedures in place that should prevent problems, a series of investigations by ProPublica found that fracturing is the common thread in more than 1,000 cases of water contamination across seven states. Fracturing may have caused dozens of well failures where the concrete or steel intended to protect aquifers from the gas and drilling fluids cracked under high pressure. Casing is designed to help prevent gas leakage, which can happen when wells drill through or near shallow aquifers. However, many states still have problems with well construction, and worries persist about leakage from wells into water supplies near drilling sites. In hundreds of other cases, the waste and chemicals generated by hydraulic fracturing have been spilled or seeped into surface and groundwater supplies. These problems helped inspire the ban on drilling in the New York portion of the Marcellus Shale, considered the richest US natural gas deposit. Paul R. Easley Environmental Manager Fort Smith Utility, Fort Smith, Ark.
06/30/2011
Carl
Schneider
If the shale gas formation is next to a drinking water aquifer, then the natural gas will migrate all the way up to the surface, since it is lighter than water. The gas has been underground a long time and has had 1,000s of years to migrate up. Therefore, there will be an impermeable layer in the geology that trapped the gas (and oil) underground. The classic example was the Spindletop in Texas, the first big gusher in history. The oilmen drilled through the salt dome and the pressures that were released blew the pipe and oil out of the bore hole. Today Oilmen look for other underground formations that trap oil and gas. When they drill through the impermeable layer, they need to cement the hole around the well casing so that oil and gas and fracking liquids can not move up. How well drinking water wells are 2,000 feet deep? I don't know of any. Conclusion2: 1. Require the drillers to cement the well casing and prove that it is tight. 2. Don't allow fracking within 2,000 feet of the surface. The conscientious oilmen know better. Make those two regulations so that everybody drills by the same rules. We need the energy. Go get it, but take the necessary precautions.
06/28/2011
Stanley
Perritt
This is a very interesting article but I have to question the lack of filtration that is mentioned and occuring both onsite and offsite. More and more sites are using filter vessels to filter some of the particulates and contamination that occurs at the drilling site before it gets to the offsite filtration plants as well as many types of filtration such as filter presses, filter bags and other chemical treatment process methods. We are constantly trying to create new filter material that will help eliminate some of the concerns facing hydrofracking. Stan Perritt District Sales Manager Filter Specilaists, Inc. Clifton, NJ 07011 (973) 772-2075 Office sperritt@fsifilters.com |
Hydraulic fracturing, also known as hydrofracking or fracking, uses high-pressure fluids to force open seams in natural gas-rich rock to allow gas to be extracted. Environmental and human health concerns associated with fracking include the contamination of groundwater, risks to air quality, migration of gases and hydraulic fracturing chemicals to the surface, and potential mishandling of waste.
