Earlier this week a natural gas well blew up while undergoing hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking) causing a spill of fracking fluids. Supposedly it's been cleaned up and there's nothing to be seen. Really?
That it happened on the anniversary of last years oil spill is causing some to point at the irony, but it's obviously one of those coincidences that sometimes happen. Rather than point at coincidences what this makes me think of is my blog post from a few weeks ago following the beginning of the still-ongoing nuclear meltdown - This world doesn't have to become an uninhabitable nuclear radiation poisoned wasteland - This world also doesn't have to be fracked over by the natural gas companies, and that: Change starts "here" with "you" and "me"
Like several previous examples (nuclear meltdown, oil spill, etc) this is an example of the environmental cost coming from the fossil fuels we use to power this wondrous life we have. The following should serve as a reminder to that cost, but you can see below most of the discussion going on is the environmental effect of the spill and who has the responsibility for the accident.
See also: Videos on the Bradford County fracking accident
Pennsylvania natgas well has blowout during fracking (April 20, 2011):
A natural gas well spilled thousands of gallons of hydraulic fracking drilling fluid water in Pennsylvania..after a blowout..began spewing fluid at 11.45 p.m...during the controversial "fracking" drilling process which involves blasting shale rock with water, sand and chemicals to release trapped natural gas.."An equipment failure occurred during well-completion activities, allowing the release of completion fluids," Chesapeake said in a statement. ... fluid initially spilled into a nearby waterway ... Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has tested the water and found no adverse affects on aquatic life as yet ...
The same article refers to an earlier accident 2 months ago when another Chesapeake owned well had a spill of fracking fluids.
Fracking fluid leak stops at Pa. gas well (April 22, 2011):
A gas well in Pennsylvania is no longer leaking after two days of efforts to stop hydraulic fracturing fluid and natural gas from escaping.. While the cause of the Tuesday blowout of the well in Bradford Country is unclear, well operator Chesapeake Energy said it has suspended all post-drilling activity on its wells in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio while they investigate why the well malfunctioned
Chesapeake seeks permanent plug for natgas well (April 22, 2011):
Chesapeake Energy is looking for options to plug permanently a Pennsylvania natural gas well following a blowout this week that sent drilling fluid into local waterways.... [they] used a mix of plastic, ground-up tires and heavy mud on Thursday as a temporary plug for the well, which had spewed thousands of gallons of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, fluid into the surrounding area.... company, which had 87 active wells in Pennsylvania in the second half of 2010, has halted all fracking activities in the state following the blowout. ...
An April 20 blog post on the NRDC website points out Bradford County, where this blowout occurred, there are "reports that up to 100 households have had their drinking water wells contaminated by natural gas production operations" and calls it "one of the communities across the nation currently serving as guinea pigs in the new rush to exploit natural gas reserves without adequate regulation or oversight." Another week in natural gas drilling, another fracking blow-out
That blog post referred back to one from April 12, 2011 Pennsylvania continues to lead the pack with news of inadequate oil and gas regulation
Pennsylvania remains the poster child for things that can go wrong when producing oil or gas....contamination of drinking water wells in northwestern Pennsylvania...reports that up to 100 households in Bradford County have had their drinking water wells contaminated by gas production operations...Two houses exploded in Bradford Township... [which may be due to] some type of thermogenic gas migration caused by extensive drilling ... U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials pushed Pennsylvania regulators to consider re-evaluating all permits for wastewater treatment plants that are accepting drilling or fracking waste and adding stricter standards for testing of radionuclides and other contaminants... Pennsylvania oil and gas inspectors trying to enforce state rules on drilling in the Marcellus Shale have been prohibited from issuing violations unless they have gotten the approval of a senior state official... Carmichaels Municipal Authority recently issued an advisory for residents to boil their water because it had to lower chlorine treatment in order to reduce the levels of trihalomethanes, which can cause cancer .. [which]is being caused by high levels of bromide in the Monongahela River, resulting from natural gas wastewater
Pennsylvania Natural Gas Blowout Spills Thousands of Gallons of Toxic Wastewater into Local Community (April 20, 2011)
Chesapeake Energy Corporation lost control of its Marcellus Shale well near Canton, Pennsylvania. The company reports that a piece of equipment failed during the hyrdraulic fracturing process. As a result, thousands of gallons of chemical-laden water have spilled out from the well into nearby fields and farms.... From their entire land holding, Chesapeake has designated 2.5 million acres for shale gas development. The company estimates it holds 15,800 drilling locations capable of producing 7.7 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves and 64 trillion cubic feet of risked unproven reserves. Furthermore, over the next two years, the company plans to make significant investments in building its capacity to hydraulically fracture its wells...Unconventional extraction of natural gas is conducted using the controversial drilling technique hydraulic fracturing or fracking. There are significant environmental concerns surrounding hydraulic fracturing, primarily regarding the disposal of the toxic drilling water which is injected to break up the rock formations and release the gas.
Pennsylvania Gas-Well Blowout Forces Evacuation (April 20, 2011)
According to both Chesapeake and local officials, the well had already been drilled when the accident occurred and was in the process of being hydraulically fractured, a process in which millions of gallons of water and chemicals are injected into the ground to crack open gas-bearing rocks....Francis Roupp, deputy director of the Bradford County Emergency Management Agency, said "many thousands of gallons" spilled from the well, but he said much of the fluid was successfully contained on the site. He said recent rains also meant Towanda Creek was full, diluting any contamination....Mr. Roupp said he didn't know what chemicals were in the water....A report released by Congressional Democrats last week said fracturing fluid often contains carcinogens and other harmful chemicals....Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been especially controversial. Environmental groups fear the process can contaminate drinking-water supplies....This isn't the first fracturing-related accident in Pennsylvania. In a similar incident last June, workers lost control of a well in western Pennsylvania owned by EOG Resources Inc. That incident blew water and chemicals 75 feet into the air but caused only moderate environmental damage, according to state officials at the time...."How many of these can you have?" said David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, which has called for a ban on hydraulic fracturing until drillers demonstrate better safety practices. "You've played Russian Roulette. You've spun the revolver too many times. People's lives are on the line."
That article (from the Wall Street Journal) reads like a downplaying of the problems, echoing the industry's emphasis on small concentrations and minimal effect. The fact is the chemicals are carcinogenic and are being spilled into drinking water supplies.
The WJS article referred to an earlier spill: Marcellus blowout sprays gas in Clearfield County (June 5, 2010)
A 16-hour natural gas leak at a Clearfield County well started with the first reported blowout during statewide exploration of the Marcellus shale, but it won't halt drilling in the gas-rich layers underground, state officials said Friday.
Natural gas and wastewater shot 75 feet into the air Thursday night after drillers encountered unexpectedly high gas pressure in the well about 10 miles north of Interstate 80, just outside Moshannon State Forest. Crews from a contractor hired by well operator EOG Resources capped it at noon yesterday. No no one was hurt.
There are no homes within a mile of the site, and crews dug a trench to stop chemicals in the water from entering groundwater, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
... "I can't guarantee that it won't happen again," Hanger said. "But I can guarantee we are doing everything possible to make sure it won't happen again."
... In the past two years, Pennsylvania has granted about 3,400 Marcellus shale drilling permits, with more than 1,500 wells drilled, some in populated areas. Government officials have promoted gas drilling as a way to raise revenue from taxes and land-leasing royalties. Environmentalists have decried shale drilling, saying chemicals in the wastewater used to fracture underground rock and free natural gas can contaminate the land.
Pennsylvania Fracking Accident: What Went Wrong (April 21, 2011)
The leak happened at the Atgas 2H well in rural Leroy Township... the failure occurred late Tuesday night when Chesapeake was in the middle of a "frack job." The controversial practice, essential to the extraction of gas from shale, involves pumping up to a million gallons of water treated with biocides, lubricants, surfactants and stabilizers a mile or more into the ground at pressures exceeding 9000 psi. ... believe they have pinpointed the initial cause of the accident: A steel coupling located beneath the well's blowout protector, but above ground, appears to have failed ...
(The blowout protector is the same technology as device that failed in the case of the BP oil spill. It didn't fail here, but if it had, both natural gas and water would have spewed forth from the well. However above-ground wells are much easier to shut down than those deep underwater.)
Marcellus wells typically regurgitate between 30 and 50 percent of the water pumped into them. In normal circumstances, it comes back in a manageable flow, and the well operators collect it in pits or tanks.... in Pennsylvania, the geology is not suited for deep-well injection, and so the water is kept in pits and tanks where it is treated to remove chemicals that are added by the drillers. It also must be stripped of contaminants it picks up while underground: bromides, chlorides and some heavy metals.
... when the coupling failed at Atgas 2H, the water simply came gushing too fast for Chesapeake's operators to bring it under control and collect it. Making matters worse, days of steady rain had partially filled the containment pits and they quickly overflowed ...
Chesapeake gets DEP notice of violation after well incident (April 23, 2011)
The state Department of Environmental Protection wants answers from Chesapeake Energy Corp. about Tuesday night's blowout incident at the company's natural gas well site in LeRoy Twp.
The state agency sent a notice of violation, dated Friday, to Chesapeake Energy requesting further information, including a complete list of materials in the fracking fluids used at the site. The agency asked Chesapeake to submit a written response to the notice within five business days.
One of the instructions in the notice informs Chesapeake to "include an explanation of why it took Chesapeake nearly 12 hours to address the uncontrolled release of fluids off the well pad."
Another calls for "a description of immediate actions taken by Chesapeake to regain control of the well and secure the wellhead, as well as any measures taken to ensure public safety."
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