Fracking: An Attempt At Fairness
A friend of mine sent me a bunch of material on the dangers of fracking, which I offer here to readers. But first, our brief conversation:
Friend: Wow. Check this out.
Craig: Thanks. As you know, I’m a big proponent of renewables. But I’m an even bigger proponent of fairness. Do you think this piece is completely fair to all sides?
Friend: Yes, Craig. I know the DOE and EPA have found problems with leaks in casings. They want regulation and inspection of well drilling to make sure they are sealed correctly. I don’t know about the casings deteriorating but it makes sense that they would over time especially if there was an earth tremor. Also studies show methane leaking with as much greenhouse potential as is saved by using the gas instead of coal to make electricity. (NY Times)
I have a BS in Geology and worked for the USGS. We found water and contaminants moving between water aquifers in different layers. The people in the groundwater division of the USGS were very smart, honest, hard working, and scrupulously unbiased. Here are some links I have accumulated.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/sky-pink/
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/613/index.html
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/613/index.htm
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/26855/?p1=blogs
http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/take-action/contact-elected-officials
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/us/04natgas.html?hpw
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/37390/?mod=related
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/38463/?nlid=nlenrg&nld=2011-09-05
It’s pretty easy to convince me that water will flow DOWN several miles into a natural gas reservoir. It is not going to be easy to convince me that contaminated water will flow UP several miles into the aquifers…
That’s the problem… The only thing leaking UP into the aquifers is going to be gas, and there has been no convincing evidence that the gases weren’t leaking up into the aquifers before fracking… Yes there’s methane in the water, but this water is being drawn from an aquifer sitting directly on top of an extremely energy dense shale formation that has likely been slowly leaking methane since long before man evolved.
I care about whether industry activity is harming the environment… I care very deeply. But I just don’t see how fracking causes any greater threat then old-fashioned vertical drilling. Gravity still works, so the liquids should fall, not rise. The Aquifers are literally thousands of feet above the gas reservoirs. How do the salt-contaminated heavy fluids used for fracking get up to the water?
Glenn,
The very nature of fracking is not merely to that a toxic cocktail is made to “flow” into the present gaps of an existing reservoir, but instead to inject that cocktail under massive pressure in order to break up rock formations and gain access to deeper reservoirs, as well as to use that pressure to force the remnants of depleted existing reservoirs to the surface.
That pressure is easily understandable to be more than enough to overcome gravity as it effects fluids in rock fissures. Contamination of adjascent aquifers is a likely result and there is already evidence many non-industry folks regard as quite “convincing” indeed.
It is public knowledge that water wells formerly yielding potable water for generations were contaminated within days of fracking operations in the vicinity.
Cameron,
Public knowledge is not always correct knowledge. The pressure from a shaped charge that can force a mixture of sand and water (not toxic) between layers of rock would not hold up well to 4 miles of pressure drop with an open well behind it. It just doesn’t work that way.
Condensable specie within any gas stream would adsorb onto the surfaces of the cracks while the gas flowed through, and might take centuries to creep up thousands of meters into the aquifer above.
I just don’t see it… nor do I see any other plausible means by which there could be a problem so long as regulations were adhered to when drilling the well. Whatever problems there are, it’s the drilling and casing of the well, not the fracking, that is the issue… and that would be the issue whether or not fracking was involved.
Craig,
I’ve just published an article on natural gas that you might want to consider responding to:
http://2greenenergy.com/abundance-of-natural-gas/27014/#comments
I screwed up somehow in the cut-and-paste for the above.
Here’s the correct link:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/715911-winter-is-coming-natural-gas-prices-must-rise
As the bulk of the commenters remarked, that’s a really wonderful article. I’m certainly looking forward to meeting you someday, Glenn. Do you ever travel with your parents?
Craig,
Sometimes I travel with them.. but not often.
I usually just hold down the fort here. I would indeed like to meet you someday. Perhaps if business ever brought you to South Carolina…
🙂
Unfortunately, SC isn’t on my normal travel circuit. But I’d love to take some time off and hang out with you folks for a few days. I’d come back a whole lot smarter; I’m sure of that.
The hours I spent with your dad at the American Chemical Society conference last spring and our meetings at the previous events left me incredibly energized intellectually. I’m far the better person for having run into the Doty family; I can tell you that for sure.
What if diesel fuel, or other organic compound vapors from the chemicals they pumped down the well for fracking get into the gas that is moving up thru cracks and those chemicals move up into groundwater drinking supplies?
What if while they pump the fracking fluid out it contaminates the drinking water?
If they drill into an artesian high pressure aquifer things come up.
When they put the waste fluid into rivers or waste water treatment plants that are not made to treat those chemicals it interacts with the rivers and groundwater and city water intakes that are downriver and the oceans.