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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Sep 20, 2014 - 12:26pm PT
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Seems like good economic development to me.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Sep 20, 2014 - 12:35pm PT
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If done the right way, it is. The downside is that the shale gas wells drain a very small area, so you have to drill a lot of wells from each pad.
Each one involves an unreal amount of trucking to bring in the water and sand. It tears up the roads, is a damn nuisance, and affects the landscape, which is almost all farms.
I remember when they drilled up the Woodford Shale in the Arkoma basin in SE Oklahoma. There were endless trucks for several years. Now it has been mostly developed and it has died down. The collapse in nat gas prices has also halted a lot of drilling.
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Sep 20, 2014 - 02:53pm PT
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I was amazed that people latched on to fracking and made it a "problem."
BASE104: although the Gasland films were full of inaccuracies and disinformation and I agree the mainstream media almost never reports any of this accurately, the environmental impacts of hydrofracking is NOT zero. In fact, you just enumerated some of the environmental issues above (i.e., increased traffic & congestion, air pollution, enormous amounts of fluids that need to be handled properly, etc.).
The myth propagated by the oil industry is that because there is no evidence that fractures induced in low permeability formations at depth have propagated upward and directly impacted shallow drinking water aquifers, that these operations are entirely environmentally safe.
Here's a list of impacts to be considered as part of an environmental assessment by the US Agency of International Development (USAID) for the development on shale gas in the Ukraine...
Water pollution from storing and transporting chemicals and fuels
Contaminated drinking water from escaped gas/chemicals
GHG emissions from extraction and production of gas
Leakage of VOCs from gas wells and compressor stations
Changes in sub-surface hydrology, including long-term damage to aquifers from fracturing chemicals
Safety and air pollution impacts from well fires and blowouts
Contamination of soils and water from drill cuttings and flowback fluids (heavy metals, naturally occurring radioactive materials, and other pollutants )
Local impacts and economic disruption from influx of construction personnel and support services
Air pollution due to truck traffic and mobile generators
Impacts from new road building
Impacts from new lands development
Wetland/habitat degradation
Impacts to any Endangered Species
Impacts to Nearby Residents Damage to existing roads
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Sep 20, 2014 - 05:26pm PT
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Hi Base104, can you talk about the composition of the fracking fluid and substances that are injected? Your summary seems qualitatively different from what I had read about in the past. A quick search turned up this:
http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/hydraulic_fracturing_101
http://nysaap.org/update-on-hydrofracking/
Carcinogenic hydrocarbons used as solvents, and radioactive tracers... with large volumes of fracking, even low percentages of these components adds up to a lot of volume of nasty stuff being hauled in, aside from chloride and "saltwater," and low concentrations of some of these things leaking into groundwater can be a long term nightmare.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Sep 20, 2014 - 05:37pm PT
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can you talk about the composition of the fracking fluid and substances that are injected?
This,
a little of this.
(mineral oil)
and a little of this,
(Sand)
BTW that "evil" Halliburton has recently developed an NSF (National Sanitary Foundation, Writes the rules for what can be in contact with drinking water) approvable fracking fluid.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Sep 21, 2014 - 03:30pm PT
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Yeah, they now have green frack fluids. I dunno how often they are used.
In one of the shale plays in Oklahoma, Continental has built two big water recycling centers. That is the way of the future.
It is so fashionable in journalism to paint these slick water fracks as some toxic brew injected into the ground. People just don't understand how oil and gas is found. I'll post up a geophysical log of a well for you guys to look at.
When drilling a well, after you reach total depth you call the logging company. Schlumberger is the best, but I've been using Weatherford a lot.
You lower these "tools," which look like twenty foot long stainless steel rods about 3 inches in diameter down the hole. You then turn on the logs and pull them up at a pretty slow rate. It can take all day to log a well if you have multiple runs. The tools have many instruments in them that measure porosity, permeability, lithology, fluid content, etc.
You evaluate the logs and then decide if you are going to plug the well or set production casing and complete it. I can look at a log and tell you a LOT. Very high technology. That is how I work. I spend all day building cross sections and correlating strata across areas in the producing basins.
The way that I have made most of my money is by finding zones that companies drilled right through and ignored, or didn't notice because of the poor technology in the 40's and 50's. So I look at a shitload of logs.
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wilbeer
Mountain climber
Terence Wilson greeneck alleghenys,ny,
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:30pm PT
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Hardly mineral oil ,water and sand ,aye?
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:39pm PT
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Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2014
Received 09 Jul 2014, Accepted 13 Aug 2014
Organic compounds in produced waters from shale gas wells
A detailed analysis is reported of the organic composition of produced water samples from typical shale gas wells in the Marcellus (PA), Eagle Ford (TX), and Barnett (NM) formations. The quality of shale gas produced (and frac flowback) waters is a current environmental concern and disposal problem for producers. Re-use of produced water for hydraulic fracturing is being encouraged; however, knowledge of the organic impurities is important in determining the method of treatment. The metal content was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Mineral elements are expected depending on the reservoir geology and salts used in hydraulic fracturing; however, significant levels of other transition metals and heavier main group elements are observed. The presence of scaling elements (Ca and Ba) is related to the pH of the water rather than total dissolved solids (TDS). Using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis of the chloroform extracts of the produced water samples, a plethora of organic compounds were identified. In each water sample, the majority of organics are saturated (aliphatic), and only a small fraction comes under aromatic, resin, and asphaltene categories. Unlike coalbed methane produced water it appears that shale oil/gas produced water does not contain significant quantities of polyaromatic hydrocarbons reducing the potential health hazard. Marcellus and Barnett produced waters contain predominantly C6–C16 hydrocarbons, while the Eagle Ford produced water shows the highest concentration in the C17–C30 range. The structures of the saturated hydrocarbons identified generally follows the trend of linear > branched > cyclic. Heterocyclic compounds are identified with the largest fraction being fatty alcohols, esters, and ethers. However, the presence of various fatty acid phthalate esters in the Barnett and Marcellus produced waters can be related to their use in drilling fluids and breaker additives rather than their presence in connate fluids. Halogen containing compounds are found in each of the water samples, and although the fluorocarbon compounds identified are used as tracers, the presence of chlorocarbons and organobromides formed as a consequence of using chlorine containing oxidants (to remove bacteria from source water), suggests that industry should concentrate on non-chemical treatments of frac and produced waters.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:41pm PT
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Nothing particularly toxic either and at least several that are commonly used in drinking water treatment. (the pH adjusters and corrosion inhibitors.) Then there are others that are common in personal care products. (laurel sulphate for example. In your soap and shampoo)
Guar gum, a common thickener used in food products.
The primary constituents are still water, mineral oil and sand.
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:47pm PT
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Impacts of Shale Gas Wastewater Disposal on Water Quality in Western Pennsylvania
Nathaniel R. Warner *, Cidney A. Christie , Robert B. Jackson , and Avner Vengosh *
Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States
The safe disposal of liquid wastes associated with oil and gas production in the United States is a major challenge given their large volumes and typically high levels of contaminants. In Pennsylvania, oil and gas wastewater is sometimes treated at brine treatment facilities and discharged to local streams. This study examined the water quality and isotopic compositions of discharged effluents, surface waters, and stream sediments associated with a treatment facility site in western Pennsylvania. The elevated levels of chloride and bromide, combined with the strontium, radium, oxygen, and hydrogen isotopic compositions of the effluents reflect the composition of Marcellus Shale produced waters. The discharge of the effluent from the treatment facility increased downstream concentrations of chloride and bromide above background levels. Barium and radium were substantially (>90%) reduced in the treated effluents compared to concentrations in Marcellus Shale produced waters. Nonetheless, 226Ra levels in stream sediments (544–8759 Bq/kg) at the point of discharge were ∼200 times greater than upstream and background sediments (22–44 Bq/kg) and above radioactive waste disposal threshold regulations, posing potential environmental risks of radium bioaccumulation in localized areas of shale gas wastewater disposal.
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wilbeer
Mountain climber
Terence Wilson greeneck alleghenys,ny,
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:48pm PT
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TGT,I can read.
Those chems are all good to pump in the ground,right?
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Sep 21, 2014 - 07:11pm PT
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If you're really interested in the environmental impacts of hydrofracking, I suggest you look at some of the recent publications in Environmental Science and Technology on this subject. Here's an abstract from one of the papers.
A Critical Review of the Risks to Water Resources from Unconventional Shale Gas Development and Hydraulic Fracturing in the United States
Avner Vengosh *†, Robert B. Jackson †‡, Nathaniel Warner §, Thomas H. Darrah ̂∥, and Andrew Kondash †
† Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States
‡ School of Earth Sciences, Woods Institute for the Environment, and Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, United States
§ Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, United States
̂∥ School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
Environ. Sci. Technol., 2014, 48 (15), pp 8334–8348
DOI: 10.1021/es405118y
Publication Date (Web): March 7, 2014
Copyright © 2014 American Chemical Society
The rapid rise of shale gas development through horizontal drilling and high volume hydraulic fracturing has expanded the extraction of hydrocarbon resources in the U.S. The rise of shale gas development has triggered an intense public debate regarding the potential environmental and human health effects from hydraulic fracturing. This paper provides a critical review of the potential risks that shale gas operations pose to water resources, with an emphasis on case studies mostly from the U.S. Four potential risks for water resources are identified: (1) the contamination of shallow aquifers with fugitive hydrocarbon gases (i.e., stray gas contamination), which can also potentially lead to the salinization of shallow groundwater through leaking natural gas wells and subsurface flow; (2) the contamination of surface water and shallow groundwater from spills, leaks, and/or the disposal of inadequately treated shale gas wastewater; (3) the accumulation of toxic and radioactive elements in soil or stream sediments near disposal or spill sites; and (4) the overextraction of water resources for high-volume hydraulic fracturing that could induce water shortages or conflicts with other water users, particularly in water-scarce areas. Analysis of published data (through January 2014) reveals evidence for stray gas contamination, surface water impacts in areas of intensive shale gas development, and the accumulation of radium isotopes in some disposal and spill sites. The direct contamination of shallow groundwater from hydraulic fracturing fluids and deep formation waters by hydraulic fracturing itself, however, remains controversial.
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Jingy
climber
Somewhere out there
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Oct 16, 2014 - 09:14pm PT
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[Click to View YouTube Video]
 living in the belly of the beast... keeping tabs of my drinking water from the tap...
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
extraordinaire
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Oct 16, 2014 - 09:26pm PT
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You guys listen to way too much NPR.
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Jingy
climber
Somewhere out there
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Nov 12, 2014 - 07:58pm PT
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When can you expect to taste the fracking rainbow?
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Cragar
climber
MSLA - MT
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Nov 13, 2014 - 08:37am PT
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Gosh, me too Ding. I thought the outa sight outa mind principle applied too.
Oil well, I'm humbled.
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