We Can't Drink Money
he rush to tap vast natural gas reserves trapped in the Marcellus Shale underlying rural Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, and Ohio has led to a heated regional debate concerning the safety of a controversial drilling process known as “fracking,” or natural gas hydraulic fracturing.
Cut-a-way of a hydraulic fracturing operation
Hydraulic Fracturing is a powerful drilling process that injects a mixture of water and chemicals deep into the well penetrating below the aquifer, causing a fracturing of the shale rock which allows the natural gas deposits to be extracted. Natural gas could help the U.S. meet its CO2 emissions-reductions goals, but many environmental problems, including water pollution have been associated with extracting this resource, which is why the EPA is conducting a new $1.9 million study on this controversial issue.
During the drilling process millions of gallons of water, mixed with a brew of chemicals are pumped thousands of feet underground, then forced sideways for as much as a mile, shattering bedrock, and thereby releasing natural gas impounded there. These fracking fluids can include silicas, petroleum byproducts, alcohols, and potassium-based chemicals. It reported that as much as 3 million gallons of contaminated water is left in the ground for every well drilled and the horizontal sections of the wells are not cased in cement, which means the fluids could continue to be a source of groundwater contamination for years to come. According to drilling-company disclosures, a single well could contain enough benzene to contaminate 100 billion gallons of drinking water.
Portage County is at the center of this new drilling boom, and more than 1,000 natural gas leases were filed in the second half of 2010. And no one wants to contaminate our water supply. Groundwater is the primary source of drinking water for 98 percent of the population in this county. Portage County’s natural water supplies consist of surface water fed by steams and aquifers or underground lakes that are below the surface. The act of fracking must penetrate these water sources to reach the underground gas pockets. High-end estimates say that there may be more than 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas locked up in the Marcellus Shale, enough to supply the entire United States for two years. The value of the gas could be as high as $1 trillion.
In Pennsylvania, state regulators found that gas drilling using high-volume fracking has caused contaminated drinking water, polluted surface waters, polluted air, and contaminated soils. Right next door in Bainbridge, faulty construction and sloppy operations have already led to several private wells being contaminated by gas and fluids used in hydraulic fracturing. We need to make sure that this doesn't become a state-wide problem over the next few decades as we extract natural gas.
Ohio EPA's new Eyes on Drilling Tipline
Report non-emergency suspicious activity related to oil/natural gas development:
1.877.919.4EPA e-mail:
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Clean water is a primary component to life-as-we-know-it in Portage County. And let us not forget recreational activities like fishing, canoeing, etc. So when the GASMAN comes to town, property owners should contact an attorney with experience with oil and gas issues to navigate through all the important elements connected to mineral right leases.
