How Serious is Water Contamination?

Out of all the times you have heard news about fraccing how often have you heard about water contamination, accidents, and overall poor performances?  Now how many times have you heard about successful fraccing jobs with no consequences?  As a civil engineering student I have not had much exposure to fraccing, but when I do hear about it that usually means there has been an accident and my guess is that your experiences are the same unless you are part of the industry. 

Warning: Video may contain content not suitable for children.

Water contamination tends to be one of the most focused topics for consequences coming out of fraccing projects.  There is a possibility that the fraccing could lead to a change of color and odor in the water due to the new contaminants, but a more common risk is leaking methane gas directly into the water supply.  The methane gas does not affect the water’s color, taste, or odor making it hard to detect, but leaves the water susceptible to being able to ignite on fire.  Currently there are no regulations on drinking water concerning the amount of methane because scientists have been unable to predict how much of a health hazard it can be in the drinking water.  Knowing about this risk could make any person who is on the fence about their opinion of fraccing go against it, but before making a decision you should also know about some of the positives and regulations overseeing fraccing jobs.

Natural gas is much cleaner to burn than coal making it better environmentally as an energy resource.  Also the increase in acquiring the natural gas will create jobs and reduce energy prices because the United States would have the chance to become more energy independent.  With rising energy prices across the country along with high unemployment rates this could be a golden opportunity if the right approach is taken.  Many of the studies looking for water contamination from fraccing are inconclusive because there is never any baseline data of the groundwater to compare to which has allowed there to be zero confirmed cases of contamination by fraccing in the groundwater.  The few cases that have been able to prove there is contamination in the water have found that the contamination came from poor wastewater disposal and performance of the well casing.  This is why many of the large companies in the fraccing industry make sure to take every step in the process slowly to make sure the fraccing job is done right.  As far as regulations go, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is assessing each fraccing job on a case by case basis to determine the environmental effects.  In all of the recent cases the EPA has not seen a reason to challenge any of the fraccing jobs that were assessed.  Any fraccing site within 500 meters of an environmentally sensitive area or two kilometers of a town, coastline, or major water storage area will be assessed diligently by the EPA.  The EPA knows fraccing is a possible threat to the environment and they are doing everything they can to make sure the fraccing industry is being careful when fraccing to avoid any contamination in the groundwater as much as possible.

Hopefully this has an impact showing that the industry is making an effort to practice safe fraccing, but if anyone is still on the fence or wants more information I encourage them to do research on their own, look at the links connected to each post on the blog, and continue to follow the blog throughout the semester.

-Adam Bent

Separating Facts From Fiction

According to the American Time Use Survey Summary taken by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that on average, a person 15 years or older spends about 2.8 hrs a day watching the television. Watching television is generally where many people will get all of their information on what is going on in the world that day. One of the major topics in the news regarding the oil & gas industry is about hydraulic fracturing of shale. Much of what you see in the media will be skewed one way or another depending on who is creating the piece. Because of this, the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin conducted a study on the effects hydraulic fracturing has to clear up a few of the statements reporters have made.

They titled this study Separating Fact From Fiction in Shale Gas Development. A team of interdisciplinary experts studied shale formations from New York and Pennsylvania down to west Texas. Three critical areas were studied including: environmental and health effects, public perceptions, and state and federal regulations. 

First looking at the environmental and health effects, there are concerns about hydraulic fracturing contaminating ground water as well as methane gas seeping into aquifers. According to this study, researchers found that the groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing is not unique to hydraulic fracturing and occurs in other conventional oil and gas operations. Along with that, methane that was found in water wells most likely did not occur from hydraulic fracturing, rather, it was there before any drilling had taken place. 

Secondly, after looking at the public perceptions from the media coverage, it showed that in newspapers, online journals, the television and other sources about two thirds of all the media regarding hydraulic fracturing is negative. Not only was most of it negative, but only about one in four containing scientific evidence supporting their claims. 

Lastly, many of the state oil and gas regulations were written much before the discovery of shale gas and do not contain many particular regulations regarding it. There are only a few states that have revised the regulations to regulate certain areas of hydraulic fracturing including but not limited to: disclosure of hydraulic fracturing chemicals, proper casing of wells to prevent aquifer contamination, as well as management of waste water. The report also stated that rather than making more regulations on hydraulic fracturing, the regulations should be focused towards spill prevention. There is a greater health and environmental risk that can occur on a surface spill rather than subsurface during the actual hydraulic fracturing. 

This should be able to give another view to what the media will feed the public the majority of the time and help show that it is important to look beyond what is said on the television and to dig deep into the cold hard facts to help eliminate the fiction.

-Aubrey Bagley