separating fracks from fiction, james northrup
TRANSCRIPT
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Meet the Frackers . . .
Not your usual well
Massive heavy truck traffic
Massive drilling pressures
Massive wastewater
21st century technology Managed with 20th century
NY state regulations
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Fracking 101: Shale is Located
Seismic is shot todetermine the depth
and thickness of the
shale formation
Once shale formation is
identified, no more
seismic is usually shot -
in Texas. . .
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Fracking 101: The Well is Drilled
Well drilled into shaleformation
Shale is tested to
determine whether it is
economic to produce
gas
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Fracking 101: Let the Fracking Begin
A lateral (horizontal) section
is drilled into the shale
formation
The lateral is used to inject
water under high pressure to
break up the shale in order
to release the gas
Frack generates flowback
wastewater from well
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Fracking 101: The Economics
Shale gas marginally economic Creative accounting + creative reserve estimates
Steep production decline curves
Costly search over wide area for hot spots
A fraction of the wells will be profitable Life cycle impacts rarely considered
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Fracking 101: Economics in New York
Property values will go down for many
Most wont directly benefit Small fraction own usable mineral rights
No direct tax revenue from gas production
No infrastructure, no waste disposal wells
Gas producers avoid NYS income tax
Drilling crews highly trained - not locals
Taxpayers left with clean-up bill
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Fracking 101: Abandoned Wells
Road use agreements in place Clean-up bonds posted prior to
Land use statutes in place
Tax gas at the wellhead
Protect sensitive areas fromexploration
Signing bonuses in tax appraisals
Or get stuck with the clean up bill
Be Prepared with Rules and Regulations Upfront
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Whats the Hurry? Safety FIRST
We need the money/jobs
When did we notneed them ?
Landowners sold too much
all their mineral rights
for too little
before the rules are in place Many drillers are speculators
Canadian penny stock companies
Copyright 2009 FIREHOW LLC
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Itll be just like Texas
Shale gas fracking was developed in Texas
Texas New York Frack wastewater
disposal wells: 12,000 none
Environmental agency:does not issue
well permits
DEC
issues well permits
Terrain: flat and semi-arid neither flat nor arid
deep > 1000Water wells: shallow
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New York Is Not Texas
Lakesowned by
municipalitiesowned by NYS
except NYC
Revenuestaxes gas
production directly
no tax on
gas production
Seismically faults dont move some faults move
rarely
enforced
DEC compels
non-consenters into wellsCompulsory
integration
no trout streams in Texas . . . . . .
Texas New York
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Just How unPrepared is New York ?
EPA criticized the proposed regulations
Regs. are so flawed New York City got a carve out
New York shale loaded with radium
No place to put toxic radioactive flowback from wells
New York gets no direct tax revenue from gas production
Road use agreements not in place No zoning controls over well locations
Etc., etc., etc.
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Problems of Shale Gas
Massive amounts of truck traffic Spills and drilling blowouts pollute
groundwater
Frack wastewater must be disposed of
forever Marginal direct economics
Problematic indirect economics
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A Lot of Fracking Traffic
1,200 tankers per well
6 wells per site 7,200 trips
Sites exempt from zoning
No road use agreements
Counties have no funds
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Frack Truck Solutions
Local zoning should control well location Road use agreements in place
Usage fees to counties
Routes established
Insurance and bonds in place
State should tax gas production at wellhead
Full value of lease in property valuations
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What Does this Look Like to a Duck ?
Containment of Fluids Onsite
2010 HVPA
2009-2010 Copyright Rodale.
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Pa. DEP fined Cabot on half of their 62 Dimock wellsPa. DEP fined Cabot on half of their 62 Dimock wells Over a third of the wells were cited for surface spillsOver a third of the wells were cited for surface spills
Pa. has cited over 1,500 violations in shale wellsPa. has cited over 1,500 violations in shale wells
Most Pollution is at the Surface
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Containment of Fracking Fluids
Open pits overflow - polluting groundwater Open pits pollute the air
Nets dont work Bird caught in net, bird dies
Solutions : No open pits
No drilling sites on steep slopes > 15 degrees
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propargyl alcohol glutaraldehyde
hydrochloric acid
dibromoacetonitrile
butoxyethanol ethylene glycol
AndMystery Ingredients
A Fracking Good Cocktail
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Fracking Fluid Problems
Toxic and carcinogenic Gets into groundwater via spills
New York water wells shallow and vulnerable
Locals depend on well water
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Fracking Fluid Solutions
Non-toxic fracking fluids Test wells before fracking begins and after
No fracking within 1000 feet of a water well
State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR)
in watersheds of sole source drinking water lakes In floodplains
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A
tomic bomb used to frack a gas formation in69
Frack worked but gas too radioactive to sell
So Halliburton develops horizontal
hydrofracking
Fracking as Explosive as a Bomb
because atomicbombs didnt work
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Horizontal Hydrofracking of ShaleHorizontal Hydrofracking of Shale== ExtraordinaryExtraordinaryAmounts ofWaterAmounts ofWater
One well = 5 million gals
8 per pad site = 40 M gal
5 fracks per well = 200 M gals
For every one mile drilling site
Thousands of truck trips
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Gulf well blew at 80%shale frack pressure
Casing buckles due toshifts in faulting, heat orpressure
Casing corrodes Casing set in haste
Cemented in haste
Casing Failures
Casing Failures
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Crew got killed
Water polluted
Company denials
Taxpayers clean up
When a Cement Job Failed
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Surface casing leaks gas
Gas channels up the casing Frack cracks the casing
Faulting shears the casing
Casing corrodes over time
Frack goes out of zone Pick one or more of the above
Turn on water
Light
Stand back
How to Make Flammable Tap Water
First start with a shallow water well, like in New York
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Safer Fracking
Treat it like an underground explosion Highest standards on surface casing
Post bonds to clean up spills
Frack doped with a tracer to identify
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Its What Comes Back From the Frack
The DEC classifies fracking fluids as Hazardous waste
but classifies the fracking flowback as Industrial waste
Inject hazardous fracking fluids into groundInject hazardous fracking fluids into ground
+ 10,000 psi pressure @ 200+ degrees+ 10,000 psi pressure @ 200+ degrees+ radium leached from the shale+ radium leached from the shale
= fracking flowback wastewater= fracking flowback wastewater
1,000,000 gallons per well
8,000,000 gallons per site
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Radium From Fracking Flowback
Marie Curie discovered radium And it killed her . . .
Frack fluids leach it from shale
The Marcellus is loaded with it 267 over the safe limit
no place to dispose of it in NY
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Fracking WastewaterContents
Radium 226 in the Marcellus
Hydrochloric acid frack fluid Methanol in frack
Glutaraldehyde
Propylene glycol
Propargyl alcohol
Dissolved solids and suspended solids
Hydrogen sulfide, propane, butane, ethane
All of the above + heat + pressure = ??
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Radon = Propanes Evil Twin
Marcellus is also loaded with radon The 2nd leading cause of lung cancer
Similar weight and flash point as propane
Take propane from gas, radon can tag along
Workers at risk, CNG users at risk DECs response ?
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Where To Get Rid of all this FrackingWastewater ?
No wastewater disposal wells in New York Closest are in Ohio for 20 cents gal. + freight
No wastewater treatment plants in New York
None are planned in NYS. Closest is in Pa.
DECs response?
Nowhere in New York . . .
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The Used Uranium nonSolution
Industry proposes to recycle frack wastewater
This increases its toxicity with each use
Nuclear plants built without fuel disposal plans
Re-use of frack flowback repeats that mistake
Cant start fracking without disposal wells
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Fracking Wastewater Solutions
Classify frack wastewater as hazardous Wastewater treated at commercial plants
Disposed of in Class II disposal wells
No waste disposal plan = No well permit
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Clean Air Gets Fracked
Gas fields pollute the air
Barnett Shale = pollution of all cars in DFW
Solution:
Monitor air
Fine operators
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The Faults with New Yorks Faults
DEC understates faulting
Faulting poorly mapped
Faults channel spills into
ground
Faults enable fracks to go out
of zone
Active faulting shears wells
Faulting causes disposal wells
to leak
Earthquakes
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DEC dsGEIS page 4-28 Fig 4.13
DEC Says NY Faulting Looks Like
If only it were
this simple. . .
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What Faulting May Really Look Like
These are
suspected major faults
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How Texas is (slightly) Less Faulty
Texas faults are mapped Lack of active faults facilitates:
Better locations for safe disposal wells
Well casing longevity - less prone to shear
Reduced risk of the frack going out of zone
Texas has none
however . . .
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Disposal Wells:
Caution is Advised
The only Texasearthquake was due tooverloading a wastedisposal well with shalefrack flowback
Disposal wells andfaults dont mix
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No More Earthquakes, Thanks
New York already has its share
Source USGS
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Less Faulty Fracking Solutions
Determine where faults are in NY Shoot 3-D seismic on each lateral
as a condition of getting the fracking permit
No disposal wells near major faults
Locate well sites away from surface faults
No drilling allowed near active faults
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Fracking doesnt contaminate
groundwater = a big fat lie
Frack operations can contaminate water Intensive trucking contaminates water
33% of Cabot Dimock wells cited for spills
13% Cabot wells gassed groundwater 1,614 violations on shale drillers in Pa.
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Groundwater -
Texas vs New York
Postedby David Kozlowski on May 09, 2010
Water contamination is a
show stopperin New York
Water contamination less an
issue in arid, sparsely populated
area with deep water wells and
city-owned lakes, like Texas
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Groundwater Solutions
Test water wells before and after frack Dope fracking fluid with tracers
Non toxic fracking fluids
Well set-backs tied to terrain
SEQR in floodplains and watersheds
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20th Century Regulations in New York
Shale Gas is 21st Century Technology
dSGEIS premised on vertical well technology dSGEIS doesnt incorporate EPA study
DEC tasked with promoting drilling
The cop is the dealer
DEC under-funded and under-staffed DEC totally out-gunned by shale gas tech.
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The Big Apples Big Carve Out
DEC gave NYC reservoirs special protection
from shale gas fracking based on politics, not science
DEC: They lack sedimentation filters
Radiation and toxic chemicals from spills and
wastewater are not sediment . . .
All New Yorkers need NYCs safeguards
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Just how Bad is the dSGEIS?
1st draft, well set-back 50 from lake
2nd / current draft, set-back moved to 150
See Otsego2000.org
Solution : Scrap the dSGEIS
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Compulsory Integration =
Private Eminent Domain
NY law rewritten in 2005 by the industry One of the worst CI laws in the US
60% acreage can force others into a well
DEC compels landowners to participate
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The Legal Basis for Pooling
Oil field unitization was
developed to keep small owners
from drilling their own wells intoa shared or pooled reserve.
Unless every owner drills - the
adjacent wells will drain the
non-drilling owners share of theoil reserve.
The solution was to unitize or
pool the ownership of the
sharedoil or gas reserve.
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Compulsory Integration NA to Shale Gas
Shale gas not a pooled reserve Not permeable enough to drain gas from
another property
No geological reason for CI of adjacent
owners
Compulsory integration of shale not constitutional
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How Cheney Fracked the EPA
Fracking shale not regulated by the EPA
because . . .
Cheney got loopholes in Clean WaterAct,Safe Drinking WaterAct, and Clean AirAct in
2005
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What the Feds Should Do
Pass the Frack Act Close Cheneys Last Loopholes
Determine life-cycle effects of shale gas
Put EPA back in the regulatory business
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What Albany Should Do
Scrap the dSGEIS SEQR on
wells in sole source watersheds
wells in flood plains
Get DEC out of gas shale promotion Proof of final disposition of wastewater
Tax gas at the wellhead
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What Local Government Should Do
Get notice of each well application - not afterthe permit issued
Enforce zoning controls over well sites
Enforce road use agreements
Adopt EMS plans
Lobby in Albany for safe water
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What You Can Do Now
Vote forsafe water overiffyshale gas Call your Congressman
Call your state rep. / senator
Call your county and town board
Test your water wells before you get fracked
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Now Go Get Busy