Dealing with the waste water from hydraulic fracturing is a problem. A Canadian company working in Arkansas has plans to treat Fayetteville Shale waste water and recycle it for continued drilling.
More in the Houston Chronicle.
Dealing with the waste water from hydraulic fracturing is a problem. A Canadian company working in Arkansas has plans to treat Fayetteville Shale waste water and recycle it for continued drilling.
More in the Houston Chronicle.
Methane has 25 times the greenhouse gas impact of carbon dioxide. Industry and government disagreements over how much methane is released into the atmosphere during drilling has been reported in an article on the Platts.com website.
A Carnegie Mellon University study reports that the generation of electricity by burning Marcellus Shale gas instead of coal could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 to 50 percent.
More in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Shale Gas Advisory Board called for “making information about shale gas production operations more accessible to the public; taking immediate and long-term actions to reduce the environmental and safety risks of shale gas operations, with a particular focus on protecting air and water quality; creating a Shale Gas Industry Operation organization committed to improving operating practices; and continuing research and development to improve safety and environmental performance.”
More at UPI.com.
Representatives of industry and government agencies often state that there has not been one documented case of hydraulic fracturing contaminating a private water supply well. However, an EPA report from 1987 links hydraulic fracturing with a contaminated water supply in Jackson County, West Virginia. Those opposed to hydraulic fracturing hope to get a lot of mileage out of that report. More in the New York Times.
Cuadrilla Resources was using hydraulic fracturing to develop a shale gas reservoir off the UK coast when small earthquakes occurred in the area. More at the Reuters.com website.
Much of the discussion at ExxonMobil’s annual shareholder meeting was on the subject of hydraulic fracturing.
The topic was also on the agenda at Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting.
An article on Platts.com reports on shareholder resolutions at ExxonMobil, Chevron and Ultra Petroleum calling for those companies to disclose information about the environmental and financial risks of hydraulic fracturing in the production of natural gas.
An article on the ShreveportTimes.com website considers the industry activity and environmental impact associated with the injection of salt water waste produced by drilling for natural gas in the Haynesville Shale.
Governor Mike Beebe of Arkansas answers questions related to natural gas drilling causing earthquakes, environmental problems and economic damage within the State of Arkansas.
The NPR Talk of the Nation program for May 13 investigates the occurrence of natural gas in household water supply wells in Pennsylvania. In a study of 68 wells, those within one kilometer of a natural gas well had 17 times the amount of methane in the water.
Natural gas is a key factor in our long-term energy strategy. A panel of experts has been tasked with finding immediate steps to make hydraulic fracturing cleaner and safer. More in the New York Times.
“The Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE) announced favorable results from a demonstration project turning wastewater from drilling sites into clean water.” Quoted from the Energy Information Administration’s Natural Gas Update.
People in France are concerned about the potential environmental and social impact of developing their natural gas shale but at the same time they are concerned about their energy security. More at WorldOil.com.
The FracFocus website is all about hydraulic fracturing. It contains information about the process, the chemicals that are used and contact agencies in states were oil and gas drilling is active. It also has a “Find A Well” feature that allows you to look-up wells and view the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process. The site is provided by the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.
Drinking water facilities and wastewater treatment plants will expand their water testing procedures out of concern for radioactive particles in wastewater produced during natural gas drilling. More in the New York Times.
“As natural gas production has increased, so have concerns about the potential environmental and human health impacts of hydraulic fracturing in the United States. [...] The overall purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water resources. More specifically, the study is designed to examine the conditions that may be associated with the potential contamination of drinking water resources, and to identify the factors that may lead to human exposure and risks.” Quoted from the EPA publication announcement.
A New York Times article explores concerns about radiation levels in wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling sites and how that water is being processed before discharge into the environment.
A post on an environmental blog at the Baltimore Sun website has a punchy title: “Marcellus shale gas “dirtier” than coal?”…. Dirty might have been used to provoke shale advocates or to elicit clicks from environmental advocates, however, they ask a question about methane releases canceling out any carbon dioxide benefits gained by using natural gas as a few instead of coal.
The Deep Carbon Observatory is an initiative dedicated to achieving a transformational understanding of Earth’s deep carbon cycle, including its poorly constrained reservoirs and fluxes, the unknown role of deep biology, and unexplored influences of the deep carbon cycle on critical societal concerns related to energy, environment and climate.
The Common Council of Buffalo, New York voted to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing within city limits. In addition, it bans the disposal of drilling waste water anywhere within the city. More at Empire State News.
We recently posted a video about the earthquake swarm near Guy, Arkansas. Now the NewYorkTimes has an article titled: “A Dot on the Map, Until the Earth Started Shaking”.
A few oil and gas companies have received shareholder resolutions calling for disclosure of risks associated with hydraulic fracturing. Some resolutions even specify field operating methods for the fracking procedure. More in an article titled “Investors Seek Disclosure of Fracking Oil, Gas Risks” at BusinessInsurance.com.
A study on the economic, legal, regulatory, and environmental issues related to development of the Marcellus Shale has been published by the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics, Bureau of Business and Economic Research.
In a blog post on the Reuter’s.com website, Christopher Swann, argues that Washington could take easy steps to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, reduce carbon emissions and save citizens money by promoting the use of natural gas in vehicles and electricity generation. He thinks that the natural gas lobby needs to work harder than those promoting coal and railroads.