Energy Companies

The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader is following the story of the natural gas-contaminated water wells in Dimock, PA. Overall the article is pretty even-handed in its treatment of the issue and worth a read. In covering “both sides” of the issue, they reveal some of the facts in the case:

The company [Cabot Oil & Gas] and DEP [PA Department of Environmental Protection] agree that the gas isn’t from Marcellus Shale, a pipeline leak or naturally occurring sources above ground. They also concur that the gas is likely from a gas-laden upper layer of underground Devonian shale, of which the Marcellus Shale is a component but thousands of feet deeper, [DEP spokesman Mark] Carmon said. Marcellus Shale is generally at least 5,000 feet underground, while DEP determined the gas contaminating the water wells came from a shale layer roughly between 1,500 feet and 2,000 feet deep, Carmon said.

The company has cemented the upper Devonian shale layers of several wells, effectively extending the cement seals from the bottom of the water-bearing region, where the seals usually stop, to the bottom of the upper shale layers. The department has been trying to isolate the exact source of gas, seeing whether the extended seals produce a drop in water-contamination levels, Carmon said.

Because the method of contamination hasn’t been determined, Carmon said it’s too early to tell if Cabot knowingly violated regulations. “I’m not aware of anything blatant or anything like that, but, again, we want to know how did it happen,” he said.

Other news outlets would do well to follow the Times Leader’s example and get their facts straight before running stories about the Dimock situation.

Read the full article: Consequences of gas drilling still unknown

Marcellus Drilling News pointed out the problems in yesterday’s Reuters news story coverage of the contaminated water wells near a drilling site in Dimock, PA (see Reuters News Service Runs Hit Piece on Drilling in Dimock, PA and Cabot Oil & Gas). Exhibit A in how the slanted mainstream media perpetuates lies is Water Technology Online, the website of Water Technology Magazine (owned by EBSCO Industries). An editor at Water Technology saw the Reuters story and unquestioningly, and without research, dashed off a quick article with the headline, “PA residents blame ‘fracking’ for illness,” citing the Reuters piece as its source. The opening two paragraphs say this:

DIMOCK, PA — Families in this northern Pennsylvania rural community and elsewhere are reporting that the gas drilling method known as hydrofracking is tainting their well water and making them and their animals sick, Reuters reported on March 13.

Energy companies are using hydrofracking, also known as “fracking,” to tap the Marcellus Shale formation. During fracking, water mixed with chemicals is pumped into deep wells under pressure to crack rock formation and release trapped natural gas, a process that also contaminates the water. There also is concern about the chemicals used in hydrofracking water, as WaterTech Online® reported.

Without explicitly saying so, and leading readers to the wrong conclusion, the article implies the water wells in Dimock are contaminated with chemicals used in the fracking process, which is not true. The wells have been contaminated with natural gas itself, not with chemicals from fracking. But the Water Technology article makes no mention of that little fact.

Such is how media works. Again, my advice: Read the mainstream media’s coverage of this issue with a critical and questioning eye.

Read the full article: PA residents blame ‘fracking’ for illnesses

Marcellus Drilling News (MDN) has been following the story of Cabot Oil & Gas and the contamination of a few water wells with natural gas in the Dimock, PA area. The mainstream media, when it looks for stories about gas drilling and the environment, latches on to this particular story because of it’s potential to play at people’s fears about drilling. Reuters is the latest to do so. They just released an article titled, “U.S. energy future hits snag in rural Pennsylvania.” The subhead for one section of the story says: “Water tastes bad, animals lose fur.”

It’s a very slanted story. However, I mention it here because there are several interviews of local residents affected by contamination of their well water by natural gas. We do not look away from potential problems cause by drilling. Here are a few excerpts from the story:

When her children started missing school because of persistent diarrhea and vomiting, Pat Farnelli began to wonder if she and her family were suffering from more than just a classroom bug.

After trying several remedies, she stopped using the water drawn from her well in this rural corner of northeastern Pennsylvania, the forefront of a drilling boom in what may be the biggest U.S. reserve of natural gas.

“I was getting excruciating stomach cramps after drinking the water,” Farnelli said in an interview at her farmhouse, cluttered as a home with eight children would be, while her husband, a night cook at a truck stop, slept on the couch.

“It felt like an appendicitis attack.”

The family, which is poor enough to qualify for government food stamps, began buying bottled water for drinking and cooking. Their illnesses finally ended, and Farnelli found something to blame: natural gas drilling in the township of 1,400 people.

And this:

Ron and Jean Carter suspected there was a leak when the water supply to their trailer home started to taste and smell bad after Cabot started drilling 200 yards (meters) away.

Not wanting to risk the health of a new grandchild living with them, the 70-year-old retirees scraped together $6,500 for a water purification system.

“It was kind of funny that the water was good in July but after they drilled, it wasn’t,” said Ron Carter.

And if people in trouble is not enough to convince you how bad drilling is, bring on the animal stories:

Tim and Debbie Maye, a truck driver and post office worker who have three teenage children, have been cooking and drinking only bottled water since their well water turned brown in November after Cabot started drilling.

But she can’t afford bottled water for her animals. Her cats have been losing fur and projectile vomiting because they lick drips from the spigot that carries water from their well. Her three horses — one of which is losing its hair — drink as much as 50 gallons a day.

“I tell my husband, ‘I’m going out to poison the horses,'” she said.

I feel for these people and would not want to be in their shoes, that’s for sure. As stated before on this site, Cabot and the PA Department of Environmental Protection still have not figured out how Cabot may have caused the contamination. But let’s be clear: The contamination is natural gas, it is not contamination with chemicals that Cabot uses to fracture the hole. That’s why stories like this one from Reuters are nothing short of journalistic malpractice. Immediately following the story of hair falling off the horses, we get this paragraph:

Chemical Brew

Environmental groups fear energy companies are contaminating water supplies by using a toxic mix of chemicals that are forced deep into the rock along with water and sand to release the natural gas. The process is called hydrofracturing, or “fracking” in industry jargon.

This is not only misleading, but a lie to combine one issue (natural gas contamination of water) with another (chemical contamination of water). The people whose stories are featured are not suffering from chemical poisoning, their water supply has been contaminated with naturally occurring natural gas, likely (but not yet proven) to have crept in due to Cabot’s drilling activities in the area.

Such is the misleading mainstream media. Cast a careful and critical eye on the stories you read and listen to!

Read the full article: U.S. energy future hits snag in rural Pennsylvania

The latest development in the unfolding story of several local water wells contaminated by very deep Devonian natural gas in Dimock, PA, is that the local drilling company, Cabot Oil & Gas, has been served by the PA Department of Environmental Protection with a “Notice of Violation.” What does that mean? According to an article in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin:

While tapping gas from the Marcellus Shale formation, the company has violated the state’s Oil and Gas Act and Clean Stream Laws, the notice states. Both of those regulations protect drinking water supplies from natural gas hazards.

Gas from Cabot drilling operations has migrated into an aquifer providing water for local residents, the DEP has determined. More than a dozen wells proving water to homes along and near Carter Road have been affected. Four have been taken offline and others have been vented.

Not only that, but the Notice also says Cabot has not provided “timely” records of drilling to the DEP. It seems the paper-pushers are in a snit at the DEP. This is not to make light of the serious issue that a dozen homes have been affected, with four of them requiring water to be trucked in. The truth is, neither the DEP nor Cabot still understands how this has happened. Yes, you drill down into the earth for natural gas and it’s no surprise you find it, especially in the Marcellus! However, the kind of natural gas that is “contaminating” the water aquifer in Dimock is from the very very deep Devonian layer, far below where Cabot is drilling. Makes sense that Cabot somehow caused this, but let’s figure how and why, shall we? Before the finger pointing starts in earnest?

As Cabot points out, the DEP’s assessment that Cabot is 100% to blame is premature at this stage. Cabot has been completely above board and transparent throughout the process.

Read the full article: Pa. finds gas-drilling firm in violation (Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

Download the Notice of Violation (112 KB)

Several local water wells near the drilling operations of Cabot Oil in Dimock, Pennsylvania have been contaminated with natural gas. According to the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, somehow (no one yet knows exactly how), Cabot penetrated the very deep Devonian geological formation that released the gas into an aquifer that feeds local drinking wells in a small area near one of Cabot’s drilling sites. Four area homes have been affected to the point they need fresh water trucked in.

Cabot has been completely transparent through the entire process and is paying for the water needed by the four homes. Cabot has worked closely with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to investigate and remediate the problem.

The P&SB article dutifully reports “both sides” of the drilling issue, with an obvious slant against drilling by throwing in a few fear-factor paragraphs. Kudos to Cabot for taking responsibility and for working hard to understand why this happened in the first place, with an eye toward preventing it from happening again.

Read the full P&SB article: Cabot says gas levels in water drop

Four water wells in Dimock Township, PA have been found to have high levels of natural gas, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is advising area home owners to vent their water wells.

Following an explosion Jan. 1 that shattered an 8-foot cement well cover, four wells with unacceptable levels of natural gas have been taken off-line in the township.

In the past few days, letters and fact sheets were sent to about 20 homeowners south of Montrose, Pa., alerting them to the dangers of gas trapped in wells and encouraging them to vent them, said Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Mark Carmon.

Meanwhile, DEP officials are analyzing tests from about 20 homes in the area to determine whether the gas found in the wells is from natural ground conditions or a byproduct of drilling operations by Cabot Oil & Gas. The Houston-based energy company is drilling dozens of wells more than a mile deep to tap the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation.

The question is not so much as whether or not there are high levels of natural gas seeping into some area wells so much as why, and from what source is it coming? Terry Engelder, a Penn State University geoscientist says this:

“The rock formations in and around the area carry a lot of fractures with them,” he said. “There is a slim possibility that if a company like Cabot came along, man-made fractures in the Marcellus could connect up with other fractures in more shallow units.”

A more likely scenario, he said, is gas from natural sources has been moving through shallow soils for some time, and residents are now just beginning to notice.

Press & Sun-Bulletin: Natural gas in water wells has N.Y. officials on alert – Pennsylvania homeowners notified of dangers