Wastewater

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    Opinion: How the AP and Other Media Outlets “Wag the Dog” Against Drilling in the Marcellus Shale

    Google News Search "Louis Matoushek" MDN notes with some amusement how news is manufactured—and is thankful blogs are around to help set the story straight. Case in point: A few days ago the Associated Press ran a single story about the “raging debate” over gas drilling in Northeast Pennsylvania. While the drilling debate is certainly ongoing, and there are plenty of people on both sides of the debate, the AP story would have us believe the forces of good (people against drilling) are rising up in overwhelming numbers to oppose the forces of evil (the nasty energy companies who want to rape and pillage the unspoiled landscape, along with the greedy landowners who enable them).

    That single AP anti-drilling story was picked up by no less than 250 media outlets, including large city newspapers, television stations and everything down to small town newspapers—all in the course of two days. One would have to be blind to miss the coverage and not think, “Maybe there are a lot of people opposed to drilling after all!” And all from a single story run again and again and again.

    The AP story starts this way:

    A few hundred yards from Louis Matoushek’s Wayne County farmhouse is a well that could soon produce not only natural gas, but a drilling boom in the wild and scenic Delaware River watershed.

    Energy companies have leased thousands of acres of land in Pennsylvania’s unspoiled northeastern tip, hoping to tap vast stores of gas in a sprawling rock formation—the Marcellus shale—that some experts believe could become the nation’s most productive gas field.*

    But wait, it’s not enough that the villainous drilling companies want to spoil the unspoiled land in PA. While that argument will sway some readers, let’s throw in the thing that works every time, the one thing that will magically turn everyone against drilling: Water.

    Standing in the way is a loose coalition of sporting groups, conservationists and anti-drilling neighbors. They contend that large-scale gas exploration so close to crucial waterways will threaten drinking water, ruin a renowned wild trout fishery, wreck property values, and transform a rural area popular with tourists into an industrial zone with constant noise and truck traffic.

    Both sides are furiously lobbying the Delaware River Basin Commission, the powerful federal-interstate compact agency that monitors water supplies for 15 million people, including half the population of New York City. The commission has jurisdiction because the drilling process will require withdrawing huge amounts of water from the watershed’s streams and rivers and because of the potential for groundwater pollution.*

    PA learns fast. They look over the border at New York where City politicians bleat about the New York City watershed as if drillers are about to poison the water supply of the entire City, and say, “Hey, if it works for them, maybe it will work for us.” And so, the shrill voices in PA have found their argument: Drilling pollutes water. Run the story (i.e. lie) enough times and after a while people will believe it.

    Don’t fall for the lie. And landowners: Make your voices heard!

    *Pittsburgh Tribute-Review/AP (Apr 19) – Gas-drilling foes fear for local water supplies

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    PA Secretary of Environmental Protection Says Marcellus Wastewater Discharge is Affecting Waterways

    The Pennsylvania Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Hanger, released a press statement yesterday expressing concerns over Marcellus drilling wastewater being released into PA waterways.

    From the DEP website:

    HARRISBURG — High levels of total dissolved solids pollution from natural gas drilling and other sources pose a real threat to Pennsylvania’s streams and rivers, including aquatic life, warned Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger today.

    “The treating and disposing of gas drilling brine and fracturing wastewater is a significant challenge for the natural gas industry because of its exceptionally high TDS concentrations,” said Hanger. “Marcellus drilling is growing rapidly and our rules must be strengthened now to prevent our waterways from being seriously harmed in the future.”

    Hanger pointed to recent examples where TDS impaired streams and affected major sources of drinking water.

    In 2008 and 2009, TDS levels exceeded drinking water standards along the Monongahela River, which is a major source of drinking water. Drinking water treatment plants do not have the equipment available to remove TDS, so any water polluted with TDS goes into Pennsylvania’s homes and businesses.

    Similarly, in early September 2009, excessive TDS levels led to an environmental disaster that wiped out 26 miles of Dunkard Creek in Greene County, as well as many miles of the creek in West Virginia. These high TDS concentrations, coupled with other factors such as temperature and nutrient concentrations, enabled golden algae to bloom and created an inhospitable environment for aquatic life. The algae released toxins to the water column that literally wiped out aquatic life, including at least 16 species of freshwater mussels and 18 species of fish.

    Dunkard Creek is an example of what can happen if TDS is not controlled, said Hanger, and the loss of this important public resource was an environmental and economic tragedy.

    TDS is a measure of all elements dissolved in water that can include carbonates, chlorides, sulfates, nitrates, sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. In addition to natural gas drilling, other sources of TDS include, abandoned mine drainage, agricultural runoff, and discharges from industrial or sewage treatment plants.*

    *DEP Press Release (Apr 6) – PA Must Take Action to Protect Water Resources from Drilling Wastewater, Other Sources of TDS Pollution

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    Watertown, NY Votes to Accept Shale Wastewater in City’s Water Treatment Plant

    The City of Watertown, NY has voted to continue accepting wastewater (flowback) from hydraulic fracturing—but it’s not wastewater from the Marcellus Shale. This wastewater comes from a driller in Central New York—Gastem—who is drilling Utica Shale gas wells using hydraulic fracturing. Utica Shale is much deeper than Marcellus Shale and uses much less water to frack the well because it is vertical and not horizontal as it would be with a Marcellus well.

    The city’s water treatment plant accepted 35,000 gallons of wastewater from Gastem last summer and discharged the treated water into the Black River. Gastem wants the city to treat an additional 80,000 gallons this summer.*

    The volume of wastewater being treated in Watertown is miniscule compared to what is generated from a Marcellus well. But it is interesting that the city council has decided there is no hazard for the citizens of Watertown from treated frack fluids.

    *CNYcentral.com (Apr 7) – Watertown to dispose of gas well fracking fluid

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    Cornell Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Headlines First Meeting of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) in Vestal, NY

    Ingraffea_Anthony Nearly one week ago, on March 31, MDN attended the kickoff meeting of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) at the Vestal Public Library in Broome County, NY. No, MDN is not anti-drilling! We attend to listen and learn. The drilling debate is increasingly political in tone. Those of us who support drilling need to listen to those in our communities who oppose it—as a courtesy, to be sure we have not missed important information that informs our own opinions, and so we understand our opponents’ arguments in this debate—to be able to intelligently respond to their (often inaccurate and overhyped) accusations.

    The meeting room at the Vestal Public Library was filled to capacity for the meeting with about 120 people attending. Local news media was there, as well as cameras from (presumably) NYRAD themselves. MDN observation: As was the case when DISH, TX Mayor Calvin Tillman recently visited, there were a number of balding men with gray-haired ponytails in the audience. MDN continues to posit the theory that many 60s hippies have found a new cause célèbre that now energizes them—gas drilling.

    The meeting was opened by a NYRAD official who introduced the evening’s main speaker, Professor Anthony Ingraffea. Dr. Ingraffea is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University. His Ph.D. is in rock fracturing mechanics. He has done twenty years of research on hydraulic fracturing for companies like Schlumberger, Exxon and the Gas Research Institute. If anyone knows how rock fracturing works, it is Dr. Ingraffea. I eagerly anticipated what he would say about hydraulic fracturing and whether or not the process contaminates water supplies, a commonly leveled charge by drilling opponents.

    Dr. Ingraffea is an accomplished speaker. He is equal parts comedian and expert, and he knows how to “work a crowd.” I can easily imagine that he’s a favorite professor at Cornell, one whose classes fill quickly. In his opening remarks he admitted he feels passionately about the issue of drilling in New York State, and that he is opposed to it. He opened his talk with a technique often employed by those who are anti-drilling. He mentioned he loves fishing for trout in New York’s streams and he asked the audience a question: “Would you like to keep fishing in New York State?” The implication is that if drilling begins, trout fishing is finished. It’s a non sequitur—a statement that does not follow from the premise. In the course of his presentation he never once connected any dots that drilling activity would lead to poisoning of streams and the end of trout fishing. This was a tip-off that the evening might disappointingly hold more emotional statements rather than factual statements. Unfortunately, that’s exactly how it turned out.

    Read More “Cornell Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Headlines First Meeting of New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD) in Vestal, NY”

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    Will Soil be the New “Water” in the Fight to Stop Marcellus Gas Drilling in NY State?

    MDN finds it necessary to periodically post disclaimers such as the following: We think drilling can be done safely, but we must remain vigilant. The more we know about drilling, the more we are convinced it is a good thing for the economy and the nation’s energy future. We are not anti-science, we’re not blind, we do care about our neighbors and we welcome opposing opinions. No one wants water supplies to be poisoned, and no one wants enjoyment of the great outdoors to be spoiled by drilling activity. And it doesn’t have to be that way if drilling is done right.

    With that said, the other side of the drilling debate seems to stop at nothing to instill irrational fears into the general population under the guise of science. Put the name of a prominent educational institution next to a committee or group, invoke the name of someone with a Ph.D., and viola, instant credibility. And if you dare say, “but the Emperor has no clothes” out loud, you’re shouted down as an industry shill or accused of being greedy at others’ expense. Such loving and caring people those who disagree with us.

    Since “your water will be poisoned” doesn’t seem to be getting sufficient traction these days as a scare tactic, we now find out that soil is “sensitive” (bet you didn’t know that!) to drilling activity:

    Researchers have developed the Cornell Soil Health Test to evaluate soil response to management on different types of land. It’s intended to assess changes due to gas drilling work.

    The construction necessary to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in southern New York could affect the soil around drilling sites and pipeline right-of-ways, says a Cornell soil expert who has helped develop a new soil health test to assess such impacts.

    “Soil is sensitive to heavy construction, and while there are a lot of construction standards and practices, there isn’t really a standardized way to measure construction impacts on soil behavior,” said Robert Schindelbeck, a Cornell extension associate in crop and soil sciences and member of the Cornell Soil Health Team.

    To fill in that information gap, Schindelbeck and his team have developed the Cornell Soil Health Test (CSHT), a set of tests designed to evaluate soil response to management on different types of land.*

    *PhysOrg.com (Apr 1) – New test assesses gas drilling effects on soils

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    Three Upstate Landowners on New York City Public Radio Discuss Drilling in the Marcellus

    An interesting radio segment from WNYC Public Radio. Leonard Lopate conducted an interview with three Upstate landowners. From the program description:

    We’ll look into the controversy over drilling for natural gas in Marcellus shale in Upstate New York, and discuss the challenges landowners face when deciding whether to lease their land to gas companies, the role of landowners coalitions, and how public officials are managing the drilling already occurring in their towns. We’ll speak with Mark Dunau, organic farmer from Delaware County; Jim Bays, Supervisor of the Town of Smyrna, in Chenango County; and Abby Tamber, steering committee member of the Central New York Landowners Coalition.*

    While Mr. Dunau is clearly anti-drilling and Mr. Bays is somewhat anti-drilling, Ms. Tamber does a good job of representing local landowner groups and the concerns of landowners. The questions by the host are pretty good, and as far as public radio goes, this is about as fair and balanced as it gets. Overall, a B+ from MDN. Worth listening to as it does discuss some very important issues for landowners. Embedded player below—give it a listen! The segment is 34 minutes in length.

    *WNYC (Mar 23) – The Lenoard Lopate Show

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    Marcellus Driller Funds Water Monitoring Program in Susquehanna River Basin

    As Marcellus Drilling News previously noted, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission is in the process of placing 30 monitoring devices to track the effects of Marcellus drilling wastewater that enters area waterways. We now learn the program is being funded by the drilling industry itself:

    The commission used a $750,000 grant from natural gas company East Resources Inc. to start the monitoring system. The monitoring stations provide data on factors such as temperature, pH level, depth and clarity. That information is available immediately on the commission’s Web site, and the state Department of Environmental Protection is notified if any problems are found.*

    Kudos to East Resources for contributing a significant sum of money to help alleviate concerns that drilling is harming our waterways.

    *State College Centre Daily Times, via WaterWorld (Mar 19) – System monitors water quality

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    New Marcellus Wastewater Treatment Plant Set to Open in Westmoreland County, PA

    The Pennsylvania State Department of Environmental Protection has issued a permit for a new Marcellus drilling wastewater treatment facility to begin operations in April in western PA.

    Stephen Frobouck, a partner in Reserve Environmental Services Inc., said the treatment facility at the former American Video Glass plant in East Huntingdon, Westmoreland County, is ready for operations to begin in April.

    "We will have the capacity to handle (water from) 500 to 600 wells a year," Frobouck said Friday, declining to say how much the firm paid to prepare the plant for its new use.*

    *Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Mar 13) – Plant near New Stanton to treat gas wastewater

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    AOP Clearwater Plant in WV a Big Success in Treating Marcellus Shale Wastewater

    AOP Clearwater Plant, Fairmont, WV A lesson for Owego and Tioga County, NY from Marion County, West Virginia where a new wastewater treatment plant is a big success. The AOP Clearwater Plant is located just outside of Fairmont.

    According to AOP Clearwater President Louis Bonasso, they have had no problems getting customers from oil and gas drilling companies in the Marcellus Shale. In fact, the trucks are “lining up” at the facility.

    “We are a distillation-crystallization process, available to the oil and gas producing community in the area for clean-up of flow back and production brine waters,” said Bonasso.

    Which means, the contaminated water is brought in on trucks, put through an extensive cleaning process, and pumped back out–as clean water for the oil and gas companies to reuse.

    “We offer a very rapid unload-reload opportunity for trucking companies. Instead of sitting in line, we unload in about 11 minutes and we can reload in about the same time,” said Bonasso.*

    Beside creating 16 jobs and bringing revenue to the county, there is this positive side benefit:

    Through the cleaning process, salt is removed from the contaminated water and is able to be re-used to treat winter roads.

    “All the salt that we produced since the plant started operations in November was sold in Marion County to independent contractors and the city,” explained Bonasso.*

    *The State Journal (Mar 9) – AOP Clearwater Plant Open in Marion County

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    Patriot Water Decides Not to Build Marcellus Wastewater Treatment Plant in Owego, NY

    Last week, Patriot Water LLC withdrew their application to convert a former car dealership on the edge of the Village of Owego, NY (in Tioga County) into a wastewater treatment plant to deal specifically with wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania, and from New York, when drilling finally begins there.

    Each well drilled in the Marcellus will use approximately 3 million gallons of water during the process of hydro fracturing. Much of that water comes back out of the ground and needs to be treated so it can be re-used in drilling. Some of it will be treated and returned to area waterways, which is no different than the local sewage treatment plant. The fluids entering the environment from any wastewater plant must pass rigid tests to ensure no pollution occurs.

    So the news that Patriot Water was planning to build and operate such a plant was good news for the Southern Tier of New York, bringing jobs and tax revenue to Tioga County. But one problem: The proposed site was very close to residential areas. Yes, it is zoned industrial, but it would mean four trucks an hour, 24 hours a day running down residential streets, and local folks didn’t want it. Can’t blame them.

    But! Could Tioga County not have come back with a counter offer? Another location nearby that is not close to residential areas? Was there any kind of effort made at all? It appears not. And so, on March 3, Patriot Water said “no thanks” to Owego and Tioga County.

    MDN recommends Patriot have a look at nearby Broome County, NY. There’s a couple of industrial parks close to Interstates 81 & 86 (NY Route 17) in the Conklin and Kirkwood areas, and those locations have truck traffic all the time. Perhaps the members of the town planning boards in Broome County will actually show up for meetings (unlike the Tioga County Planning Board, five members of whom abrogated their duties by not showing up for a crucial meeting on the Patriot request). Come on over to Broome, Patriot!

    Owego Pennysaver (Mar 3) – Patriot Water, LLC withdraws application for Taylor Road site

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    Skaneateles High School Airs Both Sides of the Marcellus Drilling Debate

    Kudos to the Skaneateles High School Environmental Club for the public meeting they held on hydraulic fracturing on January 23rd at the High School auditorium. Yes, the members of the club are no doubt anti-drilling and they had several speakers who presented the anti-drilling viewpoint. And yes, they showed the biased anti-drilling “documentary” Split Estate.

    But to their credit, the Environmental Club also balanced it with someone who presented the pro-drilling side of the argument. That person was David Palmerton, a geologist and environmental consultant, and someone who’s actually developed oil and gas wells.

    With regard to the likelihood that chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing will pollute water aquifers, Mr. Palmerton said:

    “I can tell you as a geologist that putting water in 7,000 feet down, which is some 6,500 feet below any possible water supply, is not going to reach that water supply,” Palmerton said. “It’s trapped by the pressure of the rock.”

    A question was also raised about what is done with the “frack fluid” once it is reclaimed.

    Palmerton agreed with [Onondaga Nation General Counsel Joseph] Heath’s earlier point that there were not enough facilities to treat the wastewater.

    “But, once it’s clear that oil and gas development can proceed, companies will come in, will develop those facilities,” he said. “There’s a lot of money that’s out there that’s ready to be invested in those facilities.”*

    Some common sense words. Let’s hope the young members of the Environmental Club were listening. Hats off to them for airing both sides.

    *Skaneateles Press (Mar 8th) – Fracking finds supporters, opponents at SHS

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    New Wastewater Treatment Plant Approved in Central PA

    Narrowsburg, NY – The River Reporter (Feb 25)
    ‘Unauthorized’ wastewater hearing brings flowback feedback

    The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has granted its first permit to a wastewater treatment facility since new, stricter guidelines were recently implemented. From The River Reporter article:

    The DEP has issued its first new permit for treating drilling wastewater to TerrAqua Resource Management LLC of Williamsport, allowing the company to treat and discharge 400,000 gallons per day of gas well drilling wastewater into the West Branch Susquehanna River Watershed.

    According to the DEP, the permit requires TerrAqua to meet the proposed new regulatory standards of 500 parts per million for total dissolved solids (TDS) and 250 parts per million for chlorides and sulfates. TerrAqua has indicated that it will pursue a thermal treatment process capable of reducing TDS levels to less than 500 parts per million at all times.

    The discharge permit also requires TerrAqua to monitor for radioactivity, a large number of metals, including barium, strontium, iron, manganese and aluminum, as well as organics such as toluene, benzene, phenols, ethylene glycol and surfactants.

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    New President of Marcellus Shale Coalition Says Drilling Will Bring 110,000 Jobs to PA in 2010

    Katie Klaber, the new President of the Marcellus Shale Coalition recently appeared on the Clean Skies News network to discuss the environmental issues of natural gas drilling. It’s an informative and short piece (under 10 minutes), and worth watching (embedded below).

    Among the things discussed that MDN found interesting:

    • Ms. Klaber says Marcellus Drilling will bring 110,000 jobs to Pennsylvania in 2010.
    • Some drillers recycle and reuse 100% of fracking water, but the industry average right now is recycling and reusing 60%.
    • Because of the high rate of recycling, a shortage of wastewater treatment facilities is not critical at the moment, but more facilities will be needed in the next few years.
    • Drilling companies already have an MSDS (Materials Safety Data Sheet) at the drilling site for each and every chemical used in the fracking process. That is right now, today. So the hue and cry that drillers are “hiding” the chemicals used in fracking is not true.
    • Ms. Klaber predicts that Pennsylvania will be a net exporter of natural gas by 2014.

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    Engineer Explains Why Hydraulic Fracturing in the Marcellus Shale is Safe

    The Energy Collective (Feb 23)
    Shale Gas and Drinking Water

    In an article posted on The Energy Collective website, Geoff Styles, who has a degree in chemical engineering (U.C. Davis) and worked for Texaco for 22 years, in addition to working for NASA, explores just what hydraulic fracturing is, how it’s done, and why it’s safe, particularly in the Marcellus Shale deposit. It is an extremely well written and enlightening article—please read it!

    Here is a brief extract:

    [F]or the purposes of this discussion let’s take a quick look at one of the shale regions at the heart of this controversy, the Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian region of New York, Pennsylvania and the Virginias. In the course of my research I ran across a handy document on groundwater from Penn State. Aside from surface water (lakes, rivers and streams), it identifies the various aquifers in Pennsylvania by type in Figure 4. The key fact from the perspective of fracking safety is that the deepest of these aquifers lies no more than about 500 ft. below the surface, and typically less than a couple of hundred feet down. By contrast, the Marcellus Shale is found thousands of feet down–in many areas more than a mile below-ground–with a thickness of 250 feet or less. In addition, the gas-bearing layers are sealed in by impermeable rock, or the gas would eventually have migrated somewhere else. In other words, the shale gas reservoirs are isolated by geology and depth from the shallower layers where our underground drinking water is found.

    He covers many other issues, including the relatively SMALL amount of water used to frack a well with horizontal drilling—compared with water used in a “traditional” oil or gas well. And how the aquifer is protected when the drilling begins, before any water and chemicals are pumped into the well.

    Bottom line?

    Thus, whether intentionally or as a result of a basic misunderstanding of how this technology works, we are being presented with a false dichotomy concerning shale gas and fracking. The real choice here isn’t between energy and drinking water, as critics imply, but between tapping an abundant source of lower-emission domestic energy and what looked like a perpetually-increasing reliance on imported natural gas just a few years ago.

    Well said Mr. Styles. Well said.

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    Swamp Angel Energy Guilty of Illegally Dumping 200K Gallons of Brine in PA

    Mother Nature Network (Feb 22)
    Gas drillers plead guilty to felony dumping violations

    Two people from Swamp Angel Energy pled guilty last week to dumping 200,000 gallons of brine in an abandoned oil well in McKean County, Pennsylvania.

    According to the article:

    [P]art-owner Michael Evans, 66, of La Quinta, Calif., and John Morgan, 54, of Sheffield, Penn., admitted dumping 200,000 gallons of brine – salty wastewater that’s created in the drilling process – down an abandoned oil well. The maximum penalty for both Evans and Morgan is three years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both. Sentencing will be June 24.

    Swamp Angel Energy was (and is currently) drilling in the Allegheny National Forest, located in McKean County. Also according to the article:

    Swamp Angel has 77 active, permitted wells in Pennsylvania, all of them in McKean County.

    Fellow drillers and those in the drilling industry have swiftly and rightly condemned the illegal dumping. The article is anti-drilling with a smug “See, I told you so,” kind of tone, which is to be expected coming from MNN. However, the illegal actions of a few should not be used to paint all drilling companies with the same broad brush.

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    New Marcellus Wastewater Treatment Plant Coming to Elk County, PA

    DuBois Courier-Express/Tri-County (Feb 20)
    Marcellus shale drilling water may be treated at local acid mine treatment site

    Drillers in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania will soon have a new plant to treat wastewater, called flowback, from drilling activities. The new plant will be located in Brandy Camp (Elk County), PA. From the article:

    The project will be located at the existing Blue Valley acid mine drainage treatment and fish culture station in Brandy Camp, which is operated by the Toby Creek Watershed Association, according to a Friday news release.

    The project, to be known as the Blue Valley Hydrofrac Plant, will be owned and operated by Flowback Wastewater Development Group, which has Frank Nickens as director of operations.

    As for capacity of the plant:

    The first phase will provide for treatment of up to 300,000 gallons per day of hydrofracture flowback and production brine wastewaters. The output will be 1.2 million gallons per day of recycled hydrofracture makeup water or 720,000 gallons per day of treated acid mine drainage water.

    The second phase will add an additional 1.15 million gallons per day of treated acid mine drainage.