| | Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct | |
| | Author | Message |
---|
KK
Location : New York Super Powers : poastwhore Number of posts : 8316 pennies : 7853 Rep : 354
| Subject: Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:13 pm | |
| Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct By MARC LEVY and VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Writers Marc Levy And Vicki Smith, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 13 mins ago HARRISBURG, Pa. – A drilling technique that is beginning to unlock staggering quantities of natural gas underneath Appalachia also yields a troubling byproduct: powerfully briny wastewater that can kill fish and give tap water a foul taste and odor.
With fortunes, water quality and cheap energy hanging in the balance, exploration companies, scientists and entrepreneurs are scrambling for an economical way to recycle the wastewater.
"Everybody and his brother is trying to come up with the 11 herbs and spices," said Nicholas DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association.
Drilling crews across the country have been flocking since late 2008 to the Marcellus Shale, a rock bed the size of Greece that lies about 6,000 feet beneath New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Geologists say it could become the most productive natural gas field in the U.S., capable of supplying the entire country's needs for up to two decades by some estimates.
Before that can happen, the industry is realizing that it must solve the challenge of what to do with its wastewater. As a result, the Marcellus Shale in on its way to being the nation's first gas field where drilling water is widely reused.
The polluted water comes from a drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in which millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are blasted into each well to fracture tightly compacted shale and release trapped natural gas.
Fracking has been around for decades. But the drilling companies are now using it in conjunction with a new horizontal drilling technique they brought to Appalachia after it was proven in the 1990s to be effective on a shale formation beneath Texas.
Fracking a horizontal well costs more money and uses more water, but it produces more natural gas from shale than a traditional vertical well.
Once the rock is fractured, some of the water — estimates range from 15 to 40 percent — comes back up the well. When it does, it can be five times saltier than seawater and laden with dissolved solids such as sulfates and chlorides, which conventional sewage and drinking water treatment plants aren't equipped to remove.
At first, many drilling companies hauled away the wastewater in tanker trucks to sewage treatment plants that processed the water and discharged it into rivers — the same rivers from which water utilities then drew drinking water. the good news is while our government let's little safety issues like this slide, you can rest assured they will be certain you buckle up.
But in October 2008, something happened that stunned environmental regulators: The levels of dissolved solids spiked above government standards in southwestern Pennsylvania's Monongahela River, a source of drinking water for more than 700,000 people.
Regulators said the brine posed no serious threat to human health. But the area's tap water carried an unpleasant gritty or earthy taste and smell and left a white film on dishes. And industrial users noticed corrosive deposits on valuable machinery.
One 11-year-old suburban Pittsburgh boy with an allergy to sulfates, Jay Miller, developed hives that itched for two weeks until his mother learned about the Monongahela's pollution and switched him to bottled or filtered water.
No harm to aquatic life was reported, though high levels of salts and other minerals can kill fish and other creatures, regulators say.
Pennsylvania officials immediately ordered five sewage treatment plants on the Monongahela or its tributaries to sharply limit the amount of frack water they accepted to 1 percent of their daily flow.
"It is a very great risk that what happened on the Monongahela could happen in many watersheds," said Ronald Furlan, a wastewater treatment official for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. "And so that's why we're trying to pre-empt and get ahead of it to ensure it doesn't happen again."
Regulators in Pennsylvania are trying to push through a new standard for the level of dissolved solids in water released from a treatment plant.
West Virginia authorities, meanwhile, have asked sewage treatment plants not to accept frack water while the state develops an approach to regulating dissolved solids.
And in New York, fracking is largely on hold while companies await a new set of state permitting guidelines.
For now, the Marcellus Shale exploration is in its infancy. Terry Engelder, a geoscientist at Penn State University, estimates the reserve could yield as much as 489 trillion cubic feet of gas. To date, the industry's production from Pennsylvania, where drilling is most active, is approaching 100 billion cubic feet.
Wastewater from drilling has not threatened plans to develop the nation's other gas reserves. Brine is injected into deep underground wells in places such as Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, or left in evaporation ponds in arid states such as Colorado and Wyoming.
However, many doubt the hard Appalachian geology is porous enough to absorb all the wastewater, and the climate is too humid for evaporating ponds. That leaves recycling as the most obvious option.
Entrepreneurs are marketing portable systems that distill frack water at the well site.
Also, in southwestern Pennsylvania, Range Resources Corp., one of the gas field's most active operators, pipes wastewater into a central holding pond, dilutes it with fresh water and reuses it for fracking. Range says the practice saves about $200,000 per well, or about 5 percent.
In addition, a $15 million treatment plant that distills frack water is opening in Fairmont, W.Va. The 200,000 gallons it can treat each day can then be trucked back for use at a new drilling site.
For years, regulators let sewage treatment plants take mining and drilling wastewater under the assumption that rivers would safely dilute. But fracking a horizontal well requires huge amounts of water — up to 5 million gallons per well, compared with 50,000 gallons in some conventional wells.
"In this case," said John Keeling of MSES Consultants, which designed the Fairmont plant, "dilution is not the solution to pollution." | |
| | | c/thru
Blurts : What is this decade called ? Location : almost Mile High Hobbies : Freedom Tracker Humor : floating under a delicate layer of apathy Super Powers : can turn water into ice Number of posts : 3049 pennies : 3303 Rep : 123
| Subject: Re: Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct Wed Feb 03, 2010 12:07 pm | |
| it is so sickening that this hate against the people is still going on right in the open
I think some companies know that they can do it, says "oppppsss", and pay a seeminly huge fine, but much less than it would cost to do the project safely in the first place
and in no time at all, most people forget as the news gets buried behind the latest celebrity gossip | |
| | | KK
Location : New York Super Powers : poastwhore Number of posts : 8316 pennies : 7853 Rep : 354
| Subject: Re: Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct Wed Feb 03, 2010 1:23 pm | |
| - c/thru wrote:
- it is so sickening that this hate against the people is still going on right in the open
I think some companies know that they can do it, says "oppppsss", and pay a seeminly huge fine, but much less than it would cost to do the project safely in the first place
and in no time at all, most people forget as the news gets buried behind the latest celebrity gossip it is a total crime and it does effect people lives and health. that's why i threw in the part about seatbelts. they claim it's for our health when all it is is an opportunity to get more money through fines. where are they when companies are dumping? How is it even allowed in the first place and why aren't they held accountable for the clean up. get a hole in your home heating oil tank and you can bet your ass you will have to pay for the cleanup | |
| | | Sponsored content
| Subject: Re: Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct | |
| |
| | | | Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct | |
|
Similar topics | |
|
| Permissions in this forum: | You cannot reply to topics in this forum
| |
| |
| Latest topics | » the last person the person here wins by Admin Sun Jun 26, 2011 10:38 pm
» Interesting stuff by KK Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:54 pm
» Random Stuff... by Jats Sat Jun 25, 2011 5:58 pm
» anyone still here ? by KK Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:01 pm
» Happy Birthday C/Thru!! by Lady Snipe Dragon Fri Jun 03, 2011 12:51 pm
» vintage movie gifs by Jats Thu May 26, 2011 8:46 pm
» Oprah Memorial service by Joebert Wed May 25, 2011 5:54 pm
» Bristol Palin earns $262K for teen pregnancy work by Joebert Wed May 25, 2011 1:31 am
» whatever you feel like by Joebert Tue May 24, 2011 10:21 pm
» Trumped by Joebert Tue May 24, 2011 10:08 pm
» pick a royal wedding hat by Joebert Tue May 24, 2011 10:01 pm
» so which one of you wants to throw down? by KK Thu May 19, 2011 7:37 pm
» the photo of the year's wiki page by alivegenieII Wed May 18, 2011 6:13 pm
» Congratulations on popping C9's flaming & smite war cherry by Lady Snipe Dragon Tue May 17, 2011 11:29 pm
» President 0bama’s approval rating hits a new low by KK Sun May 15, 2011 5:32 pm
» New Books on Ward by alivejeanie Sat May 14, 2011 3:25 pm
» New Holidays ? by Lady Snipe Dragon Mon May 09, 2011 8:50 pm
» Fleamailman, care to explain this ? by c/thru Sun May 08, 2011 10:25 pm
» Happy Mothers Day.. by c/thru Sun May 08, 2011 8:12 pm
» SuperBowl countdown by Guest Sat May 07, 2011 10:14 pm
» International Womens Day 2011 by Guest Sat May 07, 2011 10:06 pm
» wuzz up suckas by KK Sat May 07, 2011 9:40 pm
» INTELLIGENCE REFORM AND TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT of 2004 by KK Sat May 07, 2011 8:39 pm
» Victron Energy and their Portfolios by KK Tue May 03, 2011 7:47 pm
» I voted today by KK Tue May 03, 2011 7:45 pm
» Flax Milk & your omegas by KK Tue May 03, 2011 7:43 pm
» Happy Easter 2011 by Lady Snipe Dragon Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:37 am
» Spanish scientists search for fuel of the future by KK Fri Apr 22, 2011 7:31 pm
» Amen !!! VIP LINKS by KK Fri Apr 22, 2011 7:28 pm
» Youtube changed their type of linking codes.. by c/thru Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:07 pm
» YOU balance the Federal Budget by c/thru Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:05 pm
» Interesting Images.. by c/thru Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:00 pm
» Avacs by KK Tue Apr 12, 2011 10:13 am
» Oil near $112 as attacks damage Libyan oil fields by KK Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:52 am
» Stamp gaffe tears Kate and William apart It may come as a shock, but Kate Middleton and Prince William have 'split' less than one month before they are due to tie the knot. by KK Tue Apr 05, 2011 9:45 pm
|
|