The Environmental Realities of Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking): Fact versus Fiction

Transcription

1 The Environmental Realities of Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking): Fact versus Fiction Terry Engelder, Distinguished Lecturer Department of Geosciences The Pennsylvania State University

2 Sofia Distinguished Lecturer Sponsored by Bucharest Budapest Leoben Salzburg Join at aapg.org Heidelberg Geneva Brno

3 Objective: To understand the political, social, economic, environmental, and geological background associated with fracking myths. Warning: It is very, very difficult to discover the truth!

4 Ted Talks: The Fracking Debate (12 minutes) Google: Ted Talks Engelder

5 Marcellus Gas Shale Town of Dimock Many of the fracking myths come from Pennsylvania, home to the Marcellus gas shale and the town of Dimock.

6 Regional Extent of Devonian Marcellus & Ordovician Utica 300 km

7 900 km = Marcellus in subsurface

8 3,689 horizontal wells in production in PA! (June, 2013) Dimock Dry Gas Pennsylvania Marcellus Sweet Spots

9 Fracking Myth The public understands fracking! Christopher Joyce Correspondent: Science Desk National Public Radio (NPR) I have been in science journalism for more than 30 years and I have never seen more scientific disinformation on any topic as fracking. I am amazed at the level of both inadvertent and purposeful disinformation. There is such an agenda on everyone s mind.

10 Fracking Myth All comments about fracking that are posted on Facebook, printed by Twitter, put on line in You Tube, and appear in Hollywood movies are, without doubt, true Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd! Voltaire French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist ( )

11 Fracking is immoral! Fracking Myth Voltaire s certainty as expressed on a New York State bumper sticker Fracking is immoral Ithaca, NY

12 Fracking Kills! Fracking Myth Yoko Ono, wife of John Lennon, in NY Times interview.. Corollary: This is what Voltaire means by certainty and NPR s Joyce means by disinformation! Fox (Gasland) Yoko Ono (visiting Dimock) Lennon (Yoko s son) Sarandon (movie star)

13 Fracking Myth As a group, movie stars are fracking experts Mark Ruffalo Debra Winger Yoko Ono Sean Lennon Susan Sarandon

14 Fracking Myth It is easy to distinguish between: 1. advocacy-based science 2. science-based advocacy! Tony Ingraffea with Yoko Ono and son.

15 Fracking Myth Anyone who speaks in favor of fracking must be highly paid by industry (i.e., a shill)! Evidence for this found on many websites like Fracked. Dr. Strangelove Disclaimer: NO business (i.e., Shell) and no government (i.e., EU) will pay me a single Euro for giving this talk!

16 Fracking Myth Members of AAPG try to manipulate science! Engelder notebook #43, page 119. Frack Free Romania truths that try to manipulate science! Romania and Europe will not be fracked Mr. Dr. Strangelove of fracking!!! - We will not buy your corporate half Frack Free Romania is the science

17 Fracking Myth Flaming faucets are caused by fracking! Josh Fox, producer of the movie Gasland.. Weld County, CO, water well drilled into coal beds! The Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) sent a letter to Mike W. Markham in Weld County, Colo. After extensive sampling and testing, COGCC finds no indications of any oil & gas related impacts to Mr. Markham s well.

18 Methane is commonly dissolved in groundwater methane saturation level Methane (CH 4 ) must have a concentration of 28 mg/l to exsolve from groundwater. mg/l = milligrams per liter

19 Occasionally methane leaks rapidly enough from gas shale along natural pathways that, once ignited, it may burn continuously! Eternal Flame Falls Erie County, NY

20 Dimock & Salt Springs State Park Pennsylvania Prehistoric: Methane bubbling from the water at Salt Springs State Park: concentration of CH 4 > 28 mg/l

21 Dimock Molofsky, et al., 2012, Presentation at GWPC Stray Gas Forum, Cleveland, OH

22 Fracking Myth Methane is poisonous! Corollary: When concentrated methane is explosive! Methane is not a poison 1. Gray water = Sept Arsenic not on DEP list 3. CO not measured by DEP 4. Methane not a poison 5. Methane concentration is measured in ppm (% meaningless) Activist s journal distorts the facts about Dimock water. In December of 2011, the Manning s water came out of the faucet grey. They got their water tested by the DEP and the results came back positive for containing high levels of methane, arsenic, barium, and other dangerous chemicals. There is also carbon monoxide coming out of the faucets. The safe level for methane in drinking water is between 5-10 percent. The Manning s water is at 68 percent methane.

23 The Cabot Study: Methane concentration Largest circles > 10 mg/l Dimock Molofsky, et al., 2012, Groundwater

24 Salt Springs State Park & Rush Township School The Duke Study Jackson et al., 2013, PNAS

25 Fracking Myth The origin of methane around Dimock must be the Marcellus gas shale! Upper Devonian trees

26 Upper Devonian Coal in Fluvial Beds Interpretation: Brent Wilson

27 Upper Devonian Organic Matter

28 Fracking Myth All that is said about Dimock is gospel truth! Protest rally after protest rally indicates this is so. Fiorentino Sautner 1000 feet Baker 1 Bluestone Quarry Bluestone Quarry Gesford 2 Gesford 1

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30 Dimock: Fiorentino s well housing On Jan. 1, 2009, it was presumed that methane in the subsurface housing of Norma Fiorentino s water pump exploded. At that moment, Dimock, PA, became famous. Norma Fiorentino s water-pump housing (January 1, 2009)

31 Dimock: First Media Report The explosion's cause has not been determined. County emergency management coordinator, Charlene Moser, said she suspects that a concentration of something flammable spontaneously combusted when the water well pump in the manhole turned on. Neither the Springville Volunteer Fire Company nor Cabot's gas response crew detected the presence of natural gas when they tested the site on Thursday. Laura Legere Scranton Times Tribune (January 3, 2009)

32 Fiorentino s well: Some Facts No witness to explosion Equipment not disturbed. No evidence of fire in underground housing. No hay burned. Methane mg/l Ethane mg/l 28 mg/l of CH 4 never measured in water. Worker with blowtorch in well housing days before. No scorching of cement. Propane mg/l Water Appearance Depth Pennsylvania DEP (water samples) 1/18/2009 Ely - Bill turbid with effervescence 250 pressure tank complaint 1/18/2009 Hubert clear 250 kitchen sink complaint 2/4/2009 Ely - Nolan n/a n/a visibly cloudy and effervescent 500 kitchen sink complaint 1/12/2009 Sautner turbid complaint 2/3/2009 Fiorentino clear pressure tank 1/26/2009 Switzer clear complaint 1/12/2009 Maye clear kitchen sink complaint 1/5/2009 Fiorentino n/a clear pressure tank complaint 1/27/2009 Ely - Bill clear pressure tank complaint 1/20/2009 Schneider 618 n/a n/a clear 288 pressure tank 1/27/2009 Cohen 385 n/a n/a clear kitchen sink complaint 1/13/2009 Brown 321 n/a n/a clear kitchen sink complaint 1/21/2009 Hein 66 n/a n/a clear kitchen sink complaint 1/26/2009 Kemble 15.9 n/a n/a clear kitchen sink complaint

33 Fracking Myth Brown water near Dimock is caused by fracking Craig & Julia Sautner their drinking water was tested by both PA-DEP and US-EPA. Craig & Julia Sautner s turbid water

34 Soeder, 2012, Presentation at GWPC Stray Gas Forum, Cleveland, OH

35 Water that flows back from Dimock wells enters rivers, streams and drinking water! Industry has corrected an early practice!. Fracking Myth 8H Stimulated: 5,040,726 gallons in 21 stages 118 frac tanks 21,000 gal frac tanks 130 bbl/5460 gal. 923 truck trips per well

36 Fracking Myth Chemicals used in Dimock fracking are a secret! Industry has corrected this problem! (see Corollary #10: Something that was once a fact is now a myth!

37 Dimock fracking contaminates groundwater with toxic chemicals! Shouts of many early activists!. Fracking Myth There is complete confusion among layman about the difference between faulty well construction and groundwater flow along natural pathways!

38 Typical Marcellus horizontal well Domestic Well (801 ) EPA MW02 (981 ) Shallowest Hydraulic Fracturing (1220 ) 8000 feet Pavillion, WY v. Dimock, PA The impact of exhumed gas fields Maximum Vertical Growth: Hydraulic Fracturing (1000 ) Marcellus (7500 )

39 Background for understanding Fig. 4-1: Water within the earth is stratified by buoyancy The Principle of Buoyancy Lesson: Fluids stack by density with less dense fluids rising to the top. Safe Drinking Water v. Shale Gas

40 Ground Water (drinking) Ground Water (drinking but mineralized & tastes bad) Salty Water (unfit for drinking) 1.00 g/ml g/ml 1.02 g/ml Lesson: Stacking of fluids by density is stable as indicated by the persistence of fresh water in wells feet 1.03 g/ml Brine (saturated with salt & unfit for drinking) 1.2 g/ml Frac Fluid (sand, acid, polymers, organic compounds) > 1.3 g/ml

41 Bloomberg News March 16, 2012 EPA Clears Water in Pennsylvania Fracking Town After Complaints Craig Sautner Huffs and Puffs and Flails About with Jug of Water as EPA Gives Up and Leaves (29:50)

42 Harmful Persist Although 750 different chemical compounds have been tried in hydraulic fracturing only about a half dozen exhibit these overlapping characteristics! Transport Joseph Ryan, Ph.D. U of Colorado

43 Fracking Myth Production water with radioactivity is not being treated properly! Barium and radium were substantially (>90%) reduced in the treated effluents compared to concentrations in Marcellus Shale produced waters. Corollary #14: Duke University says it can be handled sensibly!. Warner et al, 2013

44 Compression Desalinization Dehydration By desalinization, no effluent discharge takes place

45 cleaning mud tanks Drilling Mud Cuttings Radioactivity cuttings worker in mud tanks

46 Fracking Myth Fracking makes people sick! One example is a study of fetal health in relation to gas drilling by Elaine L. Hill, graduate student at Cornell Hill s work focused on birth weight and other measures of the condition of babies born to women living close to gas wells in rural Pennsylvania David Ropeik* notes that A fundamental truth of epidemiology is that it RARELY finds, conclusively, that A CAUSES B. Daniel Greenbaum* notes, I generally agree with David Ropeik that (Hill s study) is highly suspect and would be amazed if it gets published in a reputable journal. * Epidemiologist

47 Fracking Myth Taking risks (i.e., shortcuts that harm the environment) with fracking saves money! Extreme accidents like Deepwater Horizon cost orders of magnitude more money than would have been saved with shortcuts. Fracking is a complex process that can never be risk free. NO source of energy (i.e., nuclear, wind, solar, hydroelectric, coal, lignite) comes risk free! When problems (i.e., risks) are discovered, experts work very hard to correct those problems!

48 The Global Context: Environment Fracking Myth climate variability is still too large and complex a subject for current measurements and projections to be able to determine whether reliable links exist between human activity and future global warming! Exxon s 1998 response to Koyoto Accords Athabasca Glacier: Jasper National Park, Canada

49 The Global Context: Environment Fracking Myth Fossil fuels have no role in the earth s future! Greenpeace campaign against fossil fuels. In choosing. to expand our 1997 campaign challenge to halt new oil exploration and development, Greenpeace seeks to draw a line around the current reserve of fossil fuels and campaign against its further expansion: resources which the world can never use if it is serious about climate protection. Statement from Greenpeace, 1998, The oil industry and climate change 2013 Report

50 The Global Context: Politics Fracking Myth Some Europeans fear the propaganda in Josh Fox s movie, Gasland, more than the hand of Vladimir Putin on the valve that supplies natural gas to Central Europe. Reporter: Matous Laznovsky idens.cz Terry Engelder, Malostranski Namesti, Prague May 17, 2012 Corollary #12: Myth and fact can become blurred!