Hydraulics Blog

It sounds like the EPA is on another one of its fishing expeditions to decide what new levels of controls it can impose. The EPA's methodology seems to be: find what levels of 'X' are currently the industry standard, then impose a regulation of 1% of 'X', regardless of any scientific data regarding what an exposure level of X does.

OK, go ahead -- call me Mister Cynic.

I distrust Haliburton, and it pains me to say this, but this time I say good for Haliburton. At least until there is more evidence of what the implications are.

And yes, I know that there are some places where fracking is implicated in destroying fresh water drinking supplies. The problem needs to be studied scientifically. Not just have some regulation by fiat from some unknown, unnamed, uninformed bureaucrat in Washington.

Well maybe when their are documentary movies out there showing flames shooting out of people residential drinking water systems, the EPA has to look into it before they all get fired. Added on top of that then you have episodes of national TV shows written to exagerate the documentaries ino their own storylines. Too much adverse public attention for Haliburton to go on business as usual. It is probably better that the EPA research it and set scientific based requiremnts to recommend to congress, before some congressman starts a political crusade/cause to reach voters emotional base and they do soemthing extreme like outlaw hydraulic fracturing altogether (or maybe impose blanket restriction on drilling to a degree that it becomes too costly for any application). I mean if the EPA doesn't do it, soon instead of scientists at the EPA you will have congressional aids who really have no scientific background or knowledge doing the research.

"the United States Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A) asked nine major drilling companies to provide information"

I think that the USEPA has actually asked Formation Fracturing Services companies, not drilling companies.. although some are involved in all aspects... companies like BJ Services tend to specialize in fracking.

... not to put too fine a point on it.

Suddenly we are concerned about fracking. Don't know for sure how long it has been going on, but when I first became a psuedo-petroleum engineer in 1978, (and was for 11 miserable years) every well I went on as a cased hole specialist was fracked then. So, somewhere over 32 years this has been going on, and now it may be a problem?

Got to correct a BIG error - this is not shale specific. Most of the wells I saw through completion were gas sands, not shale.

Second apparent mis-conception is that these fluids will come up through the rock formations above the gas bearing zone into the aquifers. If that could happen , the gas would already have been there millions of years ago. The only way for the fracking fluid to get to an aquifer, is if the casing cement job is faulty. Every well I was ever on had a cement bond log run on it before fracking was allowed. If the bond log showed failure, the pipe was perforated and more cement pumped in.

You're right. Every precaution is always taken in cases where a failure of even one component could cause a catastrophic disaster that could horribly impact the environment as well as the lives hundreds...thousands...millions...hundreds of millions of people. What could go wrong, really? How about if we supplied you with drinking water for the rest of your life drawn from certain wells in central Pa.?

That is basically where I live and my drinking water does come from an aquifer smack in the middle of an oil field that is on it's fourth go round. This has been drilled in the late 1800's, the 1930's, the 1970's, and now again. And, we now have two very nice Marcellus shale wells within a mile or so of the water wellhead that supplies the village I live in.

The stuff they did in the 1800's and 1930's make a possible leak back of some fracking fluid pale in comparision. Want to come fall in one of our old slush pits where the water that was seperated from the oil was stored untiil it could seep back into the ground. They are still out back of my house on every old lease. Had to fish my dog out of one of these three times- dish detergent does a fair job of removing 50 year old oil from fur. Fracking is nothing compared to what could be done to aquifers, and has been done in the past. We have survived far worse with no real problems.

I have personally seen fracking done at least 500 times with no complications what so ever. Around this general area (western PA and NY) it has been done in the thousands of times, with no leakage into any aquifers.

This is a tested practice with a good record of safety.

I do not claim to have great knowledge of the process, only what I have seen on TV, particularly the PCN channel (Pennsylvania Cable Network, partially funded by the State and accessible only in Pa.), which I don't feel is greatly biased, and other documentaries. My understanding is that these very deep wells can release gasses which migrate, via the much folded underground strata of the Appalachian Mountains, and meet up, without having to seep through dense cap layers, with ground water concentrations many, many miles away from the drilling local. That is what makes it difficult to pinpoint the source of the gas and be able to PROOVE it in court. Since this trend has been increasing within the time frame of the ramping up of letting drilling leases, a connection can at least be considered until a smoking gun, like detection of a tracer introduced into the well, is found. The State NEEDS money and stepping on local ordnances and property rights in order to sell leases seems to be their game. Take a guess how the Attorney General of the State feels about all that. Rather than take preemptive action to safeguard the citizens of the State, they choose, and I guess under threat of law suit by the energy corporations, to wait until the smoking gun appears, if ever. Do you think the State would be dragging their feet in allowing investigations to proceed without interference? I'm jes sayin'.

Took another look at the maps of the location of the formation - the areas under consideration are definitely not in the gross folded areas. (I am originally from just outside Harrisburg, and we have gross folding there - formations I know are from well before the Devonian era are exposed on the surface - there are ones I never got to "log" through on a well - if you ever get a chance, go to Mifflin and look at the railroad cut just south of route 35 over pass - it's amazing)

A majority of the areas on the maps are west of the Susquehana where the folding is very minimal compared to the Dauphin/Juniata/Mifflin county areas.

If a well is drilled horizontally at 5000 to 10000 feet down, then fracked, where do you think the released gas is going to go? To the point of least resistance = the perforated well casing. Why would it try to go through miles of very tightly packed shale that it has not permeated through in millions of years?

We have stored gas under gross pressures (4500 psi in Tioga and Potter counties) in old porous formations in the northern tier counties for decades. Now, some of that has gotten loose from an earthquake that happened around 1979. I got to see the effects first hand on about 20 wells in Potter county. Water was shooting from a spring in the area. That was easy enough to bring under control with some new casing. Hey, there is a risk in hydro energy, nuclear energy, etc. Want to start cutting down trees again to heat your house?

Note: I spent 2 years in WVa in the late 1970's working on nothing but Marcellus shale wells (called it the Devonian or Black shale then) - we didn't know how to horizontal drill then, so the wells were very slow producers, but very dependable. Yes, they were all fracked across about 500 feet of the formation, but from a vertical bore. No water contamination from any of those wells. We threw in the Oriskany sand as well to get some quick return, then let those babies perk for years.

From what I know, the biggest risk to the aquifers is in the initial stages, when the surface casing is being set over these aquifers and cemented into place. This definitely puts some stuff in the water zones.