Shale gas fracking – An International View.

Shale Gas Fracking - An International View.

"Shale gas boom making us sick"......

Shale gas boom making us sick, say B.C. residents
Medical health officers demand proper tracking, surveillance
CBC News
 Sep 28, 2011 12:41 PM PT

Residents living amidst the shale gas boom in northeastern B.C. say the industry is making them sick — and their call for government action is being backed by medical health officers.
Shale gas fracking — blasting water, sand and chemicals into deep, underground rocks to release natural gas — has become a multi-billion dollar industry in northeastern B.C.
But several farmers who live near gas fields in the Dawson Creek area told CBC News they fear the boom is making them sick, and they are demanding a public health inquiry.
Wilma Avery says her lungs were damaged when one company flared its wells and gas plant below her house during a weather inversion in March.
"My doctor came and looked at me and said, 'I think you've breathed some noxious fumes.' I said, 'I think I did, too,'" Avery said.

"It's a yellow pall that was completely around me. I had a cough that lasted — to put it crudely, you lose all control of everything. Most of the time I just sat on the toilet and coughed. All I'm asking is this should never happen again, because the next time it'll probably kill me."

'I can't breathe'

On a ranch nearby, Glenda Wager spent hours in a toxic gas cloud after a major leak in 2009, from which she's still recovering.
"[There's] pain in my chest, I can't walk and talk. I used to be very fit, not anymore. I can't train my horses — if they buck, I can't hang on. I can't breathe."
Brian Derfler, a second-generation grain farmer in the area, said he's driven through clouds of toxic gas on three separate occasions.
"You're driving through the valley and ... this doesn't smell right, eyes are burning, you have this acid taste in your mouth, it can't be good for you," he said.
"You close your windows, turn off the heater fan and just gun it through. You don't know where the source is and you're not going to stop to find out."

'Left on our own'

Derfler fears the next leak could be deadly.
"We have no detection equipment, no protection equipment, no training," he said. "So we are basically left on our own. If you're 100 metres from a well blowout — who's going to be evacuating you?"
Colleen Bordulla, who works as a medic in the gas fields, said no one knows the cumulative effect of locals being exposed to gas and chemicals — and no one seems to care.
"It's like its been left to the farmers and ranchers to find the solutions," she said. "It should be the ministries of environment and health looking into this."
 'If you don't measure it, you don't know'
The residents are demanding action from government — and they have the support of public health officials, including medical health officer Dr. Charl Badenhorst of the Northern Health Authority.
He wants proper tracking and surveillance in place to determine whether B.C.'s gas fields are a health hazard.
"I drive around and smell a lot of things I don't want to smell," Badenhorst said.
"Maybe there is people close to [gas] wells that are sick or their animals are sick or their water is of poor quality. But if you don't measure it, you don't know it. These chemicals released into the water, the air, is definitely a hazard. If we don't monitor these problems, we don't know."
B.C.'s Ministry of Energy and Mines declined requests by CBC News to respond, saying the province hopes to have an update soon.
With files from the CBC's Betsy Trumpener
From: CBC NEWS CANADA. 

Shale gas protesters took to the street in Montreal Saturday. (Douglas Gelevan/CBC)

What is shale gas sickness?

Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:49pm EST

(Reuters) - The boom in shale natural gas drilling has raised hopes the United States will be able to rely on the cleaner-burning fuel to meet future energy needs.
But concerns about its impact on water quality could slow the industry's ability to tap this bountiful resource.
New York state has yet to allow drilling of high-volume, horizontal wells in the Marcellus Shale, effectively banning industry from the most efficient manner of extraction.
Some questions and answers:
WHY ARE ENVIRONMENTALISTS CONCERNED ABOUT SHALE GAS
DRILLING?
The natural gas industry says the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing is entirely safe, citing research that has yet to prove any link between it and water contamination that could cause illness.
Critics of the U.S. boom in shale gas drilling fear the practice contaminates the aquifers where many rural residents get their domestic water supplies, pollutes the air around gas rigs and compressor stations, and scars the landscape with drilling pads and new roads.
WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH WATER SUPPLIES?
Critics believe hydraulic fracturing chemicals are escaping into groundwater and in several states there have been reports of fouled water and increased illness since drilling began. In addition, naturally occurring toxic substances such as arsenic have been found at elevated levels near some drilling operations.

HAS ANYONE ACTUALLY FOUND TOXIC CHEMICALS IN WATER WELLS
NEAR GAS DRILLING?
Yes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found 14 "contaminants of concern" in 11 private wells in the central Wyoming farming community of Pavilion, an area with about 250 gas wells. The August report did not identify the source of the contamination but the EPA is conducting more tests and is expected to reach a conclusion this spring. In Pennsylvania, at least two privately conducted water tests near gas drilling have also found chemical contamination. One set of tests is being used in a lawsuit by a landowner against a gas company.
HOW DOES THE INDUSTRY RESPOND TO THESE CLAIMS?
Companies say hydraulic fracturing chemicals are heavily diluted and separated from water supplies by layers of steel and concrete injected into the shale a mile or more underground and thousands of feet below aquifers. Industry officials say there has never been a documented case of water contamination from gas drilling.

WHAT'S THE EXPERIENCE OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE NEAR GAS DRILLING?
Residents complain of water that is discolored, foul-smelling, bad-tasting, and in some cases even black. Some say drinking it causes sickness and bathing in it causes skin rashes. In a few cases, water has become flammable because methane has "migrated" from the drilling operations to water wells. That migration was confirmed by regulators in Pennsylvania. Many low-income people who live near gas rigs drink bottled water, and some have their water supplied by the gas company.
IS THERE A PROBLEM WITH WASTE WATER?
Yes. Around a third of the millions of gallons of water used in fracturing comes back to the surface where it is either reused or trucked to treatment plants. In Pennsylvania, where the industry is rushing to exploit the massive Marcellus Shale formation, critics say there isn't enough capacity to remove toxic chemicals from waste water. As a result, some waste gets pumped into rivers and creeks with little or no treatment, critics say. Some residents have accused tank trucks of dumping waste water on rural roads.
 

HOW ARE STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS DEALING WITH THE SHALE BOOM?
A bill in Congress would require companies to disclose chemicals used in fracturing, and would give the Environmental Protection Agency more oversight of the industry. Industry spokesmen say more federal rules are unnecessary because states already do a good job of regulating gas drilling. Congress has asked the EPA to do a scientific study on the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water.
HAS THE EPA EXPRESSED CONCERN ABOUT THE SAFETY OF GAS DRILLING?
Yes. The federal agency said on Dec. 30 it has "serious reservations" about whether proposed gas drilling in the New York City watershed is consistent with high-quality water supply to the city's 9 million residents. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for a ban on drilling, saying the city should not risk the purity of its renowned water supply, and that the consequences of allowing fracturing could be "severe." (Reporting by Jon Hurdle; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Eric Walsh)
 From: Reuters: Edition U.S.

What is shale gas?

What is Shale Gas?

Republished from a December, 2010 "Energy in Brief" by the Energy Information Administration

Shale gas refers to natural gas that is trapped within shale formations. Shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks that can be rich sources of petroleum and natural gas.

Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing

Over the past decade, the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has allowed access to large volumes of shale gas that were previously uneconomical to produce. The production of natural gas from shale formations has rejuvenated the natural gas industry in the United States.

The U.S. Has Abundant Shale Gas Resources

Of the natural gas consumed in the United States in 2009, 87% was produced domestically; thus, the supply of natural gas is not as dependent on foreign producers as is the supply of crude oil, and the delivery system is less subject to interruption. The availability of large quantities of shale gas will further allow the United States to consume a predominantly domestic supply of gas.

According to the EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2011, the United States possesses 2,552 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of potential natural gas resources. Natural gas from shale resources, considered uneconomical just a few years ago, accounts for 827 Tcf of this resource estimate, more than double the estimate published last year.

Enough for 110 Years of Use

At the 2009 rate of U.S. consumption (about 22.8 Tcf per year), 2,552 Tcf of natural gas is enough to supply approximately 110 years of use. Shale gas resource and production estimates increased significantly between the 2010 and 2011 Outlook reports and are likely to increase further in the future.

What is a Shale "Play"?

Shale gas is found in shale "plays," which are shale formations containing significant accumulations of natural gas and which share similar geologic and geographic properties. A decade of production has come from the Barnett Shale play in Texas. Experience and information gained from developing the Barnett Shale have improved the efficiency of shale gas development around the country.
Other important plays are the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale in the eastern United States; and, the Haynesville Shale and Fayetteville Shale in Louisiana and Arkansas. Surveyors and geologists identify suitable well locations in areas with potential for economical gas production by using both surface-level observation techniques and computer-generated maps of the subsurface.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAyvoqIN6Fk&feature=player_embedded

This video provides an overview of shale gas, starting with the first gas well near Fredonia, New York in 1821 up through January 2010 and the major shale gas plays. The speaker is John Curtis, Professor of Geochemistry and Director of the Potential Gas Agency at the Colorado School of Mines.

Horizontal Drilling

Two major drilling techniques are used to produce shale gas. Horizontal drilling is used to provide greater access to the gas trapped deep in the producing formation. First, a vertical well is drilled to the targeted rock formation. At the desired depth, the drill bit is turned to bore a well that stretches through the reservoir horizontally, exposing the well to more of the producing shale.

Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic fracturing (commonly called “fracking” or “hydrofracking”) is a technique in which water, chemicals, and sand are pumped into the well to unlock the hydrocarbons trapped in shale formations by opening cracks (fractures) in the rock and allowing natural gas to flow from the shale into the well. When used in conjunction with horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing enables gas producers to extract shale gas at reasonable cost. Without these techniques, natural gas does not flow to the well rapidly, and commercial quantities cannot be produced from shale.

Shale Gas vs. Conventional Gas

Conventional gas reservoirs are created when natural gas migrates toward the Earth's surface from an organic-rich source formation into highly permeable reservoir rock, where it is trapped by an overlying layer of impermeable rock. In contrast, shale gas resources form within the organic-rich shale source rock. The low permeability of the shale greatly inhibits the gas from migrating to more permeable reservoir rocks. Without horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, shale gas production would not be economically feasible because the natural gas would not flow from the formation at high enough rates to justify the cost of drilling.

Natural Gas: A Clean-Burning Fuel

Natural gas is cleaner-burning than coal or oil. The combustion of natural gas emits significantly lower levels of key pollutants, including carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide, than does the combustion of coal or oil. When used in efficient combined-cycle power plants, natural gas combustion can emit less than half as much CO2 as coal combustion, per unit of energy released.

Environmental Concerns

However, there are some potential environmental issues that are also associated with the production of shale gas. Shale gas drilling has significant water supply issues. The drilling and fracturing of wells requires large amounts of water. In some areas of the country, significant use of water for shale gas production may affect the availability of water for other uses, and can affect aquatic habitats.

Drilling and fracturing also produce large amounts of wastewater, which may contain dissolved chemicals and other contaminants that require treatment before disposal or reuse. Because of the quantities of water used, and the complexities inherent in treating some of the chemicals used, wastewater treatment and disposal is an important and challenging issue.

If mismanaged, the hydraulic fracturing fluid can be released by spills, leaks, or various other exposure pathways. The use of potentially hazardous chemicals in the fracturing fluid means that any release of this fluid can result in the contamination of surrounding areas, including sources of drinking water, and can negatively impact natural habitats.
  

Shale Gas Sickness - Introduction

This blog will reproduce articles that have appeared in magazines,newspapers, and publications,
that concern the effects that shale gas has had and continues to have, on the health of individuals and their families.
Rather than having to search in various locations for information that can be hard to come by, the reader can become informed in one central venue.
It is my hope that this site will continue to grow and be of benefit to the individual seeking to be updated in the continuing debate on the subject of Shale Gas exploitation versus personal safety and wellbeing.
Those wishing to contribute articles may do so by sending the url of the article to the address above.
This blog does not offer any medical advice, rather, it is for the purpose of disseminating the experiences of others to allow one to make better determinations in the future.