No Evidence Of Ground Water Contamination In The North Dakota Oil Patch -- November 17, 2014

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

Random testing of shallow groundwater in the Northern Plains oil patch found no evidence of contamination from an energy boom that's already seen more than 8,500 wells drilled, federal scientists said Monday.

However, the U.S. Geological Survey cautioned that the tests could have missed contamination from surface spills or leaking well casings. That's because water can take many hundreds of years to migrate beneath the surface, meaning contamination might not have reached USGS sample sites.

"This is good news, really good news," said USGS hydrologist Rod Caldwell. "But we didn't try to sample a bunch of water all around oil and gas wells. We just tried to look at the overall health of the aquifer."

"Could have missed contamination....because water can take many hundreds of years to migrate beneath the surface...."

It should be noted that they've been drilling and producing oil in North Dakota since the 1950's and no evidence -- no evidence whatsoever of any groundwater contamination. From the very beginning North Dakota required a steel pipe to a level of 2,000 feet, and cement casing completely surrounding that steel pipe. Nowhere in the drilling area in North Dakota is ground water found below 2,000 feet, to the best of my knowledge. I feel pretty comfortable saying that because Don told me. Seriously, if there was groundwater deeper than 2,000, the state would require cement casing to go lower. 

What I find interesting is that it is my understanding that oil has been sprayed on gravel roads for decades to keep the dust down in North Dakota. Oil, I assume, was also used for weed control in ditches along the road. I assume there have been many, many oil spills over the years, and many were probably never reported during the early days. We still have the occasional well blow-out spewing oil over hundreds of acres. Pipeline spills. Rail tanker derailments. The list is endless.  Of course, I assume a lot of oil went directly into water sewers by folks changing their own oil. And yet, they find no -- absolutely no -- evidence of any groundwater contamination. I assume a lot of that oil is filtered out if it has to go through 1500 feet of earth before it gets to ground water. Again, just my opinion. No background in this area.