Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Fracking Phobias -- The Motley Fool

A reader sent this link/story -- thank you.

The information in the Motley Fool story has been previously reported at the blog, but this is the first time the two stories appear together, coherently. Very, very nice to see.

As often noted, I generally don't care for superficiality of Motley Fool stories, but this one is a good one. A big "thank you" to the reader for sending it to me. From the linked article:
Yet oil and gas industry services specialist Nuverra Environmental Solutions has been telling anyone who will listen that fracking doesn't cause groundwater pollution. The company, which was previously known as Heckmann and is the leading supplier of water to the oil and gas industry, says fracking occurs 10,000 feet below the surface -- and water seeps down, not up, so the probability that it is responsible for the polluted water supplies is negligible.
The DOE study, which injected tracer chemicals into the fracking fluids so they could follow them, confirmed that. It injected the fluids some 8,000 feet below the surface and then monitored for them at 5,000 feet. None were ever detected, meaning that groundwater -- which is typically situated around 500 feet below the surface -- was about a mile away from any potential contamination. 
No doubt those conclusions are behind the EPA's decision to drop its study of groundwater contamination in Wyoming, instead allowing the state to complete it. Originally, the study was slated to be peer reviewed, but after questions about its methodology arose, it decided to abandon it altogether.
"Water seeps up, not down." Sometimes one wonders if any of the activist environmentalists ever graduated from 8th grade, and/or understand the principle of gravity. Thank goodness hydrocarbons have their unique "fingerprints" which makes it possible to identify source of hydrocarbons. 

8 comments:

  1. Water may seep up not down, but what do oil and gas do? Each flows along gradients within conduits such as permeable formations, faults and fractures, or manmade structures like wells. There will be a low percentage of wells with bad casing or seals that do leak water down and oil or gas up. When these situations arise, the means of correcting the problem is available once the responsible party is identified.

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  2. Actually, groundwater in confined acquifers (common in most basins)can and frequently does flow up. Water moves from high potential or pressure to locations with lower potential or pressure. Frequently the pathway to lower pressure is up. That is the principle behind the existence of artesian wells. There are several naturally saline confined aquifers in the Williston Basin, and most of these aquifers have areas with upwards flowing groundwater. That said - unless there is some kind of major casing problem, fracking poses virtually no danger to potable water supplies in the Williston Basin.

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  3. Folks are confusing fracking and drilling, two distinctly different things.

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    1. I don't know my geology, buy I don't think artesian aquifers are 10,000 feet below the ground and that's where they are doing the fracking in North Dakota, about 9,000 to 10,000 true vertical depth for the Bakken.

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    2. The aquifer found in the Red River Formation (below the Bakken) would be one such aquifer. Water in this aquifer naturally flows to the surface in eastern North Dakota.

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  4. People are also confusing the natural migration of hydrocarbons with fracking. The LeBrea Tar Pits were not a result of fracking, and there was gas in water wells in McHenry County, ND long before fracking was introduced to the region.

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    1. Thank you. You are exactly correct. I would write more but I am traveling and have limited time, but you are absolutely correct.

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