Water in personal water well dropped costing $1500 after gas well drills 4-6 water wells

My next door neighbor's water well went out this week and we discovered the pump was up out of the water which caused it to burn the pump up. They had to replace the pump and drop it down 75 feet, in all costing her $1500.00 to fix it. The well has been there for 18 years with no problem. Now, they just also drilled 4-6 new water wells up the road for the gas well this week. Can anyone tell me if this is not connected? She is a widow and had no money to fix it and had to go borrow the money. I cannot believe this is not from those 4-6 wells drilled to frac the well, tell me if I am on the wrong path with this.

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The HS wells will use a very large amount of water, especially the horizontal ones. And each frac job, or stage, on the wells requires fresh water. The Barnett operators, e.g., EOG, used the flowback fluids from other wells and reused it. It was kept in a large pond on a hill. This allowed for only a few frac tanks on location, but there was a large amount of transfer pipe running the ditches, etc.. I'd expect the ground water levels would return at some time in the near future. I would contact the operator and let them know that she lost the groundwater level in her well after the frac jobs took place. They'll most likely offer some compensation. Have the receipts to show.

Hope this helps.
I was wondering if after they use and reuse this water for that purpose, will it be clean enough for human consumption? Do they have a set process in which the water can be returned back clean chemical free? Case in point, the lady's well in this discussion,if they return the water will she be able to drink it without worry of health problems? I have two wells, and I have been wondering the same thing. I have not leased yet. Thanks for any info on that matter.
They won't pump the post-frac water back into the aquifer. When the quit pulling the water out, the water table will naturally rise back up to the previous level. They are not pulling enough water to permanently lower the water table. The frac jobs last days, not weeks, on each well.
With thousands of wells being drilled.....lets say 6,000 for an estimate. They will use 3 billion gallons of FRESH water at a rate of 2,700 wells a year (5 million gallons per frac job daily 2-4 days).

Yes some of the ground water will be naturally recharged over time, but there will still be a 1.5 billion gallon deficit.

Couple that with other unkowns in the future (the world temp's rising trend, contamination and other accidents that make water unsafe for drinking or sanitation), I think people have a right to be worried.

Of course if the EPA would be able to enforce the CWA... then the nuclear power facilities (Brown's Ferry e.g.) changing their once-through water cooling to a more sustainable practice would free up a few million gallons daily (not to mention eliminate fish-kill, entrainment and impingement of aquatic life)

As is TVA didn't think they would have to be forced to shut down their operations due to water shortage, as the Brown's Ferry plant is located on a river, it ended up costing them and their customers way too much. In France, EDF, had to import power at a premium for the same reason....lack of water.

They must have assumed that their supplies would naturally be charged by the rains, etc.
We can't afford to assume such things....
Exactly, but the EPA DOES IN FACT HAVE TO ANSWER TO THE SUPREME COURT ON THE CWA PROVISIONS IN OCTOBER!

I AM HOPING THEY GET SPANKED FOR THE 2-FACED LOBBYIST PETS THEY REALLY ARE.
Any idea how much the drilling companies pay for surface water and how far they are willing to truck same? May have a significant supply but would want land protected.
Saw a web info page about drilling in Pennsylvania or West Virginia that they paid 14 cents per 1000 gallons surface water. Don't know about trucking it to the wellhead. 10,000g weight is 80,000# appx. Looks like a lot of trucks on the road. How many gallons of liquid it take to frac a well?
A typical frac job is about 80 Bbl's/min, 120-180 min's. 1 Bbl = 42 gal's.. And this would be for only 1 stage. There will be 2 - 4 stages on vertical wells and 8 - 14 stages on horizontal wells. This comes out to around +/- 600,000 gal fresh water/job. So each well can use up to 8.4 MmBbls of water. Each frac tank holds 21,000 gal, or 500 Bbl's. About 4000 gal's will be hauled per truck. About 5 trucks to fill 1 tank!! There would have to be 28-30 frac tanks on the frac pad if it were to be trucked in. You just don't want 80,000 lb trucks going up/down your road 150 times. Typical frac tank is 8' wide by 42' long +/-. That's 10,100 square ft.! This is the reason for transfer pipe, pumps, etc. to pull from local water sheds. LA DNR requires a 80 acre spacing between wells. There will be a lot of wter pipe being utilized.
Where I'm seeing the differences is in the depth. +/- 8000', (Elm Grove field),vs. >10000', (Haynesville). I guess the spacing is for the depth, not the surface equipment.
If it was damaged by drilling and she has a clause in her contract to protect her in case something like this happened, then they (the company) will have to pay. If she signed a contract that did not have the protective clauses, then she is out the money. That is why it is so important to find a coalition and join up, stick together as a community. We will be seeing more of this from residents who jumped the gun, and signed the landmen standard contract -they do not put protective clauses in their contracts to protect the residents. They may have some, but not the really important ones that protect water wells, and any environmental concerns. We dont want to leave a huge mess for our children's children to have to deal with, we need to take care of it now! I feel sorry for her if she has to pay. I hate it when people take advantage of our seniors.
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to say the woman should have been smarter!
Yes, I wondered that too. She had people look at her lease and told her no one was getting anymore than that and it was a fair lease at the time. It would be nice if we all knew now what we did NOT then. We signed 3 years ago and had several oil & gas men read it that we know personaly and was told it was a typical lease they see everyday. Well, that was most likely true then but we know a lot more now and just have to live with it. I just cannot stand to see not only a widow but one of the most generous, kindest, people in this world have to pay for such as this. Hopefuly CHK will have some compassion......

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