Study: Leaky Wells, Not Fracking, Taint Water
I've been looking for a good article based on this study for 24 hours. This is not it but it is about the best you should expect from the typical authors of articles on the subject. In all fairness they probably get pressure from editors that demand the subject be framed in as controversial a way as possible. We need just the facts, not the unsubstantiated claims of fracing opponents. The study supports the position that I have taken repeatedly on GHS. I'm glad to see this study and hope to see more like it. It's an important issue for the industry and for the public. It deserves a public debate based on facts.
LEAKY WELLS, NOT FRACKING, TAINT WATER
By SETH BORENSTEIN — Sep. 15, 2014 1:51 PM EDT ap.org
WASHINGTON (AP) — The drilling procedure called fracking didn't cause much-publicized cases of tainted groundwater in areas of Pennsylvania and Texas, a new study finds. Instead, it blames the contamination on problems in pipes and seals in natural gas wells.
After looking at dozens of cases of suspected contamination, the scientists focused on eight hydraulically fractured wells in those states, where they chemically linked the tainted water to the gas wells. They then used chemical analysis to figure out when in the process of gas extraction methane leaked into groundwater.
"We found the evidence suggested that fracking was not to blame, that it was actually a well integrity issue," said Ohio State University geochemist Thomas Darrah, lead author of the study. He said those results are good news because that type of contamination problem is easier to fix and is more preventable.
The work was released Monday by The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Link to full article.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/study-leaky-wells-not-fracking-taint...
Link to study: Noble gases identify the mechanisms of fugitive gas contamination in drinking-water wells overlying the Marcellus and Barnett Shales ,Thomas H. Darraha,b,1, Avner Vengosha, Robert B. Jacksona,c, Nathaniel R. Warnera,d, and Robert J. Poredae
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/09/12/1322107111.full.pdf+html
Views: 1383
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Steve on
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The influence of politics in general and our elected representatives' focus on campaign financing in the decision making process is a major problem. This is a problem for the White House and Congress - both parties. Few decisions made in Washington are not tied to political consideration. The very 1st question from the mouth of a Senator or Representative if a lobbyist asks one to sponsor or fight legislation is not: What will your proposed legislation try to accomplish or prevent ? but rather, Who is for it and who is against it? My personal experience is that their primary focus is: Who am I going to piss off and what other legislators am I going to have to trade favors with if I support your cause. The details of the legislation in question is mostly irrelevant in the initial decision of whether an elected representative will help or not. The political ramifications are paramount. This why we have a dysfunctional Government today. The officials at the EPA, the IRS etc. etc. just follow the political winds that got them into their leadership positions. We can only fix this with term limits and a reduction in political appointees heading government agencies - I would start with in the Justice Dept.- the AG is entirely too obliged to the White House for example.
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Permalink Reply by Hopeful About Natural Gas on -
I hate to say it, but I could have written Steve's post myself. I have been a lobbyist at the statehouse level (not for O&G). I've copied and pasted part of his post because it's at the core of our problems.
It's all in the "who's for it and who's against it" politics. It is NOT based on science, common sense or what is good for the citizens as a whole. Special interest groups dominate all aspects of our government. Everyone ought to be worried about this.
"The very 1st question from the mouth of a Senator or Representative if a lobbyist asks one to sponsor or fight legislation is not: What will your proposed legislation try to accomplish or prevent ? but rather, Who is for it and who is against it?
My personal experience is that their primary focus is: Who am I going to piss off and what other legislators am I going to have to trade favors with if I support your cause. The details of the legislation in question is mostly irrelevant in the initial decision of whether an elected representative will help or not. The political ramifications are paramount."
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I learned that unfortunate reality in my 1st visit to Washington DC and it seemed to be a universal fact after visiting numerous Senators and Congressmen. The second fact is: If you manage to get past the King's or Queen's chamber your next audience is with a staff of 20 - 30 something year olds, who's primary job is covering their majesty's ass. Don't expect much more after that.
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Politicians and government institutions are largely what the American public have made them. An uninformed, apathetic partisan electorate sets new lows daily. You can't make this stuff up.
Ex-convict seeking comeback leads race for Providence mayor: poll
BOSTON (Reuters) - Former Providence, Rhode Island, mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, who served five years in prison after being convicted of racketeering, is leading in his bid to reclaim the job he held for 22 of the past 50 years, a poll released on Wednesday found.
http://news.msn.com/us/ex-convict-seeking-comeback-leads-race-for-p...
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We have an ex-convict running for Congress in La. at the moment. I see his signs in the yards of people you thought had a brain. Ex-convicts are off my list of eligible candidates.
It is too easy to get the right to vote in my opinion. Unfortunately one Party is doing everything it can to assure that many who shouldn't be voting, some for multiple reasons, are begged, bribed and driven to the polls to cast votes on matters they know nothing and often care nothing about. A low information voter's vote counts just as much as a high information voter's vote in a Democracy. We have to work within those parameters, but you certainly shouldn't be "encouraging" the low information voters to vote if you want good governance.
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Permalink Reply by ledlights on
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One simple but effective scheme where the bar is set so low is to either possess or adopt a name similar to a familiar, successful politician. It's worth millions in free advertisement.
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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The uninformed, apathetic partisans reside in both parties. Any thought that one is better than the other across the board is a big part of the problem.
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I realize this is not the place to discuss politics so I will to end my comments on politics by saying I would venture a bet that the average Republican voter is more well-informed about matters of public interest than the average Democratic voter. That opinion comes from someone that has been a registered Democrat for 45 years.Not to say that the Republicans don't have plenty of uneducated and educated idiots in their voting ranks, but, overall I believe the average Republican voter is much more likely to be engaged in following current events and likely to vote based on a higher level of information than the average Democratic voter, if you compare the 2 blocks of voters as a whole, and Republicans don't generally need to ferret voters in buses to the polls.
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Permalink Reply by dbob on
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I'm going to ignore the politics and go to the environmental side. I've worked with all manner of agencies on all manner of oil and gas related issues.
1) The vast majority of agency (EPA, LDEQ, TCEQ, RRC, LNDR, etc) personnel want to do whats best for the environment and public at large.
2) They are poorly trained and poorly paid relative to their counterparts in the oil and gas industry, with some individual exceptions
3) The agencies, at the boots on the ground level, are under staffed and under funded.
4) The poor training, understaffing, and under funding, lead to formulaic responses which are either overzealous or miss the scope of the problem.
5) there is a small subset of the staff at any agency with an Agenda - it may be directed at a particular industry, a particular resource, or a particular social class. Those individuals are rare, but give the agencies at large a bad name.
6) The fines, penalties, and administrative remedies open to most agencies have no relationship to damage, risk, financial gain, or financial burden. It leads to either under penalizing or over penalizing responsible parties.
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Under funded, under staffed, poorly trained and poorly paid. The same can be said for a lot of state and federal agencies. It seems to take a catastrophe to bring any attention to the lack of critical oversight that can only be supplied by a governmental entity. Even after the melt down of the financial sector very little in the way of reform has followed. Many are unaware that it could happen all over again tomorrow.
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Permalink Reply by stroud on
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You might remember in the last presidential election several districts in PA. had 100% democratic vote, out of 63,000 votes cast you would think at least one person could have miss cast a vote. It might be noted that in the most republican district in Shreveport the democrats got 22% m/l of the vote. Now to ignore this partisans is to ignore REALITY. Now I will return to the subject of gas...........
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Actually not surprising at all considering the gerrymandering of districts to guarantee an outcome. R and Ds both do it. Its one of the problems that creates extreme politicians. Districts that lean hard in either direction do not favor middle of the road candidates. And that is why debates over subjects such as fracing regulations don't concentrate on the science.
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