WV Gazette: Gas fracking linked to tainted water

Gas fracking linked to tainted water

The Charleston Gazette
December 8, 2011
Original Source

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday for the first time that fracking -- a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells -- may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution.

The draft finding could have significant implications while states try to determine how to regulate the process. Environmentalists characterized the report as a significant development though it met immediate criticism from the oil and gas industry and a U.S. senator.

The practice is called hydraulic fracturing and involves pumping pressurized water, sand and chemicals underground to open fissures and improve the flow of oil or gas to the surface.

The EPA found that compounds likely associated with fracking chemicals had been detected in the groundwater beneath Pavillion, a small community in central Wyoming where residents say their well water reeks of chemicals. Health officials last year advised them not to drink their water after the EPA found low levels hydrocarbons in their wells.

The EPA announcement could add to the controversy over fracking, which has played a large role in opening up many gas reserves, including the Marcellus Shale in the eastern U.S. in recent years.

The industry has long contended that fracking is safe, but environmentalists and some residents who live near drilling sites say it has poisoned groundwater.

The EPA said its announcement is the first step in a process of opening up its findings for review by the public and other scientists.

"EPA's highest priority remains ensuring that Pavillion residents have access to safe drinking water," said Jim Martin, EPA regional administrator in Denver. "We look forward to having these findings in the draft report informed by a transparent and public review process."

The EPA also emphasized that the findings are specific to the Pavillion area. The agency said the fracking that occurred in Pavillion differed from fracking methods used elsewhere in regions with different geological characteristics.

The fracking occurred below the level of the drinking water aquifer and close to water wells, the EPA said. Elsewhere, drilling is more remote and fracking occurs much deeper than the level of groundwater that would normally be used.

Environmentalists welcomed the news of the EPA report, calling it an important turning point in the fracking debate.

"This is an important first indication there are potential problems with fracking that can impact domestic water wells. It's I think a clarion call to industry to make sure they take a great deal of care in their drilling practices," said Steve Jones with the Wyoming Outdoor Council.

Pavillion resident John Fenton, chairman of the group Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens, applauded the EPA for listening to the homeowners with contaminated water.

"Those of us who suffer the impacts from the unchecked development in our community are extremely happy the contamination source is being identified," Fenton said.

Calgary, Alberta-based Encana owns the Pavillion gas field. An announced $45 million sale to Midland, Texas-based Legacy Reserves fell through last month amid what Encana said were Legacy's concerns about the EPA investigation.

Encana spokesman Doug Hock said there was much to question about the draft study.

The compounds EPA said could be associated with fracking, he said, could have had other origins not related to gas development.

"Those could just have likely been brought about by contamination in their sampling process or construction of their well," Hock said.

The low levels of hydrocarbons found in local water wells likewise haven't been linked to gas development and substances such as methane itself are naturally occurring in the area.

"There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered. This is a probability and it is one we believe is incorrect," Hock said.

Sen. James Inhofe said the study was "not based on sound science but rather on political science."

"Its findings are premature, given that the Agency has not gone through the necessary peer-review process, and there are still serious outstanding questions regarding EPA's data and methodology," the Oklahoma Republican said in a statement.

Wyoming last year became one of the first states to require oil and gas companies to publicly disclose the chemicals used in fracking. Colorado regulators are considering doing the same.

The public and industry representatives packed an 11-hour hearing on the issue in Denver on Monday. They all generally supported the proposal but the sticking point is whether trade secrets would have to be disclosed and how quickly the information would have to be turned over.

And while the EPA emphasized the Wyoming findings we're highly localized, the report is likely to reverberate.

The issue has been highly contentious in New York, where some upstate residents and politicians argue that the gas industry will bring desperately needed jobs while others demand a ban on fracking to protect water supplies. New York regulators haven't issued permits for gas drilling with high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale since they began an extensive environmental review in 2008.

Kate Sinding, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City, said in an e-mail Thursday that the EPA in Wyoming is now recognizing what other experts and families in fracking communities have known for some time: "Fracking poses serious threats to safe drinking water."

David Neslin, director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, said the Wyoming case is being watched.

"Protection of drinking water in Colorado is of the highest importance to us and therefore we look forward to reviewing EPA's draft analysis, as well as feedback from other parties, including Wyoming, on this matter," he said.

Company to drill near home
Family offered housing while work is done

BY DAVID BEARD
The Dominion Post

A smashed truck fender. A broken truck mirror. A traffic standoff. A blocked road. A flood. Noise, noise, noise. Given the chance to leave the “pure hell” of life 100 feet from a Marcellus shale well pad, Casey and Stacie Griffith chose home over comfort.
As the Legislature contemplates new Marcellus regulation during a special session this week, Denver-based Energy Corp. of America (ECA) and Glenville-based Waco Oil & Gas are preparing to drill five new horizontal wells on the pad by the Griffiths’ home.
The home, which they built themselves, sits adjacent to the well pad’s base, just across a one-lane gravel road. They are among the mineral leaseholders for the operation.
Casey said the gas companies expect to start drilling this week, and to have the drilling rig out by mid-March. They will take about three weeks to frack the first three wells, take a break for some logistics and then frack the last two. With flaring and other production activities, then reclamation, he speculates they may not be out until August.
The Dominion Post called ECA on Thursday for details and comments, and was initially referred to the wrong official. A voicemail left Friday with the correct official was not returned.
Waco Vice President Doug Morris did not respond to requests for comments about Plum Run operations.
The Griffith home sits at the end of a hollow that spurs off Plum Run Road. Curvy Plum Run Road is barely two lanes for regular size vehicles — you hug the edge and hope the other driver does, too.
Oversize rigs coming and going from the well pad are another matter. The Dominion Post previously reported that one of them took a mirror off Stacie’s pickup.
Recently, she had a 90-minute standoff with a caravan of them that led to police involvement. Four rigs were coming toward her. She pulled to the edge and stopped to let them by. One passed her, the other three refused.
It was a question of the rig drivers complying with the state code that requires oncoming drivers to yield at least half the road to each other, Casey said. That wasn’t happening. Stacie lost that one and was ordered to move on.
Just over a week ago, as she was coming home from work and topped a hill, she saw two large trucks and slowed down.
“As he got closer, I kept my eye on my mirror because it sticks out. The truck was getting extremely close so I stopped. As I watched my mirror I heard a screeching sound. He hit the back quarter panel of my truck.”
Snapshots show the rig and the pickup tight against each other, blocking the road.
No one was cited.
As part of maintaining Plum Run Road, ECA planned to install two culverts — 6 feet tall, about 20 feet long — under the road. Last week’s heavy rains washed them into the stream one night, where they got hung up on the bridge by the home of Stacie’s dad, Tim Sanders.
The stream overflowed into a home, into Sanders’ barn. Parked nearby was an ECA contractor’s bulldozer. Someone found the key. Sanders fired it up. Casey and a friend climbed onto the front, Casey holding two huge chains to wrap around the culverts.
Sanders plowed the dozer into 5 to 6 feet of freezing, rushing water. They hauled the first culvert out.
Then they went for the second. One chain broke. Then the next. Casey fell in, wearing winter gear that was weighed down with the chain. With a mattock, they pounded a hole through the culvert and got the chains through that way — saving the day.
The contractor could have been upset they used the company dozer, but he wasn’t, Casey said. They’re paving Sanders’ barn and buying Casey and his friend dinner.
The Griffiths are thankful that the contractor and ECA are working to minimize their inconvenience, but that doesn’t make life any better, they said.
Their daughter, Ella, is about to turn 3. Well pad work began when she was 9 months old. Between every video of her growing up is a video of some issue on the road or at the well pad.
“I don’t want this to be part of her growing up,” Stacie said.
“This is all she knows,” Casey said.
In some talks with The Dominion Post for a recent story on the special Marcellus session, Stacie worried they were going to be forced from their home. That didn’t happen.
But they were offered a chance to leave until the work is done.
The ECA landsman first contacted Casey to tell him this would be a rough period. He offered to put the Griffiths up in a hotel during the equipment move-in. They declined. They didn’t want to leave all their stuff at home.
Then, ECA offered them a paid mini-vacation at Stonewall Resort, but Stacie couldn’t take the time away from her teaching job.
Then ECA offered to lease them a comparable size home for the duration of the project.
“Man to man, you’re making me feel like you’re trying to force me out of my house,” Casey told him.
The landsman said no, they were just trying to make them as comfortable as possible.
Casey understood. In the end, the Griffiths decided to stay home, avoid the road during hours when the contractors would be moving permitted loads, and take an alternate route in and out of their hollow.
“All I ask,” he told the landsman, “is that you make sure there is a path in and out, and do not park on the county road.”
The Griffiths look back on their years by this pad, and reflect on the noise, the hassles, the incidents, the expenses they’ve incurred — Stacie estimates them at more than $100,000.
“Am I crazy or is this planet earth?” she asked.
“You’ll never look back on it with fond memories,” Casey said.
The money they’ll collect from the lease is meager compensation.
“The one thing I would recommend to any homeowner” contemplating a mineral lease, Casey said: “Get an attorney.”
They didn’t. Compared to what you could gain with sound counsel, what you spend on an attorney is worth the price. “You may think you know what you’re doing, but you don’t.”