separating fracks from fiction, james northrup

8/7/2019 Separating Fracks from Fiction, James Northrup

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2/57

Meet the Frackers . . .

Not your usual well

Massive heavy truck traffic

Massive drilling pressures

Massive wastewater

21st century technology Managed with 20th century

NY state regulations


3/57

Fracking 101: Shale is Located

Seismic is shot todetermine the depth

and thickness of the

shale formation

Once shale formation is

identified, no more

seismic is usually shot -

in Texas. . .


4/57

Fracking 101: The Well is Drilled

Well drilled into shaleformation

Shale is tested to

determine whether it is

economic to produce

gas


5/57

Fracking 101: Let the Fracking Begin

A lateral (horizontal) section

is drilled into the shale

formation

The lateral is used to inject

water under high pressure to

break up the shale in order

to release the gas

Frack generates flowback

wastewater from well


6/57

Fracking 101: The Economics

Shale gas marginally economic Creative accounting + creative reserve estimates

Steep production decline curves

Costly search over wide area for hot spots

A fraction of the wells will be profitable Life cycle impacts rarely considered


7/57

Fracking 101: Economics in New York

Property values will go down for many

Most wont directly benefit Small fraction own usable mineral rights

No direct tax revenue from gas production

No infrastructure, no waste disposal wells

Gas producers avoid NYS income tax

Drilling crews highly trained - not locals

Taxpayers left with clean-up bill


8/57

Fracking 101: Abandoned Wells

Road use agreements in place Clean-up bonds posted prior to

Land use statutes in place

Tax gas at the wellhead

Protect sensitive areas fromexploration

Signing bonuses in tax appraisals

Or get stuck with the clean up bill

Be Prepared with Rules and Regulations Upfront


9/57

Whats the Hurry? Safety FIRST

We need the money/jobs

When did we notneed them ?

Landowners sold too much

all their mineral rights

for too little

before the rules are in place Many drillers are speculators

Canadian penny stock companies

Copyright 2009 FIREHOW LLC


10/57

Itll be just like Texas

Shale gas fracking was developed in Texas

Texas New York Frack wastewater

disposal wells: 12,000 none

Environmental agency:does not issue

well permits

DEC

issues well permits

Terrain: flat and semi-arid neither flat nor arid

deep > 1000Water wells: shallow


11/57

New York Is Not Texas

Lakesowned by

municipalitiesowned by NYS

except NYC

Revenuestaxes gas

production directly

no tax on

gas production

Seismically faults dont move some faults move

rarely

enforced

DEC compels

non-consenters into wellsCompulsory

integration

no trout streams in Texas . . . . . .

Texas New York


12/57

Just How unPrepared is New York ?

EPA criticized the proposed regulations

Regs. are so flawed New York City got a carve out

New York shale loaded with radium

No place to put toxic radioactive flowback from wells

New York gets no direct tax revenue from gas production

Road use agreements not in place No zoning controls over well locations

Etc., etc., etc.


13/57

Problems of Shale Gas

Massive amounts of truck traffic Spills and drilling blowouts pollute

groundwater

Frack wastewater must be disposed of

forever Marginal direct economics

Problematic indirect economics


14/57

A Lot of Fracking Traffic

1,200 tankers per well

6 wells per site 7,200 trips

Sites exempt from zoning

No road use agreements

Counties have no funds


15/57

Frack Truck Solutions

Local zoning should control well location Road use agreements in place

Usage fees to counties

Routes established

Insurance and bonds in place

State should tax gas production at wellhead

Full value of lease in property valuations


16/57

What Does this Look Like to a Duck ?

Containment of Fluids Onsite

2010 HVPA

2009-2010 Copyright Rodale.


17/57

Pa. DEP fined Cabot on half of their 62 Dimock wellsPa. DEP fined Cabot on half of their 62 Dimock wells Over a third of the wells were cited for surface spillsOver a third of the wells were cited for surface spills

Pa. has cited over 1,500 violations in shale wellsPa. has cited over 1,500 violations in shale wells

Most Pollution is at the Surface


18/57

Containment of Fracking Fluids

Open pits overflow - polluting groundwater Open pits pollute the air

Nets dont work Bird caught in net, bird dies

Solutions : No open pits

No drilling sites on steep slopes > 15 degrees


19/57

propargyl alcohol glutaraldehyde

hydrochloric acid

dibromoacetonitrile

butoxyethanol ethylene glycol

AndMystery Ingredients

A Fracking Good Cocktail


20/57

Fracking Fluid Problems

Toxic and carcinogenic Gets into groundwater via spills

New York water wells shallow and vulnerable

Locals depend on well water


21/57

Fracking Fluid Solutions

Non-toxic fracking fluids Test wells before fracking begins and after

No fracking within 1000 feet of a water well

State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR)

in watersheds of sole source drinking water lakes In floodplains


22/57

A

tomic bomb used to frack a gas formation in69

Frack worked but gas too radioactive to sell

So Halliburton develops horizontal

hydrofracking

Fracking as Explosive as a Bomb

because atomicbombs didnt work


23/57

Horizontal Hydrofracking of ShaleHorizontal Hydrofracking of Shale== ExtraordinaryExtraordinaryAmounts ofWaterAmounts ofWater

One well = 5 million gals

8 per pad site = 40 M gal

5 fracks per well = 200 M gals

For every one mile drilling site

Thousands of truck trips


24/57

Gulf well blew at 80%shale frack pressure

Casing buckles due toshifts in faulting, heat orpressure

Casing corrodes Casing set in haste

Cemented in haste

Casing Failures

Casing Failures


25/57

Crew got killed

Water polluted

Company denials

Taxpayers clean up

When a Cement Job Failed


26/57

Surface casing leaks gas

Gas channels up the casing Frack cracks the casing

Faulting shears the casing

Casing corrodes over time

Frack goes out of zone Pick one or more of the above

Turn on water

Light

Stand back

How to Make Flammable Tap Water

First start with a shallow water well, like in New York


27/57

Safer Fracking

Treat it like an underground explosion Highest standards on surface casing

Post bonds to clean up spills

Frack doped with a tracer to identify


28/57

Its What Comes Back From the Frack

The DEC classifies fracking fluids as Hazardous waste

but classifies the fracking flowback as Industrial waste

Inject hazardous fracking fluids into groundInject hazardous fracking fluids into ground

+ 10,000 psi pressure @ 200+ degrees+ 10,000 psi pressure @ 200+ degrees+ radium leached from the shale+ radium leached from the shale

= fracking flowback wastewater= fracking flowback wastewater

1,000,000 gallons per well

8,000,000 gallons per site


29/57

Radium From Fracking Flowback

Marie Curie discovered radium And it killed her . . .

Frack fluids leach it from shale

The Marcellus is loaded with it 267 over the safe limit

no place to dispose of it in NY


30/57

Fracking WastewaterContents

Radium 226 in the Marcellus

Hydrochloric acid frack fluid Methanol in frack

Glutaraldehyde

Propylene glycol

Propargyl alcohol

Dissolved solids and suspended solids

Hydrogen sulfide, propane, butane, ethane

All of the above + heat + pressure = ??


31/57

Radon = Propanes Evil Twin

Marcellus is also loaded with radon The 2nd leading cause of lung cancer

Similar weight and flash point as propane

Take propane from gas, radon can tag along

Workers at risk, CNG users at risk DECs response ?


32/57

Where To Get Rid of all this FrackingWastewater ?

No wastewater disposal wells in New York Closest are in Ohio for 20 cents gal. + freight

No wastewater treatment plants in New York

None are planned in NYS. Closest is in Pa.

DECs response?

Nowhere in New York . . .


33/57

The Used Uranium nonSolution

Industry proposes to recycle frack wastewater

This increases its toxicity with each use

Nuclear plants built without fuel disposal plans

Re-use of frack flowback repeats that mistake

Cant start fracking without disposal wells


34/57

Fracking Wastewater Solutions

Classify frack wastewater as hazardous Wastewater treated at commercial plants

Disposed of in Class II disposal wells

No waste disposal plan = No well permit


35/57

Clean Air Gets Fracked

Gas fields pollute the air

Barnett Shale = pollution of all cars in DFW

Solution:

Monitor air

Fine operators


36/57

The Faults with New Yorks Faults

DEC understates faulting

Faulting poorly mapped

Faults channel spills into

ground

Faults enable fracks to go out

of zone

Active faulting shears wells

Faulting causes disposal wells

to leak

Earthquakes


37/57

DEC dsGEIS page 4-28 Fig 4.13

DEC Says NY Faulting Looks Like

If only it were

this simple. . .


38/57

What Faulting May Really Look Like

These are

suspected major faults


39/57

How Texas is (slightly) Less Faulty

Texas faults are mapped Lack of active faults facilitates:

Better locations for safe disposal wells

Well casing longevity - less prone to shear

Reduced risk of the frack going out of zone

Texas has none

however . . .


40/57

Disposal Wells:

Caution is Advised

The only Texasearthquake was due tooverloading a wastedisposal well with shalefrack flowback

Disposal wells andfaults dont mix


41/57

No More Earthquakes, Thanks

New York already has its share

Source USGS


42/57

Less Faulty Fracking Solutions

Determine where faults are in NY Shoot 3-D seismic on each lateral

as a condition of getting the fracking permit

No disposal wells near major faults

Locate well sites away from surface faults

No drilling allowed near active faults


43/57

Fracking doesnt contaminate

groundwater = a big fat lie

Frack operations can contaminate water Intensive trucking contaminates water

33% of Cabot Dimock wells cited for spills

13% Cabot wells gassed groundwater 1,614 violations on shale drillers in Pa.


44/57

Groundwater -

Texas vs New York

Postedby David Kozlowski on May 09, 2010

Water contamination is a

show stopperin New York

Water contamination less an

issue in arid, sparsely populated

area with deep water wells and

city-owned lakes, like Texas


45/57

Groundwater Solutions

Test water wells before and after frack Dope fracking fluid with tracers

Non toxic fracking fluids

Well set-backs tied to terrain

SEQR in floodplains and watersheds


46/57

20th Century Regulations in New York

Shale Gas is 21st Century Technology

dSGEIS premised on vertical well technology dSGEIS doesnt incorporate EPA study

DEC tasked with promoting drilling

The cop is the dealer

DEC under-funded and under-staffed DEC totally out-gunned by shale gas tech.


47/57

The Big Apples Big Carve Out

DEC gave NYC reservoirs special protection

from shale gas fracking based on politics, not science

DEC: They lack sedimentation filters

Radiation and toxic chemicals from spills and

wastewater are not sediment . . .

All New Yorkers need NYCs safeguards


48/57

Just how Bad is the dSGEIS?

1st draft, well set-back 50 from lake

2nd / current draft, set-back moved to 150

See Otsego2000.org

Solution : Scrap the dSGEIS


49/57

Compulsory Integration =

Private Eminent Domain

NY law rewritten in 2005 by the industry One of the worst CI laws in the US

60% acreage can force others into a well

DEC compels landowners to participate


50/57

The Legal Basis for Pooling

Oil field unitization was

developed to keep small owners

from drilling their own wells intoa shared or pooled reserve.

Unless every owner drills - the

adjacent wells will drain the

non-drilling owners share of theoil reserve.

The solution was to unitize or

pool the ownership of the

sharedoil or gas reserve.


51/57

Compulsory Integration NA to Shale Gas

Shale gas not a pooled reserve Not permeable enough to drain gas from

another property

No geological reason for CI of adjacent

owners

Compulsory integration of shale not constitutional


52/57

How Cheney Fracked the EPA

Fracking shale not regulated by the EPA

because . . .

Cheney got loopholes in Clean WaterAct,Safe Drinking WaterAct, and Clean AirAct in

2005


53/57

What the Feds Should Do

Pass the Frack Act Close Cheneys Last Loopholes

Determine life-cycle effects of shale gas

Put EPA back in the regulatory business


54/57

What Albany Should Do

Scrap the dSGEIS SEQR on

wells in sole source watersheds

wells in flood plains

Get DEC out of gas shale promotion Proof of final disposition of wastewater

Tax gas at the wellhead


55/57

What Local Government Should Do

Get notice of each well application - not afterthe permit issued

Enforce zoning controls over well sites

Enforce road use agreements

Adopt EMS plans

Lobby in Albany for safe water


56/57

What You Can Do Now

Vote forsafe water overiffyshale gas Call your Congressman

Call your state rep. / senator

Call your county and town board

Test your water wells before you get fracked


57/57

Now Go Get Busy

separating fracks from fiction, james northrup

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