Despite Overhaul, Gas Wastewater Still a Problem in Pa.
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
3 March 2011
David B. Caruso, The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Pennsylvania's natural gas drillers are still flushing vast
quantities of contaminated wastewater into rivers that supply drinking
water, despite major progress by the industry over the past year in
curtailing the practice.
Under pressure from environmentalists and state officials, energy
companies that have been drilling thousands of gas wells in the state's
countryside spent part of 2010 overhauling the way they handle the
chemically tainted and sometimes radioactive water that gushes from the
ground after a drilling technique known as high-volume hydraulic
fracturing, or fracking.
Until the second half of last year, Pennsylvania had been the only
state to allow most of this wastewater to be discharged into rivers
after only partial treatment. Other states required most or all of the
brine to be disposed of by injecting it deep underground.
In recent months, though, the industry has boasted big gains in the
amount of well wastewater that is reused, rather than trucked to
treatment plants that empty into rivers and streams.
New figures released by Pennsylvania regulators this week confirm many
of those claims, showing that for the first time, a majority of well
wastewater is now being recycled. But drilling in the vast, gas-rich
rock formation known as the Marcellus Shale is growing so explosively
that some of those gains are being erased by operators that still send
their waste to plants that discharge into rivers.
Of the 10.6 million barrels of wastewater that gushed from the wells in
the final six months of 2010, at least 65 percent was recycled, a
dramatic increase from previous years, when little or no recycling took
place. But the records also show that at least 2.8 million barrels of
well wastewater were sent to treatment plants that discharge into
rivers and streams.
By comparison, some 3.6 million barrels were sent to those same plants
during the 12-month period that ended on June 30.
That means that even with the recycling effort ramping up tremendously,
more tainted wastewater is being dumped into rivers now than was the
case a year ago.
A total of 1,386 new gas wells were drilled in the state last year, up
from 768 a year earlier. Thousands more well permits have been
approved. In 2010, 386 new Marcellus Shale wells were drilled in
Bradford County, the highest number in the state. In Tioga County, Pa.,
266 new Marcellus wells were drilled in 2010 -- the second highest
number in the state.
Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director of the Marcellus Shale
Coalition, a group that represents gas drillers, said in a statement
that huge improvements in the recycling rate should be viewed as a
success story.
"Pennsylvania is at the forefront of developing and implementing
industry-leading water recycling and reuse technologies aimed at
further reducing our environmental footprint. These commonsense
advancements are a win-win for the environment, (and) local communities
as well as our industry," she said.
Over the past year, most of the biggest drillers in Pennsylvania have
moved toward systems in which water is recycled in new well projects. A
variety of recycling methods exist, but most involve doing some light
treatment of the wastewater, mixing it with fresh water, and then
reusing it in the fracturing process. Companies benefit because it cuts
down on the amount of fresh water they need.
Seneca Resources Corp., a subsidiary of National Fuel, reported reusing
some 5 million barrels in well wastewater in the last 6 months of 2010.
Range Resources Appalachia, one of the first companies to heavily
promote recycling as a solution, also eschewed river dumping entirely.
Of the 400,000 barrels of wastewater it generated, much went into deep
disposal wells. The rest was recycled.
Other big producers, including Chief Oil & Gas, Cabot Oil & Gas
and Atlas Energy Inc., which was purchased by the Chevron Corp. in
February, reported a mix of disposal options that include both
recycling and the wastewater treatment plants that were previously
dominant.
Even as it has made changes, the industry has argued that its original
practice of sending most wastewater through partial treatment, and then
into rivers, posed no danger to the environment or drinking water.
The drilling boom in the Marcellus Shale and other parts of the U.S.
has been made possible by innovations in fracking, in which millions of
gallons of water laced with sand and chemicals are injected into wells
at such high pressure that the rocks split open, unlocking the gas.
Some of the water comes gushing back up, polluted with metals like
barium and strontium, and sometimes tainted with high levels of radium
or benzene.
Pennsylvania has a few plants that specialize in treating wastewater
from the oil, coal and gas business, and operators of these facilities
say that they are adept at removing many of the worrisome contaminants.
They are unable, however, to remove the salty dissolved solids and
chlorides that the wastewater picks up as it travels through the shale
beds. There have been concerns about the salt levels rising in some
Pennsylvania rivers that supply drinking water.
A smaller amount of wastewater, about 14 percent in the latest state
data, is also being sent to municipal sewage plants that lack the
ability to remove contaminants as efficiently as some of the treatment
facilities that specialize in oil and gas industry waste.
Some environmentalists have also questioned what happens to all the
water that is injected into gas wells but never comes back up. Industry
experts have argued that the water is contained in rock formations so
deep, there is no potential for it to escape and contaminate local
groundwater. But opponents of drilling frequently cite examples where
residential water wells have suddenly turned foul in areas where new
wells had been dug.