Professionals: Gas
Industry Will Improve
Conference covers safer shale practices
Morgantown Dominion Post
3 November 2011
By David Beard
The gas industry is learning from its mistakes. That was the theme
of a conference held Wednesday at the Morgantown Event Center.
About 140-160 industry engineers and other professionals assembled
for the daylong “Engineering West Virginia’s Natural Gas Industry”
conference put on by the American Council of Engineering Companies
of West Virginia (ACECWV), the Independent Oil and Gas Association
of West Virginia and the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas
Association.
ACECWV Infrastructure Chair Ken Moran knows the horror stories.
The Dominion Post has reported on the plights of families in
Marion and Wetzel counties. The documentary “Gasland” chronicles
problems with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing across
the country. On a smaller scale, the 17-minute video “Fracking
Hell,” viewable on Youtube, nutshells the potential environmental
hazards.
That’s the reason for the conference, Moran told The Dominion
Post: “Let’s do this right so we don’t have those Youtube videos.”
“Fracking Hell,” a video report by Earth Focus and a British
ecological group, says the Marcellus boom, with 400,000 wells in
view and massive potential for hazardous waste dumping without
adequate oversight “is a catastrophe waiting to happen.”
In contrast, Jim Daley — director of natural gas and energy
programs for Pennsylvania-based Greenhorne & O’Mara Consulting
Engineers — touted the ever-evolving technologies in all aspects
of the industry embraced in “Best Management Practices.”
Expanding on a U.S. Bureau of Land management definition, he said,
“Best Management Practices protect people, wildlife, air quality
and landscapes. ... You’ve got to really put a lot of thought into
every one” of all the phases of a project, from research and
planning to design, production and reclamation.
Casings and cement
Much of the seminar was technical how-to on various aspects of
permitting, site design and such. But some speakers also touched
on how the industry has responded to past mistakes.
Dimock, Pa., is a classic horror story. Various experts and
officials have said the well operator’s failure to allow the
cement on well casings to set properly allowed methane to leech
into the town’s water supply. The water is unusable for drinking
or bathing, and the well operator is trucking in water for the
residents while treatment systems are being installed and tested.
State Office of Oil and Gas Chief James Martin hammered on that
problem. “I think the casing and cementing issue is just crucial
and critical. If there’s one area that needs be on sound footing,
it’s this area.” Talking about operators who worry about expenses,
he added, “This is one area I don’t think anybody wants to cut
corners on.”
Martin was happy that operators are trending away from disposing
of returned frack water and trending toward recycling it for
future frack jobs.
Preserving wetlands
Eli Wagoner, a Fairmont State-trained environmental engineer
for Colorado-based Antero Resources, stressed wetland
preservation. His company, he said, practices “100-percent
avoidance” of wetlands.
If plans developed from maps in satellite images in Colorado
reveal problems on the ground in West Virginia, they may redesign
the project, relocate it or even scrap it. “Ten square feet of
wetland will kill a pad in a heartbeat.”
Sometimes, if they can obtain a national permit, they may make a
minimal encroachment. He described a project in West Virginia that
called for trucks entering a pad to avoid two small wetlands by
driving through a residential area to another pad, then backing
into the target pad. They obtained a permit to cross the edge of
the wetlands, and protected the wetlands with two sets of silt
fencing.
Save the roads
The Dominion Post has chronicled the poor condition of roads in
the Silver Hill area of Wetzel County — potholes, ruts, narrow
lanes, stretches with no pavement at all. (Chesapeake Appalachia
recently told The Dominion Post it plans permanent repairs to
these roads.)
Gary Clayton, Division of Highways oil and gas permitting
coordinator, and Dan Metheny, with Fox Engineering of Ripley and
Fairmont, reviewed road regulations. The state requires road
repair and maintenance bonds for all oil and gas traffic on
secondary roads.
Metheny described how many roads evolved from wagon trails and
lack the foundation to support heavy, constant Marcellus well
traffic — so they fall apart.
He gave tips on avoiding damage liability and minimizing damage.
To avoid liability, he suggested pre-project video surveys of
roads (also required by law), vehicle counts, detailed
documentation of existing problems and loadrating analyses of
structures such as bridges and culverts.
To minimize damage, he suggested scheduling heavy loads during the
time of year when the roads are best and during off-peak hours,
driving slower, and seeking alternate routes — especially primary
roads such as interstates and state roads that are better built
and don’t require bonding.