Driller, Professor At Odds; Air Emissions Are Questioned

Wheeling Intelligencer
19 February 2012
By Casey Junkins, Staff Writer

TRIADELPHIA - As is the case with coal-fired power plants, steel mills and vehicles that burn gasoline, natural gas drilling operations release some emissions into the atmosphere that federal officials believe may endanger public health.

Chesapeake Energy is applying for a permit from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to release certain amounts of chemicals - including formaldehyde, benzene, and nitrogen oxides - into the air from the Roy Ferrell drilling pad on Laidly Run Road, between Interstate 70 and Dallas, W.Va.

If the permit is approved, Chesapeake would not emit the chemicals via a visible flame, or flare.

The driller would instead release the emissions with "vapor combustors," which both DEP and Chesapeake officials said is more efficient than flaring while it also eliminating the visible flame familiar with flaring.

Stacey Brodak, Chesapeake's senior director of corporate development, said the Ferrell pad features two wells that have already been drilled and fracked, so they are now ready for production. Because Chesapeake is finding more natural gas liquids - ethane, propane, butane and pentane - in the "wet" gas area in Ohio and Marshall counties, Brodak said the company needs to use different emissions control technologies than in the "dry" gas areas of Pennsylvania.

"The equipment and process that we are proposing to install and operate at this facility reduce emissions and protect the environment," Brodak said.

Brodak said the planned emissions at the Ferrell pad "do not pose a risk to human health or the environment." Wheeling Jesuit University biology professor Ben Stout disagrees.

"These are all things that we have been trying to get the power plants to cut back on," said Stout. "This is really bad, especially when you consider how many of these wells we have around here now. And we are going to be getting more of them."

Chesapeake, in a legal advertisement published last week in The Intelligencer, is seeking an air quality permit from the state of West Virginia for the "potential to discharge" the following amounts of these materials on an annual basis from the operations at the Ferrell pad:

"It is vitally important to understand that the emissions listed in the legal notice are representative of a conservative "potential to emit" level typical of the air permitting process - and not necessarily indicative of the actual annual emissions of the facility," Brodak said.

Stout said while some of the numbers are relatively small compared to those released by power plants, the collective environmental impact from air emissions at the number of gas wells in place or planned for the Upper Ohio Valley could be considerable.

"When you multiply those numbers by the number of well sites, you are, in effect, turning a rural area into an industrial area," he said.

Stout said that, by comparison, an average-sized vehicle traveling 10,000 miles in a year would release the following emissions:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencey notes that the average person, through the natural process of breathing, produces approximately 839.5 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

Brodak said the majority of the air emissions accounted for in the permit are associated with various stationary equipment on the pad that help safely produce and transport the products from the wells to sales.

"There are two vapor combustors that will be located on this site and although they do reduce volatile organic compounds through combustion, it is an internal process with no visible flame," she said. Information from the DEP states that vapor combustors reduce the potential emissions for these pollutants by at least 98 percent.

"They also produce lower noise levels and are less intrusive to neighbors," said DEP Communications Director Kathy Cosco of the combustors compared to flares.

Brodak said levels of emissions from gas drilling sites vary based on the composition of the gas stream, well head pressure, the volume of natural gas liquids and the equipment used.

"The number of variables affecting air emissions from facilities make it difficult to predict from one location to another and is impossible for wells that have not yet been drilled," she said.

Stout said he does not want to see the natural gas and oil industry fail in the Upper Ohio Valley, but also wants to "get some science involved" in regulating the activity.

"Somebody just the other day asked me if they should move. I told them to wait, but we can't wait forever. We need to get a handle on this now," he added.

The DEP's Division of Air Quality will accept written comments regarding the air quality permit application until March 13 at 601 57th St., S.E.; Charleston, WV 25304. Call 304-926-0499 for more information.