Drillers Soaking It All Up: Water Sale Leaves Moundsville Dry
Wheeling WV Intelligencer
20
March
2011
By J.W. Johnson Jr, Staff Writer
MOUNDSVILLE-When Moundsville's reservoir dropped more than 10 feet in
the course of a few days last month, officials began searching for what
they believed would be a major water line leak.
What they didn't expect to find is that the water level drop would be
from natural gas drilling companies using 9 million gallons of water as
part of their hydraulic fracking operations.
City officials determined that two of the county's public service
districts, PSD 3 and PSD 4, had sold the 9 million gallons of water to
the drilling companies, which they are allowed to do. It appears the
only mistake made is that the PSDs did not inform city officials of the
water purchase, leaving Moundsville officials unaware that such a large
volume of water would be drawn from the reservoir.
The PSDs purchase water from Moundsville and then sell that water to
their customers - in this case, residents and businesses in the Forks
Ridge and Roberts Ridge areas as well as portions of U.S. 250 in
Marshall County. Moundsville City Manager Allen Hendershot said once a
PSD purchases water from the city, the district is free to sell it to
whomever it chooses.
"We were not prepared to handle that much (water) usage," Hendershot
said, adding that the winter months are typically considered low usage
months. "Had this happened in the summer, when we are prepared for high
usage, it would have been (the PSDs) normal usage."
Hendershot did not know which gas drilling company purchased the water,
or how much that company paid for the purchase.
He said he believed the water was put into holding ponds and used for
well fracking.
He added the city sells water to the PSDs at a reduced bulk rate and
resale prices are set by the individual PSDs, though he was unsure of
those prices. Messages left at the PSD 3 and PSD 4 offices were not
immediately returned last week.
To make up for the reservoir's 9-million-gallon water loss, Hendershot
said crews at the Moundsville Water Department opened dditional wells
and streamlined the process at the plant.
"We had fallen so far behind before we realized the issue and had to
increase the production and take steps to get the reservoir back to
normal," he said.
That included reducing the amount of water softening at the plant. The
nano-flirtation system used for softening water is time consuming and
produces a large amount of waste water in the process. Hendershot said
as a result, citizens were not getting the type of water they were used
to - meaning their water was harder than normal.
"We had to cut back on softening to make sure there was no excess water
being wasted," he said. "The water was up to health standards and was
perfectly fine, it just wasn't what we normally produce."
Hendershot said he has addressed the issue with officials from the
PSDs, who have been told to inform the city when they intend to use a
significant amount of water in a similar sale. He added he recently
spoke to officials from gas drilling companies at a task force meeting
and informed them of the city's concerns.
"They completely understood our concerns, but the oversight was not
with them," he said. "Ultimately, it is the PSDs who are responsible,
and they need to take steps to address a sale of this magnitude in
advance the next time."
And a next time likely will happen, as drilling companies extracting
natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation use up to 5 million
gallons of water per well as part of the hydraulic fracking process.
Fracking takes place after gas drillers bore horizontal shafts deep
into the earth. Millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are
then forced down the hole at high pressure, which breaks apart the
Marcellus Shale and releases some of the the trillions of cubic feet of
natural gas trapped in the formation.