Replies to post #582 on The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

I think you found the answer: benzene is in the flowback mixture.

The people who are concerned about contaminated water supplies probably couldn’t care less whether the benzene is in the fluid on the way down or on the way up.

[DewDiligence]

More on the alleged connection between benzene and gas drilling…

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703575004575043654062770726.html

›Gas Sites Spur Air Fears

Fort Worth, Texas, Officials Rethink Their Longtime Support for the Industry

By BEN CASSELMAN
FEBRUARY 4, 2010

The city of Fort Worth, Texas, one of the biggest beneficiaries in the natural-gas boom, is questioning its largely supportive stand of the industry after a study found high levels of hazardous chemicals in the air near production sites.

On Tuesday, Fort Worth's mayor said the city would follow up on the state-sponsored study with its own air-quality tests and could consider rewriting rules that allow drilling in residential neighborhoods.

"It's time we had some answers," Mayor Mike Moncrief said at a City Council meeting Tuesday evening.

The concerns over emissions come at a delicate time for natural-gas producers. New technologies have opened up huge new gas fields across the country, boosting U.S. supplies but also bringing drilling to areas such as Pennsylvania and New York that have seen little such activity for decades.

Companies have been forced to defend themselves against accusations that their drilling practices threaten the environment, especially drinking-water supplies. Industry leaders argue those concerns are baseless and have said opposition comes mostly from people who are being exposed to the industry for the first time.

But Fort Worth is a different story. The city has a long history with the oil industry, and when companies discovered a huge gas field in the area in the early 2000s, thousands of homeowners sold the right to drill beneath their properties.

A massive drilling boom brought thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of investment to Fort Worth. Concerns focused mostly on quality-of-life issues like noise and increased truck traffic.

"If you're a Texan, you grow up with the oil industry," said Libby Willis, president of the Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods. "You tend not to second-guess it."

Attitudes began to change last year when air-quality tests commissioned by the nearby town of Dish showed elevated levels of benzene and other chemicals. The industry and some independent experts have questioned the study's methodology, but the results prompted the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to conduct its own tests late last year.

The state commission tested 94 sites outside Fort Worth and found what it called "extremely high" levels of benzene, considered an immediate health concern, near two gas-production facilities. The highest level was comparable to levels experienced by drivers while filling their cars with gasoline.

The state study said the emissions were caused by mechanical problems that were quickly addressed. An additional 19 sites had elevated benzene levels that weren't an immediate health concern but that could cause problems over years of exposure. Benzene is a carcinogen that has been shown to cause leukemia in workers exposed to high levels over extended periods.

The other 73 sites tested didn't show high emission levels, and the study didn't collect air samples farther away from the well sites where residents would be more likely to breathe in the chemicals.

A separate, smaller study didn't find any problems within the city of Fort Worth.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said energy companies have been cooperating with its investigation.

Michael Honeycutt, director of the commission's toxicology division, said the study didn't suggest that gas production poses an immediate risk to residents' health. But he said the results were concerning because hundreds of wells are being drilled in heavily populated areas, meaning residents could be exposed for years.

"That could turn into an issue, especially with the density of those wells and associated equipment in areas of such population density," Mr. Honeycutt said.

The industry argues air-quality concerns are overblown and says companies quickly fix any leaks or other mechanical problems that lead to high emissions.

John Satterfield, director of environmental and regulatory affairs for gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp., says people are overreacting to the study.

"I think a lot of people have taken that information out of context and have run with it," he said. Mr. Satterfield says Chesapeake supports further testing but doesn't see the need for new regulations, as some local lawmakers have proposed.

Still, the political winds appear to be changing. City Councilor Kathleen Hicks on Tuesday night said she was reluctant to approve any more drilling permits until the city can determine the extent of the air-quality issues.

Mr. Moncrief said he didn't see any need to stop drilling without more evidence that there was a problem. But the controversy may already be having an impact.

On Tuesday, gas producer XTO Energy Inc. withdrew a request for City Council permission to drill several wells on a site that some residents said was too close to an elementary school.

XTO will instead drill four wells on four different nearby sites, which doesn't require City Council approval. The company, which last year agreed to be acquired by Exxon Mobil Corp., didn't return calls seeking comment.‹

[DewDiligence]

RRC Agrees to Disclose Fracking Chemicals

[Mandatory disclosure seems like a fait accompli if companies don’t do it voluntarily; even Rex Tillerson is on board with the idea, although I haven’t heard that XOM has actually disclosed anything yet.]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703834604575365360901763540.html

›JULY 14, 2010
By RUSSELL GOLD

Range Resources Corp. says it plans to disclose the chemicals used to hydraulically fracture natural-gas wells in Pennsylvania, confronting rising pressure from environmental groups worried that drilling could contaminate drinking water.

The decision, which Range said was voluntary, reflects the mounting distrust that energy companies face, especially in the wake of the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Even before the offshore spill, the industry was facing increasing scrutiny as gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale spreads across Pennsylvania and neighboring states.

In a significant break from past practice, Range says it will begin submitting a detailed list of all chemicals and additives, and the volumes, used to fracture each of its gas wells to the state.

"There has been so much misinformation about the Marcellus, we think it's prudent" to begin making this information public, says John Pinkerton, chairman and chief executive of the Fort Worth, Texas, company. Range holds leases for 1.3 million acres in the Marcellus and its ability to develop the gas is central to future growth. "It's the right thing to do morally and ethically, but it's also right for our shareholders," he says.

Range plans to make the disclosures with state Department of Environmental Protection within 30 days of "frac" jobs, and post the information online.

The decision was praised by environmental groups and some members of Congress who have proposed a law to require similar levels of disclosure.

The industry has resisted disclosing the chemicals it uses, although that has been softening recently. Exxon Mobil Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rex Tillerson told Congress earlier this year he "wouldn't object to any disclosure."

Loosening gas molecules from dense shale rock requires drilling a well, then pumping in thousands of gallons of fluid under high pressure to crack the rock open. Range used 4.5 million gallons in a simple fracture of a recent well—the overwhelming majority being water, according to a sample of the disclosure provided by the company. It also used smaller amounts of chemicals such as sodium hydroxide, ethylene glycol, hydrochloric acid and benzalkonium chloride.

Range says the purpose of disclosure was to dispel concerns that chemicals added to fracture fluids are a risk. The fluid is being pumped a mile beneath the groundwater and is 99.8% water and sand, the company says. And the chemicals are "comparable to household chemicals in a very diluted form," says Ray Walker, a Range executive.

Some politicians and environmental groups that support increased use of natural gas as a cleaner alternative to coal have expressed frustration with the industry's disclosures. Tim Wirth, a former Democratic senator from Colorado who has been a prominent advocate for natural gas, says the industry's penchant for secrecy is making it harder to win over skeptics.

"If there's no problem, then disclose," Mr. Wirth said. "That's the price of admission in this day and age."

Amy Mall, senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, says the industry has used hundreds of different chemicals in fracture fluids in the past. She said the disclosure will help homeowners who have had difficulty figuring out what chemicals to test for when they grew suspicious that their water well had been contaminated. "Many of these chemicals aren't part of a standard test; you have to know what to test for," she says.

Also, John Hanger, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said he was pleased with Range's new policy. "If one company can do it, everyone can do it—and should do it. The holding back of information in this area has fueled public suspicion." He said these Range disclosures and an ongoing study by the federal Environmental Protection Agency into chemicals used in fracture fluids should go a long way to create confidence.

Jan Jarrett, president of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, an environmental advocacy group, applauded Range's disclosure program as a "step in the right direction." She said the state should make it mandatory.‹

[DewDiligence]

GE Mobile Evaporator Helps NG Producers Recycle Water

[I thought recycling frac wastewater for the next frac was already industry-standard. Is this product a significant innovation?]

http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/78273/

›Trevose, PA, United States, 09/30/2010 - New mobile evaporator enables producers to recycle water, meet new discharge regulations and lower costs.

Further advancing a solution for unconventional gas production, GE (NYSE: GE) today introduced a mobile evaporator, specifically designed to help natural gas producers recycle untreated waters that result from the hydraulic fracturing process at the well site. GE’s new, completely mobilized evaporator is energy efficient, fully transportable, cost effective and will enable onsite frac water recycling, reducing the volume of wastewater and fresh water that needs to be hauled to and from the site.

There are massive amounts of natural gas and oil buried deep below the earth’s surface in shale reservoirs, which lack the natural permeability to flow to the surface for recovery. The process of hydraulic fracturing, which involves creating small fractures in the rock surrounding the reservoirs in order to create a path through which the natural gas and oil can flow, has enabled production from oil and gas resources that were otherwise thought unrecoverable.

While hydraulic fracturing increases the production rate of oil and gas wells, the process also uses a substantial amount of freshwater and produces billions of gallons of wastewater each year. To offset this impact on the environment, GE's mobile evaporator will treat the severely impaired waters, such as frac flowback and produced water, making it possible to reuse the water in the industrial process, reduce the amount of fresh water consumed and reduce any subsequent environmental impact from discharge.

GE’s mobile evaporator will be used for all unconventional gas and frac water applications in regions of the world where shale gas can be found, including North America, Europe, China and Indonesia. Initial applications will be in various North American markets such as the Marcellus Shale reservoirs located in the Appalachian Basin.

Regions like the Marcellus Shale are unique in that they produce very high total dissolved solids (TDS) frac water, have limited deep well capacity and increasingly stringent discharge regulations. The mobile evaporator will enable natural gas producers to significantly decrease their transportation and disposal costs. Additionally, the communities will benefit from less truck traffic and decreased wear and tear on local roads. The first units will be available in early 2011.

“GE’s objective is to create a solution that not only lessens the environmental impact of gas drilling, but also one that reduces the current treatment cost to service providers and producers. As the mobile evaporator illustrates, our research and development teams are continually working toward offering new solutions to meet our customers’ challenges throughout the industry,” said Jeff Connelly, vice president, engineered systems—water and process technologies for GE Power & Water.

The mobile evaporator is a 50-gallon per minute, horizontal, shell and tube, forced circulation, mechanical vapor recompression system. Unlike other treatment methods, thermal evaporation removes nearly all of the impurities in the water, allowing producers to easily meet the newly passed Pennsylvania discharge regulations of less than 500 TDS. The mobile evaporator is mounted on a single trailer that will allow it to reach the most remote drilling sites. Additionally, its unique design has been optimized for maximum energy efficiency.

GE has offered thermal evaporation technology for more than 40 years, but this is the first time that the technology used for the treatment of shale gas frac water has been completely mobilized.‹