Some Facts to Clear the Fog of Fracking
Robert Menard
Certified Purchasing Professional,
Certified Professional Purchasing Consultant, Certified Green Purchasing Professional, Certified Professional Purchasing Manager
Facts are stubborn things. Hot controversies tend to have each side lining up their own facts, which are usually composed of tangential facts mixed in with copious amounts of opinion or ideology. Fracking is the epitome of such controversies.
A Study Conducted by National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences published a Report on 12 September 2014 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It concludes that horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) do not cause contamination of drinking water sources. However, the report goes on to cite that faulty construction techniques, can potentially allow methane to migrate into wells and aquifers. The improper cementing of well casings and linings is cited as one of the faulty techniques. Curiously, poor cementation was cited as a contributory cause to the 2010 BP Deep Water Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
The researchers were led by Thomas Darrah, assistant professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University. His team analyzed drinking water samples from the Marcellus formation in PA and Barnett formation in TX. Of the 113 samples in the Marcellus, 7 showed some level of fugitive gas contamination. Of the 20 samples in the Barnett, only 1 instance of contamination was found.
Of the eight failures, four were attributed to poor cementing practices, three to faulty production casings, and one to an underground well failure. In every case, analysis of gases associated with methane appears to eliminate upward migration of methane caused by horizontal drilling or fracking.
Polemics
A spokesperson for Energy in Depth, a pro drilling trade association characterized the Report as debunking environmentalists claims that fracking causes environmental damage. Spokeswoman Katie Brown further emphasized context, claiming that less than 1% of US drilled wells account for groundwater contamination. She also suggested that some contamination was due to natural causes.
In rebuttal, the Sierra Club and Food and Water Watch, both notable for their left wing ideology, decry inadequate regulatory control and allege further that fracking increases migratory methane, climate change, and earthquakes, although factual documentations is lacking. They claim, absent proof, that even with more stringent regulations were “adequately enforced”, fracking would still be unsafe. This type of hysteria serves no one’s interests.
In a separate report, the Department of Energy’s Technology Laboratory examined a fracking operation in Greene County, PA. This site-specific study showed that fracture growth stopped about a mile below drinking-water aquifers and that upward migration of gas or fluids was negligible in the Marcellus formation.
What about Righting the Wrongs
The statistics divulged in the Report should give pause to the knee jerk, anti-fracking crowd who exhibit little care for facts that do not fit their “world view”.
Any operator who willingly or negligently fails to protect the environment should be severely disciplined, including fines and debarment for multiple offenses. We do not need the equivalent of another Deep Water Horizon disaster to act. Businesses know that training and caution are much cheaper in the long run. We should allow the proven operators to produce oil & gas while banishing those who disregard the environment.
Energy independence and environmentalism are not strange bed fellows but soul mates.