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.