Study Refutes Water Claims
Fracking does not cause contamination, university concludes
Wheeling Intelligencer
23 February 2012
By Casey Junkins, Staff Writer
WHEELING - As natural gas industry leaders tout a new report
stating that fracking is unlikely to contaminate groundwater,
biology professors set to speak on the topic Monday at Wheeling
Jesuit University question the study's merits.
The report, compiled by researchers at the University of Texas at
Austin, does not deny there are potential chemical and methane
contamination problems related to the entire drilling process.
Instead, it states that these hazards - well casing failures, poor
cement jobs or surface chemical spills - can occur at drill sites
independent from the actual fracking process.
"These problems are not unique to hydraulic fracturing," said
Charles "Chip" Groat, a UT Energy Institute associate director who
led the project.
"Fracking" is short for hydraulic fracturing, a process in which
drillers pump millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals
deep into the earth at high pressure in an effort to break shale
rock to release the natural gas and/or oil trapped within it.
If even 0.5 percent of the 5 million gallons of water, sand and
chemical solution used to frack a typical Marcellus Shale well in
the local area consists of chemicals, that means 25,000 gallons of
chemicals are being pumped into the ground at pressure as high as
10,000 pounds per square inch.
Not every frack job requires the same solution of chemicals, so
not all substances will be used for every well. Some common
chemicals used in fracking include hydrochloric acid, ethylene
glycol, isopropanol, glutaraldehyde, petroleum distillate, guar
gum, ammonium persulfate, formamide, borate salts, citric acid,
potassium chloride and sodium or potassium carbonate.
Such chemicals are used to help prevent corrosion, eliminate
bacteria, prevent scale deposits, initiate cracks in the rock and
for winterizing a well.
Locally, a few residents have complained of fracking releasing
methane into their water wells. However, the Texas study notes
that methane found in water wells often can be traced to naturally
occurring methane that likely was present prior to fracking.
"What we've tried to do is separate fact from fiction," Groat
said.
Kathryn Klaber, president of the Canonsburg, Pa.-based Marcellus
Shale Coalition, appreciates the Texas research.
"Entirely too often, the debate surrounding the responsible
development of shale gas is clouded by rhetoric that is
unsupported by the facts, proven data and substantiated science.
This new study, however, aims to objectively separate fact from
fiction, and does so effectively," she said.
However, Yuri Gorby, a biology professor at the University of
Southern California, disagrees with the Texas findings. He is a
graduate of both Bethany College and Brooke High School. He called
the UT study a "tremendously biased waste of effort."
"This a report of the state-of-the-art - of propaganda," he said.
"Their 'experts' at UT are engineers, geologists, economists and
media personnel. Not a single biologist, geochemist or health
professional.
"There are no new data presented, simply a compilation of
industry-generated declarations of how there are no scientific
data to link fracking to contamination," Gorby added.
Two local public information sessions are set to discuss the
impacts of fracking and drilling next week. The meetings are set
for 7 p.m. Monday at Wheeling Jesuit University in the National
Technology Transfer Center Auditorium and at 7 p.m. March 1 at
Bethany Town Hall in Bethany.
Gorby, who expects to speak at both events, said some of those who
believe the local area should support gas drilling because of the
economic development that may occur, even in the face of possible
environmental problems, are not seeing the whole picture.
"You cannot cut your throat for a glass of water," he said, adding
he would support a moratorium on fracking until the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency has had ample time to study the
procedure's impact.
The Texas study also conflicts with the work of Duke University
professor Robert Jackson, who said drinking water wells near gas
drilling activity in northern Pennsylvania registered higher
levels of methane than wells farther from the drilling.
"Most problems are caused by companies that are in a hurry. When
you are in a hurry, you make a mistake," he said recently.