Do Gas Wells Pose Health Risk?
Expert says more research needed
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
28 August 2010
By Don Hopey,
Mushrooming Marcellus Shale gas well development in Pennsylvania is
releasing hazardous chemicals into the air and water, but more study is
needed to assess the human health risks they pose, according to Conrad
Dan Volz, director of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Healthy
Environments and Communities.
Dr. Volz, speaking to a seminar audience of about 300 at Pitt's
Graduate School of Public Health in Oakland on Friday, said emissions
of a variety of hazardous air and water contaminants from well
wastewater ponds -- including benzene, toluene and xylene -- is clearly
a cause for public health concern, especially as the number of deep
wells multiply in the coming years.
"We have little data now on the species of organic chemicals in the air
as a result of gases released from the fracking fluids. Research is
needed," said Dr. Volz, an assistant professor of environmental and
occupational health. "There's controversy over whether the levels of
gases released can produce health effects. But with thousands or tens
of thousands of wells and [gas pumping] stations, you can get an idea
of what the emissions will be and what the risk will be to human
health."
About 1,400 gas wells have been drilled into the state's 450
million-year-old Marcellus Shale since 2005. And state and industry
officials say another 35,000 to 50,000 wells could be drilled by 2030.
Each Marcellus Shale deep well uses between 2 million and 8 million
gallons of water treated with toxic chemicals for drilling and to
hydraulically fracture the shale rock to release the gas.
The water picks up organic compounds from the shale during the fracking
process. When the water returns to the surface, it is stored in waste
water ponds at the drill sites, where the hazardous pollutants can
enter the air and combine with nitrogen oxides to produce ground-level
ozone, the primary component of unhealthy smog.
"I see levels of ozone increasing with the onset of drilling," Dr. Volz
said. "The whole issue is one of mass, and with thousands more wells
there will be a mass of organic compounds available to get into the
air."
The Marcellus Shale formation lies 5,000 to 8,000 feet deep under
three-quarters of Pennsylvania and parts of New York, Maryland, Ohio
and West Virginia, a total of 95,000 square miles. Estimates of the
amount of extractable gas it contains have risen from 25 trillion cubic
feet a year ago to up to 516 trillion cubic feet today, enough to
supply all of the nation's current use for 15 to 30 years.
Dr. Volz acknowledged the economic benefits such a resource could bring
and said projections indicate that the nation's more than two dozen
so-called "unconventional" shale gas formations or "plays" will become
very important to the nation's future energy needs.
But he said storm water runoff from drilling sites, increasing use of
stream and river water supplies and management, treatment and disposal
of millions of gallons of used fracking fluids containing hazardous
pollutants will need to be reviewed and controlled to prevent community
health impacts.
In just the Monongahela River's watershed, between 612,000 and 2
million gallons per day of waste fracking fluid is discharged by 13
public and commercial water treatment facilities after limited
treatment. At the lower treatment amount, Dr. Volz said, the water
daily discharges contain 824,825 pounds of total dissolved solids,
15,000 pounds of barium, 16,737 pounds of strontium and 486,812 pounds
of chloride.
Also Friday, the state Department of Environmental Protection announced
that 41 of the 74 companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation
missed the state deadline to report the production levels of their
wells.
Drilling companies were required to report production totals by Aug. 15
for the period from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010. The next well
production reporting deadline is Feb. 15.
"When the General Assembly approved this law and the governor signed
it, they did so because they believed this requirement provided
much-needed transparency into the industry's operations," DEP Secretary
John Hanger said. "The fact that so many companies failed to meet the
deadline for providing this information is troubling."
He said the DEP will follow up to get the required information from
each firm that did not file a mandated report and pursue enforcement
actions if necessary.
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.