Learn More:
1. texassharon.com Current news on fracking in Texas plus resources/links for surviving fracking.
2. http://insideclimatenews.org/fracking-eagle-ford-shale-big-oil-bad-air-texas-prairie Based on an eight month investigation, this report concentrates on air pollution from fracking the Eagle Ford Shale. Scroll to bottom of report for links to additional importanat reports.
3. Reckless Endangerment While Fracking the Eagle Ford - Government Fails, Public Health Suffers and Industry Profits from the Shale Oil Boom (Sept 2013):
http://www.earthworksaction.org/files/publications/FULL-RecklessEndangerment-sm.pdf
4. The politics - polluters protected, but those of us in the Eagle Ford shale are exempted from Texas legislation passed in 2011 to protect others (about half the DFW counties):
http://stories.weather.com/fracking#chapter-70413
5. Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) - issues permits that allow the drilling of oil and gas wells (many permits issued in as little as two days). The RRC recommends local regulations and protections to ensure adequate protections (including for flaring of gas, pipelines (air & water pollution & eminent domaine issues), etc). See the RRC site for data query of permits issued, production data (about a three month delay between extraction and posting of data to RRC website), etc:
http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/data/online/index.php
6. Economics of Fracking - this important talk by Deborah Rogers shatters industry hype - details enormous economic costs to communities, environmental degradation, destruction of roads (NOT offset by taxes), lack of promised jobs, reserves vs actual production. She lives in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, the Barnett Shale, with up to 24 wellbores per pad site because the shale wells depleted so quickly that new wells had to be drilled continuously to maintain cash flow.
DFW has over 2000 wells, 800,000 people, DFW air now more polluted than Houston!
Benzene (carcinogen, may cause reproductive and/or developmental delays, death) detected at 94% of sites tested within the city proper in June 2011. TCEQ confirmed that drilling contributes more air toxics than ALL cars, trucks, and airplanes in the region COMBINED. RRC data, she examined 9,100 of the 15,000 wells in Barnett Shale, less than 6% meet minimum economic thresholds…
Barnett Shale was (originally) touted as being an economic powerhouse for the next 40 or 50 years - it actually lasted 6-7 years!
Water permanently removed from the hydrological cycle due to injected chemicals and radioactive materials that come out of the formation.
Shale gas exportation (we keep the pollution, other countries get the gas, our prices go up), first 8 permits alone have already committed 20% of US shale gas supply to overseas export.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYaC7L2svoQ
In another talk, she details recovery efficiences of conventional oil, 75-85% VS shale 4-10%(6.5% average)!
2012 TEXAS revenue from oil and gas production: 3.68 Billion
Road Damage Costs: $4.8 Billion
plus crop damage from ozone in the $10-100 million range.
plus water, other air, land, health costs, etc
Actions of industry show lack of confidence in actual production vs reserves.
Revenue to Fort Worth:
2008 $50 million from 44 shale gas wells
2012 dropped to $23 million from 397 wells within the city proper
Dozens of similar examples.
www.energypolicyforum.org
www.shalebubble.org
www.richardheinberg.com
7. Water Pollution - when a well casing failure occurs it is usually near the top, where the pressure from the slurry is the strongest, also where it is closest to the water table. The industry claims to protect the water with well casings lined in multiple layers of concrete and cement however these are two materials that corrode when in contact with water, and even more so when that water has a higher salinity.
Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, an industry expert and professor of engineering at Cornell University, analyzed numbers from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and found that “6.2% of all well casings fail initially, leading to methane migration. 60% of all well bores fail over 20 years.”
There is also a great deal of water contamination due to…carelessness… leaking flowback storage ponds, surface spills and illegal dumping of flowback fluid.
Source: p 34, Shalefield Stories - Personal and Collected Testimonies, published by Steel Valley Printers, January 2014; For information specific to TEXAS see pp 17-19, 25, 34.
www.pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com
8. Oil wells in production in Brazos County:
http://www.texas-drilling.com/brazos-county
9. Permits issued to drill in our area:
http://www.shaleexperts.com/plays/eagle-ford-shale/county/brazos-county-tx
10. Find a well:
http://www.fracfocusdata.org/DisclosureSearch/MapSearch.aspx
11. Dr. Dawson Lim, M.D., medical oncologist:
“…There are over 650 chemical compounds in fracking fluids that may cause cancer in humans. There is NO minimal exposure to these toxins that is safe…”
12. Air Quality study of Eagle Ford commissoned by the state of Texas, released mid-April 2014. Report offers grim predictions, lots of detailed information. Projects the number of wells drilled in the Eagle Ford could quadruple from about 8,000 today to 32,000. Airborne releases of VOCs could increase 281% during peak ozone season compared to 2012. The 260 page report: aacog.com website, posted April 4, 2014 and April 14:
“There are three different types of wells in the Eagle Ford Shale development included in the emission inventory: dry gas wells, wet gas wells that produce condensate, and oil wells that can also produce casinghead gas.
Hydrocarbons are released in the Eagle Ford Shale during five main phases of well construction and production: exploration and pad construction, drilling operation, hydraulic fracturing and completion operation, production, and midstream sources. Emissions sources include drill rigs, compressors, pumps, heaters, other non-road equipment, process emissions, flares, storage tanks, fugitive, and on-road.
Production in the Eagle Ford emitted an estimated 66 tons of NOX and 101 tons of VOCs per ozone season day in 2011. For the 2012 photochemical model projection year, emissions increased to 111 tons of NOX and 229 tons of VOCs per ozone season day. To estimate emissions for 2018, calculations were based on three potential levels of development. NOX emissions increase slightly for the low development scenario in 2018 (113 tons per day). NOX emissions also increase under the 2018 moderate scenario (146 tons per day) and the high scenario (188 tons per day).
By 2018, VOC emissions are expected to increase significantly to 338 tons per ozone season day under the low development scenario and to 872 tons per ozone season day under the high development scenario.
http://www.aacog.com/documentcenter/view/1913612.
5.1 Hydraulic Fracturing Description
“… In this process, the reservoir rock is hydraulically overloaded to the point of rock fracture. The fracture is induced to propagate away from the well bore by pumping hydraulic fracturing fluid into the well bore under high pressure. The fracture is kept open after the end of the job by the introduction of a solid proppant (sand, ceramic, bauxite, or other material), by eroding the sides of the fracture walls and creating rubble by high injection rates, or for carbonate formations, by etching the walls with acid. The fracture thus created and held open by the proppant materials becomes a high conductivity pathway to the well bore for reservoir fluid.”216 “After fracturing is completed, the internal pressure of the geologic formation causes the injected fracturing fluids to rise to the surface where it may be stored in tanks or pits prior to disposal or recycling. Recovered fracturing fluids are referred to as flowback.”217
“In high angle or horizontal wells, it is common to perform multiple fracturing jobs (multi stage fracturing) along the path of the bore hole through a reservoir. Fracturing jobs are often high rate, high volume, and high pressure pumping operations. They are accomplished by bringing very large truck-mounted diesel-powered pumps (e.g., 2,000 hp or more) to the well site to inject the fracturing fluids and material, and to power the support equipment such as fluid blenders.218 …”“
5.1.2 Hydraulic Fracturing and Perforating Steps
“Perforating is simply the use of a tube equipped with charges to perforate the well casing. Once a section is perforated it is then plugged to increase the effectiveness of the next stage of the hydraulic fracturing. Perforating and plugging are conducted using the large 200 ton crane hooked up to a slickline, which is a long pipe that is used to lubricate the perforating gun and plug. The perforating gun consists of several smaller guns (or charge sections). The number of guns is well dependent….
“ 5.6 Completion Venting
As stated by ENVIRON, “once drilling and other well construction activities are finished, a well must be completed in order to begin producing. The completion process requires venting of the well for a sustained period of time to remove mud and other solid debris in the well, to remove any inert gas used to stimulate the well (such as CO2 and/or N2) and to bring the gas composition to pipeline grade”. 277 “Unless companies bring special equipment to the well site to capture the natural gas and liquids that are produced during well completions, these gases will be vented to the atmosphere or flared”.278”
“6.3… Operators in the Eagle Ford often use flares to burn off natural gas in liquid production wells to obtain the oil and condensate. Visual inspections of Eagle Ford wells show a significant number of flares operating in the region”
See night photo of flares in Eagle Ford, Figure 6.3 (these are all producing air pollution and this natural gas could be captured and used instead)
7.1.2 Processing Facilities
“Processing facilities generally remove impurities from the natural gas, such as carbon dioxide, water, and hydrogen sulfide. These facilities may also be designed to remove ethane, propane, and butane fractions from the natural gas for downstream marketing. Processing facilities are usually the largest emitting natural gas-related point sources including multiple emission sources such as, but not limited to equipment leaks, storage tanks, separator vents, glycol dehydrators, flares, condensate and wastewater loading, compressors, amine treatment and sulfur recovery units.386”
7.1.5 Saltwater Disposal Sites
“Oil and gas reservoirs in the Eagle Ford are located in porous rocks, which also contain saltwater. When the well is hydraulic fractured, completed, and production starts, significant amounts of flowback and produce water is returned to the surface. “Flowback is a mixture of the water used in the hydraulic fracturing process, chemicals and water returning from the geological formation being drilled. Typically, the volume of flowback water is greater during the first week after completion and through the first month. It also has a lower salinity of up to 80,000 ppm when compared to produced water. Produced water is naturally occurring wastewater from the geological formation being drilled. The salinity of produced water may range from 80,000 to 180,000 ppm.”396
7.2 “… Total annual permitted emissions from Eagle Ford oil and gas midstream facilities were 11,004 tons of VOC, 11,308 tons of NOX, and 11,165 tons of CO (Table 7-1) in April 2012”
Page 8-4, “Drill rigs operations are focusing on the Eagle Ford because it is “rated as the lowest cost play among North American shale plays in the liquids rich regions”. 432 Since profits per well are significantly higher in the Eagle Ford and the cost for drilling is lower, drill rig operators and oil companies are attracted to south Texas. Figure 8-4 shows that Eagle Ford had the second highest well return rate of the major unconventional shale plays at 46 percent.433 Only the Bakken, with a return rate of 50 percent, was higher than the Eagle Ford.”
Page 8-27, “As mentioned, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates 30 percent of production occurs within the first year.489 However, in the analysis of the 99 wells that were used to develop the average decline curve in the Eagle Ford, 51.3 percent of estimated total production occurred in the first year (Table 8-13)…Once a well has been in production for 3 to 4 years, most of the product has been removed from the well and future production is minimal.”
See Table 9-3 for estimated air pollution levels in Brazos County.
13. What the Railroad Commission (RRC) has jurisdiction over and who to contact:
The Railroad Commission regulates the exploration and production of oil and natural gas in Texas. The Commission’s primary responsibilities include: preventing waste of oil and gas resources; protection of surface and subsurface water; and, ensuring all mineral interest owners have an opportunity to develop their fair share of the minerals underlying their property.
What the Railroad Commission does NOT have jurisdiction over and who to contact:
The Railroad Commission does not have jurisdiction over roads, traffic, noise, odors, leases, pipeline easements, or royalty payments.
Roads and Traffic: The Railroad Commission does not have jurisdiction over, and exercises no regulatory authority with respect to, private or public roads or road use. Permits issued by the Commission for oil and gas exploration, production, and waste disposal do not limit any independent authority of a municipality, county or other state agencies with respect to road use.
The Texas Department of Transportation oversees the construction and maintenance of state highways within their jurisdiction. In addition, TXDOT is responsible for issuing access permits to well sites from a roadway on the state highway system.
Noise: The Commission has no statutory authority over noise or nuisance related issues. Noise and nuisance related issues would be governed by local ordinances.
Odors and Air Contaminants: The Railroad Commission does not have regulatory authority over odors or air contaminants. However, for a well within the city limits, the city may enact ordinances regarding odors or other nuisances. In addition, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has jurisdiction over odor and air contaminants. Please see http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/compliance/complaints/odor_complaint.html.
http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/eagleford/index.php
14. We get our water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, an aquifer that also sits below several other counties where numerous oil and gas wells have been, or will be, fracked. What tests, forecasts, and projections are being done to ensure the quality and quantity of water in our aquifer is protected?
15. An excellent resource about oil and gas development is the manual, Oil and Gas At Your Door? A Landowner’s Guide to Oil and Gas Development. This book is available at the public library in Bryan or as a free pdf file at this link:
http://www.earthworksaction.org/files/publications/LOguide2005book.pdf?pubs/LOguide2005book.pdf
16. Analysis of Texas Oil and Gas industry, limited oversight. RRC has the dual role of maximizing development of oil and gas (permits often issued two days after application) while also protecting public safety and the environment:
Inspections are decreasing despite additional staff
Violations remain high, and repeat offenders are not deterred by current enforcement actions
Enforcement tools such as severances are not being used effectively
Minimum and maximum penalties are too low to deter would-be violators
RRC should increase transparency of enforcement data, and encourage greater citizen participation in enforcement
- See more at: http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/texas_oil_gas_enforcement#.U1fEhl7oaWw
http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/texas_oil_gas_enforcement#.U1fEhl7oaWw
17. Unplugged, abandoned oil and gas wells left for government to plug…environmental risks increase due to fracking boom:
http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/04/25/orphans-of-the-oil-fields-the-cost-of-abandoned-wells/
Scattered across the oil and gas fields of Texas there are at least 7,869 abandoned wells. The Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) which regulates drilling calls them orphans.
By the RRC’s count, there are an additional 5,445 wells that are inactive and whose operators are delinquent in meeting regulations. Add to all that an unknown number of orphan wells drilled decades ago for which records have been lost, if they ever existed.
RRC orphan well database:
http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/compliance/orphanwells/index.php
Problems/concerns, abandoned wells in Texas:
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/06/09/texas-abandoned-oil-equipment-spurs-pollution-fear/
A study prepared in 2011 for the Ground Water Protection Council based in Oklahoma cited 30 episodes from 1993 to 2008 of orphaned wells or abandoned drilling sites’ polluting groundwater in Texas.
The Railroad Commission estimates that two to three cases of groundwater contamination have been caused by abandoned wells since 2008, said Ramona Nye, a commission spokeswoman.
Some say hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the process of breaking up oil or gas-rich rock by blasting water, sand and chemicals, has created additional concerns about the abandoned wells.
Underground disposal wells, which are used to store wastewater from fracking operations, are another source of concern. The Railroad Commission requires that disposal well operators survey a quarter-mile radius around their site for non-plugged wells to ensure that pollution will not have a pathway to the surface.
Ed Walker, the general manager of the Wintergarden Groundwater Conservation District in South Texas, said that a few years ago, water came up out of an abandoned 1940s-era well that lay slightly more than a quarter-mile from a disposal well.Plugging old wells is expensive, and costs have risen as the oil industry gets busier, said Debbra Hastings, executive vice president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association.
Last month, the three railroad commissioners approved contracts for plugging wells that ranged from $30,000 per well, in Liberty County, east of Houston, to $128,000 per well, in Jim Hogg and Webb counties in South Texas.
Plugging abandoned wells sitting in shallow water — a priority of the commission, Craddick said — is costlier still, and can require scuba divers and barges. In the 2012 fiscal year, the Railroad Commission spent more than $170,000 apiece to plug a dozen of those wells.
(last updated July 4, 2014)
18. League of Independent Voters of Texas takes on Fracking:
http://independentleaguetx.org/beefs/texas-fracking/
Here are some of the concerns that need to be addressed:
• Bad casing jobs, allowing frack fluids to seep into the ground and shallow aquifers!
• Throwing frack fluids in unlined pits, even over aquifers!
• Not recycling as much frack fluids as is now possible, to save our precious drinking water.
• Tearing up roads and not paying for the damage.
• No chemical markers to hold those companies accountable when they contaminate our water. (Perry vetoed the bill for it!)
• Denying there is a problem with air pollution.
• Denying open records to the public by using private rather than public universities for study.
• Denying that there is any a problem whatsoever!
Statement by expert regarding dangers of fracking and companies doing the fracking:
http://independentleaguetx.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/My-name-is-Bill-Hornbuckle.pdf
Building and operating safer gas wells:
http://www.slb.com/~/media/Files/resources/oilfield_review/ors03/aut03/p62_76.ashx
19. We are constantly told by industry that fracking has been around a long time. This is very misleading, as revealed by this industry article posted to ASME (Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society):
"...A typical early fracture took 750 gallons of fluid (water, gelled crude oil, or gelled kerosene) and 400 lbm of sand. By contrast, modern methods can use up to 8 million gallons of water and 75,000 to 320,000 pounds of sand. Fracking fluids can take the form of foams, gels, or slickwater combinations and often include benzene, hydrochloric acid, friction reducers, guar gum, biocides, and diesel fuel. Likewise, the hydraulic horsepower (hhp) needed to pump fracking material has risen from an average of about 75 hhp in the early days to an average of more than 1,500 hhp today, with big jobs requiring more than 10,000 hhp.
Fracking’s new golden age began in 2003, as oil and gas producers began to explore the nation’s massive shale formations in earnest. "
https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/fossil-power/fracking-a-look-back
(2012) technology vs. the old hydrofrac technology:
(a) 750 gallons of fluid (water, gelled crude oil, or gelled kerosene) vs. 8 million gallons of water
(b) 400 lbm of sand vs. 75,000 to 320,000 pounds of sand
(c) 75 hydraulic horsepower vs. 1500 hhp, and 10,000 hhp for big jobs;
Also, note the number of permits issued by RRC since 2008 in Eagle Ford. If fracking hasn’t changed, why the huge increase in permits and why wasn’t this area fracked much earlier when the price of oil was higher? Why did they lobby for exemptions to key provisions of federal clean air and water legislation?
26 permits in 2008 compared to 5,254 in 2014
http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/media/25833/eaglefordshaledrillingpermitsissued_2008-112014.pdf
This is not your grandfather’s fracking. This in not the same old technology.
1. texassharon.com Current news on fracking in Texas plus resources/links for surviving fracking.
2. http://insideclimatenews.org/fracking-eagle-ford-shale-big-oil-bad-air-texas-prairie Based on an eight month investigation, this report concentrates on air pollution from fracking the Eagle Ford Shale. Scroll to bottom of report for links to additional importanat reports.
3. Reckless Endangerment While Fracking the Eagle Ford - Government Fails, Public Health Suffers and Industry Profits from the Shale Oil Boom (Sept 2013):
http://www.earthworksaction.org/files/publications/FULL-RecklessEndangerment-sm.pdf
4. The politics - polluters protected, but those of us in the Eagle Ford shale are exempted from Texas legislation passed in 2011 to protect others (about half the DFW counties):
http://stories.weather.com/fracking#chapter-70413
5. Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) - issues permits that allow the drilling of oil and gas wells (many permits issued in as little as two days). The RRC recommends local regulations and protections to ensure adequate protections (including for flaring of gas, pipelines (air & water pollution & eminent domaine issues), etc). See the RRC site for data query of permits issued, production data (about a three month delay between extraction and posting of data to RRC website), etc:
http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/data/online/index.php
6. Economics of Fracking - this important talk by Deborah Rogers shatters industry hype - details enormous economic costs to communities, environmental degradation, destruction of roads (NOT offset by taxes), lack of promised jobs, reserves vs actual production. She lives in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, the Barnett Shale, with up to 24 wellbores per pad site because the shale wells depleted so quickly that new wells had to be drilled continuously to maintain cash flow.
DFW has over 2000 wells, 800,000 people, DFW air now more polluted than Houston!
Benzene (carcinogen, may cause reproductive and/or developmental delays, death) detected at 94% of sites tested within the city proper in June 2011. TCEQ confirmed that drilling contributes more air toxics than ALL cars, trucks, and airplanes in the region COMBINED. RRC data, she examined 9,100 of the 15,000 wells in Barnett Shale, less than 6% meet minimum economic thresholds…
Barnett Shale was (originally) touted as being an economic powerhouse for the next 40 or 50 years - it actually lasted 6-7 years!
Water permanently removed from the hydrological cycle due to injected chemicals and radioactive materials that come out of the formation.
Shale gas exportation (we keep the pollution, other countries get the gas, our prices go up), first 8 permits alone have already committed 20% of US shale gas supply to overseas export.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYaC7L2svoQ
In another talk, she details recovery efficiences of conventional oil, 75-85% VS shale 4-10%(6.5% average)!
2012 TEXAS revenue from oil and gas production: 3.68 Billion
Road Damage Costs: $4.8 Billion
plus crop damage from ozone in the $10-100 million range.
plus water, other air, land, health costs, etc
Actions of industry show lack of confidence in actual production vs reserves.
Revenue to Fort Worth:
2008 $50 million from 44 shale gas wells
2012 dropped to $23 million from 397 wells within the city proper
Dozens of similar examples.
www.energypolicyforum.org
www.shalebubble.org
www.richardheinberg.com
7. Water Pollution - when a well casing failure occurs it is usually near the top, where the pressure from the slurry is the strongest, also where it is closest to the water table. The industry claims to protect the water with well casings lined in multiple layers of concrete and cement however these are two materials that corrode when in contact with water, and even more so when that water has a higher salinity.
Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, an industry expert and professor of engineering at Cornell University, analyzed numbers from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and found that “6.2% of all well casings fail initially, leading to methane migration. 60% of all well bores fail over 20 years.”
There is also a great deal of water contamination due to…carelessness… leaking flowback storage ponds, surface spills and illegal dumping of flowback fluid.
Source: p 34, Shalefield Stories - Personal and Collected Testimonies, published by Steel Valley Printers, January 2014; For information specific to TEXAS see pp 17-19, 25, 34.
www.pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com
8. Oil wells in production in Brazos County:
http://www.texas-drilling.com/brazos-county
9. Permits issued to drill in our area:
http://www.shaleexperts.com/plays/eagle-ford-shale/county/brazos-county-tx
10. Find a well:
http://www.fracfocusdata.org/DisclosureSearch/MapSearch.aspx
11. Dr. Dawson Lim, M.D., medical oncologist:
“…There are over 650 chemical compounds in fracking fluids that may cause cancer in humans. There is NO minimal exposure to these toxins that is safe…”
12. Air Quality study of Eagle Ford commissoned by the state of Texas, released mid-April 2014. Report offers grim predictions, lots of detailed information. Projects the number of wells drilled in the Eagle Ford could quadruple from about 8,000 today to 32,000. Airborne releases of VOCs could increase 281% during peak ozone season compared to 2012. The 260 page report: aacog.com website, posted April 4, 2014 and April 14:
“There are three different types of wells in the Eagle Ford Shale development included in the emission inventory: dry gas wells, wet gas wells that produce condensate, and oil wells that can also produce casinghead gas.
Hydrocarbons are released in the Eagle Ford Shale during five main phases of well construction and production: exploration and pad construction, drilling operation, hydraulic fracturing and completion operation, production, and midstream sources. Emissions sources include drill rigs, compressors, pumps, heaters, other non-road equipment, process emissions, flares, storage tanks, fugitive, and on-road.
Production in the Eagle Ford emitted an estimated 66 tons of NOX and 101 tons of VOCs per ozone season day in 2011. For the 2012 photochemical model projection year, emissions increased to 111 tons of NOX and 229 tons of VOCs per ozone season day. To estimate emissions for 2018, calculations were based on three potential levels of development. NOX emissions increase slightly for the low development scenario in 2018 (113 tons per day). NOX emissions also increase under the 2018 moderate scenario (146 tons per day) and the high scenario (188 tons per day).
By 2018, VOC emissions are expected to increase significantly to 338 tons per ozone season day under the low development scenario and to 872 tons per ozone season day under the high development scenario.
http://www.aacog.com/documentcenter/view/1913612.
5.1 Hydraulic Fracturing Description
“… In this process, the reservoir rock is hydraulically overloaded to the point of rock fracture. The fracture is induced to propagate away from the well bore by pumping hydraulic fracturing fluid into the well bore under high pressure. The fracture is kept open after the end of the job by the introduction of a solid proppant (sand, ceramic, bauxite, or other material), by eroding the sides of the fracture walls and creating rubble by high injection rates, or for carbonate formations, by etching the walls with acid. The fracture thus created and held open by the proppant materials becomes a high conductivity pathway to the well bore for reservoir fluid.”216 “After fracturing is completed, the internal pressure of the geologic formation causes the injected fracturing fluids to rise to the surface where it may be stored in tanks or pits prior to disposal or recycling. Recovered fracturing fluids are referred to as flowback.”217
“In high angle or horizontal wells, it is common to perform multiple fracturing jobs (multi stage fracturing) along the path of the bore hole through a reservoir. Fracturing jobs are often high rate, high volume, and high pressure pumping operations. They are accomplished by bringing very large truck-mounted diesel-powered pumps (e.g., 2,000 hp or more) to the well site to inject the fracturing fluids and material, and to power the support equipment such as fluid blenders.218 …”“
5.1.2 Hydraulic Fracturing and Perforating Steps
“Perforating is simply the use of a tube equipped with charges to perforate the well casing. Once a section is perforated it is then plugged to increase the effectiveness of the next stage of the hydraulic fracturing. Perforating and plugging are conducted using the large 200 ton crane hooked up to a slickline, which is a long pipe that is used to lubricate the perforating gun and plug. The perforating gun consists of several smaller guns (or charge sections). The number of guns is well dependent….
“ 5.6 Completion Venting
As stated by ENVIRON, “once drilling and other well construction activities are finished, a well must be completed in order to begin producing. The completion process requires venting of the well for a sustained period of time to remove mud and other solid debris in the well, to remove any inert gas used to stimulate the well (such as CO2 and/or N2) and to bring the gas composition to pipeline grade”. 277 “Unless companies bring special equipment to the well site to capture the natural gas and liquids that are produced during well completions, these gases will be vented to the atmosphere or flared”.278”
“6.3… Operators in the Eagle Ford often use flares to burn off natural gas in liquid production wells to obtain the oil and condensate. Visual inspections of Eagle Ford wells show a significant number of flares operating in the region”
See night photo of flares in Eagle Ford, Figure 6.3 (these are all producing air pollution and this natural gas could be captured and used instead)
7.1.2 Processing Facilities
“Processing facilities generally remove impurities from the natural gas, such as carbon dioxide, water, and hydrogen sulfide. These facilities may also be designed to remove ethane, propane, and butane fractions from the natural gas for downstream marketing. Processing facilities are usually the largest emitting natural gas-related point sources including multiple emission sources such as, but not limited to equipment leaks, storage tanks, separator vents, glycol dehydrators, flares, condensate and wastewater loading, compressors, amine treatment and sulfur recovery units.386”
7.1.5 Saltwater Disposal Sites
“Oil and gas reservoirs in the Eagle Ford are located in porous rocks, which also contain saltwater. When the well is hydraulic fractured, completed, and production starts, significant amounts of flowback and produce water is returned to the surface. “Flowback is a mixture of the water used in the hydraulic fracturing process, chemicals and water returning from the geological formation being drilled. Typically, the volume of flowback water is greater during the first week after completion and through the first month. It also has a lower salinity of up to 80,000 ppm when compared to produced water. Produced water is naturally occurring wastewater from the geological formation being drilled. The salinity of produced water may range from 80,000 to 180,000 ppm.”396
7.2 “… Total annual permitted emissions from Eagle Ford oil and gas midstream facilities were 11,004 tons of VOC, 11,308 tons of NOX, and 11,165 tons of CO (Table 7-1) in April 2012”
Page 8-4, “Drill rigs operations are focusing on the Eagle Ford because it is “rated as the lowest cost play among North American shale plays in the liquids rich regions”. 432 Since profits per well are significantly higher in the Eagle Ford and the cost for drilling is lower, drill rig operators and oil companies are attracted to south Texas. Figure 8-4 shows that Eagle Ford had the second highest well return rate of the major unconventional shale plays at 46 percent.433 Only the Bakken, with a return rate of 50 percent, was higher than the Eagle Ford.”
Page 8-27, “As mentioned, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates 30 percent of production occurs within the first year.489 However, in the analysis of the 99 wells that were used to develop the average decline curve in the Eagle Ford, 51.3 percent of estimated total production occurred in the first year (Table 8-13)…Once a well has been in production for 3 to 4 years, most of the product has been removed from the well and future production is minimal.”
See Table 9-3 for estimated air pollution levels in Brazos County.
13. What the Railroad Commission (RRC) has jurisdiction over and who to contact:
The Railroad Commission regulates the exploration and production of oil and natural gas in Texas. The Commission’s primary responsibilities include: preventing waste of oil and gas resources; protection of surface and subsurface water; and, ensuring all mineral interest owners have an opportunity to develop their fair share of the minerals underlying their property.
What the Railroad Commission does NOT have jurisdiction over and who to contact:
The Railroad Commission does not have jurisdiction over roads, traffic, noise, odors, leases, pipeline easements, or royalty payments.
Roads and Traffic: The Railroad Commission does not have jurisdiction over, and exercises no regulatory authority with respect to, private or public roads or road use. Permits issued by the Commission for oil and gas exploration, production, and waste disposal do not limit any independent authority of a municipality, county or other state agencies with respect to road use.
The Texas Department of Transportation oversees the construction and maintenance of state highways within their jurisdiction. In addition, TXDOT is responsible for issuing access permits to well sites from a roadway on the state highway system.
Noise: The Commission has no statutory authority over noise or nuisance related issues. Noise and nuisance related issues would be governed by local ordinances.
Odors and Air Contaminants: The Railroad Commission does not have regulatory authority over odors or air contaminants. However, for a well within the city limits, the city may enact ordinances regarding odors or other nuisances. In addition, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has jurisdiction over odor and air contaminants. Please see http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/compliance/complaints/odor_complaint.html.
http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/eagleford/index.php
14. We get our water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, an aquifer that also sits below several other counties where numerous oil and gas wells have been, or will be, fracked. What tests, forecasts, and projections are being done to ensure the quality and quantity of water in our aquifer is protected?
15. An excellent resource about oil and gas development is the manual, Oil and Gas At Your Door? A Landowner’s Guide to Oil and Gas Development. This book is available at the public library in Bryan or as a free pdf file at this link:
http://www.earthworksaction.org/files/publications/LOguide2005book.pdf?pubs/LOguide2005book.pdf
16. Analysis of Texas Oil and Gas industry, limited oversight. RRC has the dual role of maximizing development of oil and gas (permits often issued two days after application) while also protecting public safety and the environment:
Inspections are decreasing despite additional staff
Violations remain high, and repeat offenders are not deterred by current enforcement actions
Enforcement tools such as severances are not being used effectively
Minimum and maximum penalties are too low to deter would-be violators
RRC should increase transparency of enforcement data, and encourage greater citizen participation in enforcement
- See more at: http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/texas_oil_gas_enforcement#.U1fEhl7oaWw
http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/texas_oil_gas_enforcement#.U1fEhl7oaWw
17. Unplugged, abandoned oil and gas wells left for government to plug…environmental risks increase due to fracking boom:
http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/04/25/orphans-of-the-oil-fields-the-cost-of-abandoned-wells/
Scattered across the oil and gas fields of Texas there are at least 7,869 abandoned wells. The Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) which regulates drilling calls them orphans.
By the RRC’s count, there are an additional 5,445 wells that are inactive and whose operators are delinquent in meeting regulations. Add to all that an unknown number of orphan wells drilled decades ago for which records have been lost, if they ever existed.
RRC orphan well database:
http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/compliance/orphanwells/index.php
Problems/concerns, abandoned wells in Texas:
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/06/09/texas-abandoned-oil-equipment-spurs-pollution-fear/
A study prepared in 2011 for the Ground Water Protection Council based in Oklahoma cited 30 episodes from 1993 to 2008 of orphaned wells or abandoned drilling sites’ polluting groundwater in Texas.
The Railroad Commission estimates that two to three cases of groundwater contamination have been caused by abandoned wells since 2008, said Ramona Nye, a commission spokeswoman.
Some say hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the process of breaking up oil or gas-rich rock by blasting water, sand and chemicals, has created additional concerns about the abandoned wells.
Underground disposal wells, which are used to store wastewater from fracking operations, are another source of concern. The Railroad Commission requires that disposal well operators survey a quarter-mile radius around their site for non-plugged wells to ensure that pollution will not have a pathway to the surface.
Ed Walker, the general manager of the Wintergarden Groundwater Conservation District in South Texas, said that a few years ago, water came up out of an abandoned 1940s-era well that lay slightly more than a quarter-mile from a disposal well.Plugging old wells is expensive, and costs have risen as the oil industry gets busier, said Debbra Hastings, executive vice president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association.
Last month, the three railroad commissioners approved contracts for plugging wells that ranged from $30,000 per well, in Liberty County, east of Houston, to $128,000 per well, in Jim Hogg and Webb counties in South Texas.
Plugging abandoned wells sitting in shallow water — a priority of the commission, Craddick said — is costlier still, and can require scuba divers and barges. In the 2012 fiscal year, the Railroad Commission spent more than $170,000 apiece to plug a dozen of those wells.
(last updated July 4, 2014)
18. League of Independent Voters of Texas takes on Fracking:
http://independentleaguetx.org/beefs/texas-fracking/
Here are some of the concerns that need to be addressed:
• Bad casing jobs, allowing frack fluids to seep into the ground and shallow aquifers!
• Throwing frack fluids in unlined pits, even over aquifers!
• Not recycling as much frack fluids as is now possible, to save our precious drinking water.
• Tearing up roads and not paying for the damage.
• No chemical markers to hold those companies accountable when they contaminate our water. (Perry vetoed the bill for it!)
• Denying there is a problem with air pollution.
• Denying open records to the public by using private rather than public universities for study.
• Denying that there is any a problem whatsoever!
Statement by expert regarding dangers of fracking and companies doing the fracking:
http://independentleaguetx.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/My-name-is-Bill-Hornbuckle.pdf
Building and operating safer gas wells:
http://www.slb.com/~/media/Files/resources/oilfield_review/ors03/aut03/p62_76.ashx
19. We are constantly told by industry that fracking has been around a long time. This is very misleading, as revealed by this industry article posted to ASME (Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society):
"...A typical early fracture took 750 gallons of fluid (water, gelled crude oil, or gelled kerosene) and 400 lbm of sand. By contrast, modern methods can use up to 8 million gallons of water and 75,000 to 320,000 pounds of sand. Fracking fluids can take the form of foams, gels, or slickwater combinations and often include benzene, hydrochloric acid, friction reducers, guar gum, biocides, and diesel fuel. Likewise, the hydraulic horsepower (hhp) needed to pump fracking material has risen from an average of about 75 hhp in the early days to an average of more than 1,500 hhp today, with big jobs requiring more than 10,000 hhp.
Fracking’s new golden age began in 2003, as oil and gas producers began to explore the nation’s massive shale formations in earnest. "
https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/fossil-power/fracking-a-look-back
(2012) technology vs. the old hydrofrac technology:
(a) 750 gallons of fluid (water, gelled crude oil, or gelled kerosene) vs. 8 million gallons of water
(b) 400 lbm of sand vs. 75,000 to 320,000 pounds of sand
(c) 75 hydraulic horsepower vs. 1500 hhp, and 10,000 hhp for big jobs;
Also, note the number of permits issued by RRC since 2008 in Eagle Ford. If fracking hasn’t changed, why the huge increase in permits and why wasn’t this area fracked much earlier when the price of oil was higher? Why did they lobby for exemptions to key provisions of federal clean air and water legislation?
26 permits in 2008 compared to 5,254 in 2014
http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/media/25833/eaglefordshaledrillingpermitsissued_2008-112014.pdf
This is not your grandfather’s fracking. This in not the same old technology.