Posts Tagged ‘fracturing’

By Jen Marckinijmarckini@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

KINGSTON TWP. – A representative of Shaleshock Action Alliance spoke about issues of drilling into the Marcellus Shale at a public meeting on Friday.

The meeting, sponsored by the newly formed group, Luzerne County Citizens for Clean Water, featured a presentation by Andrew Byers, of Ithaca, N.Y.

Gas companies have leased thousands of acres from Benton to Dallas and plan on drilling by “hydro-fracturing,” a high-pressure pumping process that could have detrimental environmental and economic impacts, Byers said.

An estimated 2 million to 9 million gallons of water mixed with chemicals is used per well in fracking, Byers said. Sixty-five of the chemicals are classified as hazardous waste – many causing cancer or birth defects, he said.

According to Byers, products used in natural gas production in Colorado had adverse health effects, including endocrine disruptors.

“This is not waste water,” he said. “This is low-level radioactive fluid.”

Property values have shown to plummet after gas drilling, Byers said, adding that each fracking requires 550 to 2,500 tanker truck trips, which could result in road damage.

In 2005 the gas and oil industry became exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act. They are not required to comply with federal or local laws.

“We have an industry that is unregulated on a federal level,” Byers said.

About a dozen people are active in the grassroots group that wants to protect its communities, said Audrey Simpson, a member.

A petition to say no to polluted water and unrestricted natural gas drilling in the county was distributed at the evening meeting, which was held at Kingston Township Municipal Building, Shavertown.

The petition asks state legislators to modify state laws to allow restrictions on drilling in populated areas.

State Rep. Phyllis Mundy, who attended the meeting, said she is concerned about the potential harm that could be done as a result of drilling into the Marcellus Shale.

Mundy, D-Kingston, said she and state Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, are working with the chairman of the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee in the House on bills that would provide protection such as buffers around waterways.

“I support a Marcellus Shale severance tax that would be dedicated toward any environmental harm or impact that is caused by the drilling,” Mundy said.

Copyright: Times Leader

Beaver County lawmaker opposes bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Casey to close “Halliburton loophole.”

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Concern over environmental damage from natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region has increased enough to attract federal attention, but at least one state representative believes regulation should be left to the states.

The state Department of Environmental Protection is strengthening its regulations for well construction, and Gov. Ed Rendell responded to the concern last week by announcing a plan to begin hiring 68 more DEP workers for inspections and compliance of gas drilling.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week an “Eyes on Drilling” tip line for citizens to report – anonymously, if preferred – anything that “appears to be illegal disposal of wastes or other suspicious activity,” according to an EPA news release.

Also, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Scranton, has introduced the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, which would close the so-called “Halliburton loophole.”

In the Energy Policy Act of 2005, hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” was exempted from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, creating the loophole. Fracking forces water, sand and chemicals into rock formations underground such as the shale to crack the rock and release natural gas.

In a resolution introduced in the state House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee last week, Rep. Jim Christiana, R-Beaver, called for lawmakers to urge the U.S. Congress to not pass Casey’s proposal.

Noting that fracking itself has not caused any known groundwater contamination at more than 1.1 million wells in which it’s been used, Christiana’s resolution supports continued state regulation of the process. The resolution refers to the 2005 energy act, indicating that Congress specifically meant to exclude fracking.

It also states that a federal Environmental Protection Agency report from 2004 found that hydraulic fracturing in coal bed methane wells “poses minimal threat” to drinking water sources.

State Rep. Jim Wansacz, D-Old Forge, wasn’t sure whether he supported the resolution, but felt confident that it doesn’t really matter either way. Congress members “don’t pay much attention to that,” he said. “Resolutions don’t mean a whole lot.”

He said a federal regulation might help by keeping all states at an equal minimum, but he said treading on states’ rights would “bother” him.

Wansacz said he doubted the bill by Casey would overrule states’ authority, but he was sensitive to the issue.

“Once the feds come in, they take over … so we’ve got to be careful what we ask for.”

State Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, isn’t so sure the resolution is focused on states’ rights. “This resolution is obviously industry driven” she noted in an e-mail.

“The industry somehow got hydraulic fracking exempted from the (drinking-water act) and now Senator Casey has a bill to eliminate this exemption. I support the Casey bill. … It would protect drinking water and the public health from the risks imposed by hydraulic fracturing.”

Separately, the EPA is offering citizens a way to report drilling problems. The announcement comes in the wake of several controversies over whether companies are reporting all spills.

The state Department of Environmental Protection fined a Towanda company earlier this month for spilling seven tons of drilling wastewater last year. The incident was reported only after a nearby Pennsylvania Department of Transportation crew witnessed it.

In October, a complaint was filed with DEP to investigate a suspicion that trees were damaged at a Wayne County site from an unreported drilling-fluid spill.

According to the release, “public concern about the environmental impacts of oil and natural gas drilling has increased in recent months, particularly regarding development of the Marcellus Shale formation where a significant amount of activity is occurring. … The agency is also very concerned about the proper disposal of waste products, and protecting air and water resources.”

The EPA doesn’t grant drilling permits, but its regulations may apply to storing petroleum products and drilling fluids, the release noted. The EPA wants to have “a better understanding of what people are experiencing and observing as a result of these drilling activities,” the release noted, because “information collected may also be useful in investigating industry practices.

The new DEP employees will be paid for through well-permitting fees that were increased last year. There will also likely be more of them: Rendell said the industry expects to apply for 5,200 permits this year, three times as many as last year.

The new DEP regulations they’ll have to obey include increased responsibility to repair or replace affected water supplies, procedures to correct gas migration issues without waiting for DEP’s direction and re-inspection of existing wells.

The draft regulations were opened for public comment on Friday.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader

Chesapeake Energy explains protections it practices during drilling for natural gas.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

PLAINS TWP. – As negative issues arise related to natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, at least one company is being careful to keep residents informed about the industry’s benefits and distance itself from concerns.

Speaking on Thursday at the “Executive Management Breakfast Series” put on by Penn State Wilkes-Barre, a spokesman for Chesapeake Energy detailed the environmental protections his company uses when drilling and outlined the positive economic effect the industry has had in Pennsylvania.

Chesapeake has paid out $700 million to landowners since 2008, along with $100 million to contractors in the state and $500,000 to community projects in 2009, according to Brian Grove, the director of corporate development for the company’s eastern division.

But the growth – a plan for 200 more wells in 2010 – isn’t at the expense of precautions, he said. Wells receive five layers of protection from ground water, he said, and “all of the chemicals (used in the hydraulic fracturing process) are stuff you will find in your home.”

The statement comes weeks after driller Cabot Oil and Gas was fined by the state Department of Environmental Protection for spilling fluids that contaminated a nearby wetland and a day after the department announced another fine against Cabot and ordered that alternative water supplies be provided to Susquehanna County residents whose water wells have been contaminated with methane.

“Certainly, when an operation isn’t meeting the regulations laid out by the state, it doesn’t reflect well on the industry,” Grove acknowledged, adding that Chesapeake is striving to remain free of such image-tarnishing incidents.

At least one of Chesapeake’s operating practices impressed Mary Felley, the executive director at Countryside Conservancy in La Plume, for its environmental protection beyond state regulations. Drillers must collect water contaminated by drilling activities, but they’re only required to store it in open-air pits. When Grove noted that Chesapeake stores all of it in closed containers, Felley complimented the company on its additional protections.

Grove also assured members of the Wyoming County Landowners Group whose land rights are confirmed will be receiving the full up-front payments the group negotiated, which was a particular concern for Marisa Litwinsky, a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch. Group members and others who have recently signed with Chesapeake have worried that the driller might back out on paying the balance of those deals.

“We’re committed to” the land group, Grove assured. “Anyone who’s got a good title, they’re going to have a lease.”

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader

Authorities allowed the company to resume work after corrective actions.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

The state Department of Environmental Protection announced on Thursday that it has fined Cabot Oil and Gas $56,000 for three polluting spills at one of its natural gas drilling sites in Susquehanna County.

The fine comes a little more than a month after the spills, which all occurred within a week of each other at the Heitsman well in Dimock Township and totaled about 8,400 gallons of fluids. Some of the liquid, which was a mix of mostly water and a gel that facilitates the drilling process, drained into an adjacent wetlands and Stevens Creek.

“The department presented a number to us and we thought under the circumstances that it was appropriate and not something that we wanted to fight about,” said Ken Komoroski, Cabot spokesman. “We’re just going to move forward.”

Within a few days of the spill, DEP ordered Cabot to halt hydraulic fracturing – the process that caused the spills – and submit an engineering analysis about what went wrong and how it will be avoided in the future.

Cabot’s report said the failure was caused by pressure surges and that significant elevation differences between where the liquid was stored and where it was being pumped to contributed to the problem.

The report includes a list of corrective actions that Cabot has agreed to take, among them providing better containment and pressure-regulating valves for sites where elevation is a factor.

DEP approved the report on Oct. 16 and allowed Cabot to resume “fracking.” The process forces water, sand and a mix of chemicals into the rock layer that contains the gas, causing fractures that release the gas up the well.

Gas drilling has boomed in the Northern Tier since fracking and horizontal drilling technologies have made it financially feasible for companies to drill into the Marcellus Shale, a layer of gas-laden rock that runs about a mile underground from New York into Virginia.

Copyright: Times Leader

CAMILLE FIOTI Times Leader Correspondent

LEHMAN TWP. – Chris Miller of Jackson Road voiced concerns Monday about the effects of possible gas drilling in the township.

“I am not opposed to gas drilling,” he said told the township supervisors at their meeting. “I am concerned and vigilant about what gas drilling can do to our special community if we do not properly plan.”

He commended the board for passing the Growing Greener ordinance last year that was adopted to help preserve natural, open space in the township.

“Many of us who live here do so because this is a wonderful community,” Miller said. “Our kids can breathe fresh air. The water is clean. There is plenty of forest to hike and hunt in and streams to fish in,” he added.

Supervisor Ray Iwanoski said the board is also concerned; however, the state, not the township, has control over drilling. Drilling hasn’t started in the township, but a number of leases have been issued, Supervisor Dave Sutton said.

“I’m also not opposed to drilling,” Sutton said. “But the township’s initial concern is damage to the roads.” Large trucks hauling machinery and polluted water used in hydraulic fracturing – the type of drilling used to stimulate the release of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale – will take a toll on the township’s roads, Sutton added.

Iwanoski said the board plans to meet with representatives from Whit Mar, the Denver-based firm that has a hold on the area’s gas leases.

In another matter, Sutton addressed complaints made by several Oak Drive residents at last month’s meeting regarding the condition of their road. Sutton said the residents complained that their road is riddled with potholes and is dangerous to drive on.

“There was a lot of exaggeration at the last meeting,” he said. He said he tested the road on his way home from that meeting. “The road is very safe. It was very easy to drive.”

Iwanoski added the road didn’t qualify for a state grant to pave it. He said the road crew patched the potholes the day after the complaints were made.

Copyright: Times Leader

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

TUNKHANNOCK – As if responding to previous community criticism about a similar facility, company officials hoping to build a drilling-waste treatment plant near Meshoppen said Tuesday recycling water is part of their plans.

“It makes sense to reuse this water,” said Ron Schlicher, an engineer consulting for the treatment company. “The goal here is to strive for 100-percent reuse, so we don’t have to discharge.”

Wyoming Somerset Regional Water Resources Corp. is proposing a facility in Lemon Township in Wyoming County to treat water contaminated during natural-gas drilling in a process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”

To do so, it requires a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

That process includes a period of public comment, for which the hearing at the Tunkhannock Middle School on Tuesday evening was held.

Wyoming Somerset is the second company to propose such a facility in Wyoming County. Two weeks ago, DEP held a similar hearing for North Branch Processing LLC, which wants to build a plant just outside Tunkhannock in Eaton Township to discharge up to 500,000 gallons daily of the treated waste into the Susquehanna River.

Citizens attending that hearing complained that the discharges could potentially harm the river’s ecology and suggested that the waste simply be recycled into other fracking jobs.

Wyoming Somerset’s proposal is to discharge up to 380,000 gallons daily into the Meshoppen Creek, but company officials said they hoped to sell it all back to drillers instead.

“The discharges need to be in place to make sure that the weather doesn’t have an adverse effect on operations of cleaning the water,” said Larry Mostoller, Wyoming Somerset’s president. “I’ll be willing to drink what we produce. I’ll be willing to drink what comes out of this plant, and you can hold me to that.”

That promise and the vague goal of full reuse didn’t sit well with the roughly 75 citizens who attended the hearing. Questioning everything from why the facility couldn’t guarantee zero discharges to its proposed site, residents came out squarely against the plan.

Many non-residents joined them, including two from Bucks County, one an environmental scientist and the other a lawyer, and a man from New Jersey.

Don Williams, a Susquehanna River advocate from Lycoming County, warned that cashing in on the gas-laden Marcellus Shale is “jeopardizing our land and our feature for the false promise of jobs” and money.

Of particular frustration for many were the unknown details about the plant’s design. Schlicher presented an overview of it, noting reverse-osmosis filters, evaporation tanks and a three-tiered output to provide drillers with water at various levels of treatment.

The water that could potentially be discharged would be “essentially meeting drinking water standards for most things,” Schlicher said, but not everything, including lead, aluminum and iron “because the surface water body can handle them,” he said.

Design specifics won’t be known until the second part of the application, when the company proposes how it will meet its discharge limits. That part likely won’t have a public hearing, DEP officials noted.

Those wishing to comment on the proposed facility may do so until Oct. 30 by contacting the DEP. The number for its Wilkes-Barre office is (570) 826-2511.

Copyright: Times Leader

Luzerne County property owners hope to have their own deal by year’s end.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Lease signing begins today for members of the Wyoming County Landowners group who have accepted a gas-drilling offer from Chesapeake Energy.

The signings could foreshadow what other local landowners are hoping comes to them soon. The South West Ross Township Property Group and Columbia County Land Owners Coalition confirmed on Friday that they, too, are in talks with Chesapeake.

The Columbia group, which represents roughly 80,000 acres in Columbia, Luzerne, Sullivan and Lycoming counties, hopes to complete a deal before the end of the year, according to an e-mail sent out to its membership.

The Ross Township group, which includes roughly 10,000 acres around Ross Township, is affiliated with the Columbia group, but also making its own discussions with Chesapeake, said Ken Long, a member of the group’s executive committee.

Group leaders expect monetary terms to be similar to the one Chesapeake offered to the Wyoming group: a five-year lease at 20-percent royalties, plus a $5,750-per-acre sign-up bonus. It includes a five-year option Chesapeake could exercise for another $5,750 per acre.

But other recent events with drillers locally could foreshadow what landowner hope to never see. The state Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. for a gas spill earlier this week and ordered the company to cease hydraulic fracturing in Susquehanna County until it had completed a comprehensive engineering assessment and updated its pollution-prevention plans.

The company is currently drilling seven new wells in the county that will require fracking, which forces water, sand and chemicals into the gas-laden Marcellus Shale to fracture the rock and release the gas.

The company has 21 days to complete the assessment and 14 days to update the plan. Once it’s approved, the company will have 21 days to implement the plan.

The situation is one that landowners like the Wyoming group hope to avert with their in-depth leases. The group has been split alphabetically for this weekend’s signing. Those with surnames beginning with “A” through “L” should show up between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday at the American Legion Post 510 in the village of Black Walnut on U.S. Route 6 between Laceyville and Meshoppen. Everyone else is assigned to between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sunday. Those who can’t make their assigned day may show up on the other one.

Landowners who can’t make either day should be receiving an e-mail with documents that need to be signed and mailed to Chesapeake. The $1,000-per-acre initial payment will be sent by mail.

On the Web

To sign up property for a gas lease: http://forms.askchesapeake.com/landowner

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader

MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer

HARRISBURG— Citing three recent chemical spills at one well site, Pennsylvania regulators said Friday they had ordered Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. to halt its use of a drilling technique that uses liquids to fracture rock and release natural gas.

The state Department of Environmental Protection’s order applies to eight of Cabot’s drilling sites, all in Susquehanna County in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The company, which received the order Thursday, voluntarily shut down its use of the drilling technique — called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” — at the spill-plagued site there earlier this week. It has seven other drilling sites that eventually will require fracking to complete.

“The department took this action because of our concern about Cabot’s current fracking process and to ensure that the environment in Susquehanna County is properly protected,” the DEP’s northcentral regional director, Robert Yowell, said in a statement.

Under the state’s order, Cabot must complete a number of engineering and safety tasks before it can resume its fracking process as it drills into the potentially lucrative Marcellus Shale formation.

Cabot spokesman Ken Komoroski said Friday that the company disagrees with some of the agency’s allegations in the order, but it is committed to completing the tasks required by the order.

Copyright: Times Leader

Tuesday’s program will include presentation on Marcellus Shale and questions from audience.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

The Pennsylvania Council of Professional Geologists will hold a seminar Tuesday on gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, and it’s prepared to take on even the most technical of questions, from the science of the drilling itself to the legal issues surrounding it.

“We’re going to try to answer those questions,” said Rhonda Hakundy-Jones, the council’s executive director. “We’ve certainly heard those questions before. Some of them don’t have definitive answers; they have, shall we say, a range of answers.”

The deadline to register for the Tuesday event, set at the Quality Inn on Kidder Street across from the Wyoming Valley Mall, has been extended to today and applicants can contact the council to make arrangements if they won’t be able to get the entry fee in on time, Hakundy-Jones said.

The council has a subcommittee that’s been tracking shale-gas issues, she said, and “this was just the next logical step … to provide some of that educational material that we have collected, and our geologic knowledge, and present it to the public. … We are trying to make it a rather broad overview, and it’s geared more to professionals … people with some understanding of regulations in general and science in general.”

The panelists, who include two geologists, an attorney, a laboratory technician and representative of an environmental management company, plan to tackle the issues from an in-depth, technical perspective, Hakundy-Jones said, to explain “what those things are, how they work,” particularly hydraulic fracturing.

Additionally, after a 45-minute presentation and more than an hour for questioning, the event will host an hour-long session for informal discussion during which food will be available.

Hakundy-Jones expects, however, there will be interaction with the audience during the formal sessions as well. “We find that’s a great way to get additional information,” she said.

So far, about 20 people have registered, and she expects that may double.

“There should be plenty of opportunity for people to ask their questions,” she said. “Of course, how often, for example, can you get an attorney’s advice for $50?”

If you go

What: “A Rock ’n Rules Review” of issues concerning gas-drilling in the Marcellus Shale

When: 2:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesday

Where: The Quality Inn on Kidder Street, Wilkes-Barre

Cost: $50

Who: Experts in the various fields involved in drilling will speak on technical topics, then take questions.

For information: Go to: www.pcpg.org/Marcellus_intro.asp for a registration form or call 717-730-9745.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader

Insiders say price declines and credit issues are limiting lease bids and bonus payment offers.

The natural-gas windfall seems to have dried up – at least for now.

Commodity price declines, disappearing credit worthiness and companies transitioning to produce gas from the lands they’ve leased have combined to limit lease bids and reduce bonus payment offers.

“Not only are we noticing it, there’s no argument that’s not happening,” said Jack Sordoni, who owns the Wilkes-Barre-based fossil-fuel drilling company Homeland Energy Ventures LLC and is negotiating leases for local landowners.

Though he’s recently inked leases in Fairmount Township with $2,850 per acre up-front bonuses, he said he’s also recently had similar offers in the same area fall to $2,000 per acre. Other sources are reporting offers dropping back to pre-summer levels of several hundred dollars.

Part of the cause for the change, he noted, is that some large companies have dropped out of the leasing competition because prices have fallen and the credit crisis has hampered their ability to take on short-term debt.

“I would suspect, not being an economist, that they would have pretty far reaching” effects, he said. “The ones who are signing aren’t competing with as many players, so the prices aren’t going to be as high.”

The companies say the clock is ticking on beginning work on existing leases, so they’re focusing on filling out the gaps in the territories they’ve already locked up.

“We have moved from the lease acquisition phase to the development phase,” Chesapeake Energy spokesman Matt Sheppard wrote in an e-mail. “We are leasing strategically to support our existing leasehold.”

Sheppard said that for Chief Oil & Gas and many companies “it is more of a shift to moving dollars into drilling and development” instead of continuing to build leasehold in unproven areas.

Chief Oil & Gas spokeswoman Kristi Gittins wrote in an e-mail: “A lot of acreage has been leased. As drilling begins and areas prove out, leasing should pick up.”

Sordoni said that in the business “a lot of times we call that ‘going operational,’ and think for many of them, that’s true.”

With drilling and production increasing, natural gas prices have dropped about 50 percent in the past half year, he noted.

“This was a gold rush at the beginning. It was a frantic pace. Companies were scrambling. The pullback of the commodity prices has certainly led to a slowdown,” he said.

But there are some positive indications for unsigned properties. For example, companies have already shown indications of ramping up production in the region.

Gittins said Chief will soon have four rigs in the region, including one made specially for maneuvering in the hilly Appalachian region, and two more by early 2009.

First, the gas isn’t going anywhere. Horizontal drilling only allows vertical fracturing of rock, and it’s illegal to drill beyond the leased boundaries. So the rule of capture – which allows gas or oil to be collected from a rock fracture that crosses a lease boundary – doesn’t apply.

Secondly, companies have already shown indications of ramping up production in the region.

Gittins said Chief will soon have four rigs in the region, including one made specially for maneuvering in the hilly Appalachian region, and two more by early 2009.

Chesapeake is predicting it will need much more water for its drilling operations before the 2012 expiration of its current permit with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission. While the company isn’t asking to change its permit to withdraw 5 million gallons daily from the river, it is asking to expand how much water it can use each day from 5 million gallons to roughly 20 million gallons.

Copyright: Times Leader