[EnergyWire] AN E&E PUBLISHING SERVICE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING: Monster wells are draining water from arid regions -- enviro report Pamela King, E&E reporter Published: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 A new environmental analysis is taking aim at industry claims that fracking a well requires only a few Olympic-size pools worth of water. Even that volume is too great in areas of the United States where drinking water is already in short supply, the Environmental Working Group wrote in a report out today. And a small contingent of monster wells are drinking up much more than that, EWG found. Based on an analysis of data from the oil and gas chemical disclosure site FracFocus, the group calculated that some companies are using as much as 25 million gallons of water per well -- a figure far beyond the 2 million to 4 million gallons the American Petroleum Institute estimates is required to flush hydrocarbons out of shale formations. The industry likes to argue that fracking for oil and gas is meeting an important public need -- producing energy, the EWG report says. That may be true, but it has also produced huge profits, and with the current U.S. glut of oil and gas, an increasing amount of the energy produced is being exported to other countries. It is unreasonable for private companies to profit from the use of a finite public resource while cities, communities and farms may be forced to cut back when supplies run low. In total, EWG estimates that operators used more than 3.3 billion gallons of water to hydraulically fracture 261 monster wells. Thats more than double the yearly residential supply for Atascosa County, Texas, in the heart of the prolific Eagle Ford Shale, the group found. Many of those water-intensive wells are located in the driest parts of the country. And thats just part of the story, EWG said. FracFocus disclosure is voluntary in most energy-rich states, and key data are often missing in the systems entries. Although the monster wells EWG identified on FracFocus are a small fraction of the total number of wells fracked in [2011-13], it is likely that there are an unknown number of other, unreported monster wells across the country -- and given the breakneck expansion of fracking, more to come, EWG wrote. Industry response FracFocus also offers a limited view on industrys efforts to alleviate the impact of its water use, said Encana Corp. spokesman Doug Hock. More than three-quarters of the Encana wells identified in the EWG report are located in a region where the company recycles nearly all of the water it uses for fracking, he said. The bottom line is that this report fails to take into consideration the increased use of recycling strategies by industry, Hock wrote in an email to EnergyWire. For Encana, efficient water management systems are a critical part of our business strategy and long-term planning processes. Advancing best practices in the sourcing, transport and management of water creates competitive advantages, mitigates regulatory risk and helps minimize stakeholder concerns in our operating areas. EWG acknowledged recycling efforts in its report but cited several examples of communities whose water supplies have been directly affected by oil and gas activity, despite attempts at mitigation. In Colorado, where many of the Encana wells are located, farmers have reported being outbid in water auctions by energy firms willing to pay a much higher price for supplies, the report says. When contacted by EWG in July, EQT Corp. spokeswoman Natalie Cox said she cautioned the group against calculating gallons of water use per well without considering some other important factors. [N]ot all wells have the same lateral lengths, nor will they have the same number of hydraulic fracturing stages, she said. In order to increase efficiencies and minimize environmental surface disturbance, lateral lengths are getting longer and longer. Longer lateral lengths allow for a greater number of hydraulic fracturing stages and therefore require more water. EWG recommends replacing FracFocus To avoid potential conflicts, EWG recommends that state and local officials require companies to secure water-use permits for every well they drill. Their applications should document the amount of water to be used and how it will be disposed when it returns to the surface as flowback. Authorities should have the power to deny or limit permits based on those disclosures, EWG said. During times of drought, water use for oil and gas operations should be restricted, according to the groups report. Finally, EWG proposed the replacement of FracFocus with an independent database managed by U.S. EPA. Participants would be obligated to report the amount of water they used to frack a particular well; the source of the fluid; whether it was fresh, recycled or brackish; and how the water will be recycled or discarded. Implementing those changes is a first step toward painting a clearer portrait of water use in fracking, the report says. Though the monster wells EWG found in FracFocus are only a fraction of the thousands of wells drilled in the United States every year, they point to a serious situation that will only become more acute as fracking spreads and water supplies grow scarcer, EWG wrote.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 03:29:55 +0000
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