The environmentalist are entitled to their opinion, but they should not be allowed to invent their own facts. I have heard too many stories about harm coming to folks living near gas drilling and frac’ing operations that simply are not true. I have been involved with thousands of wells over the last 30 years including frac’ing using every method known. If there were harmful elements associated with drilling or frac’ing, I and a whole bunch of my friends and co-workers would not be here to tell. I am not aware of a single incidence where any disease or illness was the result of frac’ing or drilling. The stories you hear about people in close proximity to active operations becoming ill are disingenuous at best and flat out lies at worst.
New techniques for drilling in the Marcellus Shale, a formation that underlies Appalachia from upstate New York to West Virginia, and better methods for disposal of wastewater have greatly improved oil and gas production in the past few years. Today abundant new supplies of natural gas are fueling an expansion of the petrochemical and steel industries in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Thousands of jobs have been created across the region. Natural gas prices are reaching decade lows which is a huge benefit to consumers.
Petrochemical companies are taking advantage of cheap natural gas to invest billions in new job creating plants. There are several companies considering building several processing plants here in West Virginia. This would not have been possible without continuing improvements in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.
Today more experienced crews, stronger well casings, refined fracturing fluid and wastewater recycling are all indicative of the improvements made by drillers – improvements not required by regulators but made by an industry that realizes environmental protection must be a cornerstone of its business. Shale gas exploration with hydraulic fracturing is safe and the economic benefits are substantial.
Hydraulic fracturing – known as frac’ing -- involves forcing a mixture of water, sand and small amounts of other components deep underground at high pressure to crack shale rock and free trapped natural gas or oil. It’s a decades old technology that has been used safely millions of times all over the country to improve the productivity of conventional wells. While Frac’ing is nothing new to the industry, it has just recently emerged into national prominence because of its pairing with horizontal drilling (also not new)– a combination that has allowed oil and gas companies to effectively tap huge shale formations from Texas to West Virginia for the first time.
The initial economic benefits for the state and country have been profound but we have only scratched the surface of what shale gas can mean for our economy. We can’t let critics of frac’ing, who seem to care little for facts, hijack the future of shale gas development. These critics claim that hydraulic fracturing poses an unacceptable threat to underground water supplies that rest just a few hundred feet below the surface.
They choose to ignore that frac’ing wells typically reach 7,000 feet, or more, below the surface to tap the layer of shale holding trapped natural gas. These deep wells consist of a barrier of several thousand feet of impermeable rock between the frac’ing process and groundwater supplies. In addition, frac’ed wells are designed to include thick layers of steel casing that are cemented in place to create a solid seal between gas production and the environment.
Fracturing fluid is made up of 90% water, 9.5% sand and just 0.5% percent chemical additives – the vast majority of which are found in household cleaning supplies and cosmetics. Critics’ concerns over the disposal of fracturing fluid that returns to the surface with produced gas should be laid to rest as well. Drilling companies in the Marcellus are rapidly adopting wastewater recycling which allows this flowback fluid to be treated and reused in new wells – reducing the need for freshwater in other fracturing projects and mitigating concerns over wastewater disposal.
With experience operating in the Marcellus, drilling companies have improved well construction, developed effective wastewater recycling techniques and increased the efficiency of the process by leaps and bounds. Fracking a well now takes four to five days but provides natural gas production for 30 years or more. This is clean-burning natural gas for use in cooking and heating homes, producing electricity and supplying feedstock for our chemical and manufacturing industries.
We need these jobs and this investment. The shale gas revolution is a game changer but to reap its full rewards we have to first understand that hydraulic fracturing is safe and that it’s only getting safer. Advances in the technology, made in just the past few years, have proven that frac’ing can and will become more efficient. Misinformation about the process serves to impede the economic potential of shale gas development in the state and would be a terrible mistake paid for by the people who would otherwise benefit from the jobs created and lower utility costs.
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