Fracking natural gas

[Spidubic]

Caught part of a show on TV where they were talking about BC and oil companies using a technique called fracking where they pump water and chemicals into the ground to fracture the rock and thus release stores of natural gas. The government claimed on video they would allow public discussions before granting the rights then 2 months later granted the rights but with no public forum. The fellow on tape claimed he was misheard even though in playing the tape it clearly shows him saying public forums before anything is done. Government..............bah! Anyway from what I saw on the show and have read fracking causes no end of issues including making people sick and using a metric buttload of water in the process. One guy standing by a lake, a fairly large lake said he uses this lake to show people the amount of water one fracking operation uses. An entire lake full of billions of liters of water would be drained to frack a site. And now I hear fracking may be coming to Southern Ontario!

[Spidubic]

A map of fracking:

Fracker Tracker

No fracking has occurred in Ontario but apparently companies are buying up land in preparation for it.

[gale force]

Wow!! I hadn't heard anything about this previously. At the very least this would play havoc with the water table.

[kishgo]

My SIL is an environmental engineer. He had told us about this a few years ago, very unimpressed that it has been allowed to continue.

[Slowfood]

The actual gas well fracking part itself is not the big problem it's relatively harmless.
Disposal of the fracking fluid that comes back out of the gas well is the issue.
It is pumped down deeper disposal wells.
This fluid seems to lubricate the deeper rocks triggering small earthquakes (bigger ones later maybe),besides being a chemical nightmare. Really nasty stuff.
This stuff sometimes resurfaces and enters groundwater(defective well casings) causing big problems health wise to people and livestock.
Money talks and these energy companies own politicians ,so away they go.
There has been some fracking locally, I have seen the Halliburton trucks.

[Spidubic]

This is scary! Check out the FAQ section. Best yet find the documentary and watch it. Freaking scary! Makes you want to go all postal on the gas companies.

http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/

And slowfood you are totally wrong on the fracking being harmless. Watch the movie and you will be stunned. The fracking causes all sorts of issues. How would like to have a cool magic trick like setting your water tap on fire due to the fracking pushing gas into your well?

Best part is after swearing the water they drink is safe the gas company man refuses to drink the 'safe' water right out of the tap the people hand to him. More than once. If it is safe why refuse to drink it?

[Spidubic]

What is the Halliburton Loophole?
In 2005, the Bush/ Cheney Energy Bill exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act. It exempts companies from disclosing the chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing. Essentially, the provision took the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) off the job. It is now commonly referred to as the Halliburton Loophole.

How deep do natural gas wells go?
The average well is up to 8,000 feet deep. The depth of drinking water aquifers is about 1,000 feet. The problems typically stem from poor cement well casings that leak natural gas as well as fracking fluid into water wells.

What is done with the wastewater?
Evaporators evaporate off VOCs and condensate tanks steam off VOCs, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The wastewater is then trucked to water treatment facilities.

[growler]

i used to haul a rock that is called "trap rock" by the quarry industry to gas wells in norfolk back in the 80s for fracking the ones that were close to being "dry".
they pumped creek water (big creek,venison creek,deer creek, and the one that empty's out at pt.burwell) and they also put areo prills, and liquid hydrogen, but in the middle of it they put the "trap rock" in the mix, and it was under about 3000 lbs of pressure when being put in !
the result was a chemical reaction in the rock at about 7500 ft.(the normal production level for natural gas in the central-west end of norfolk)which seperated the rock (fracture) allowing the very hard "trap rock" particles (it is about the consistancy of a course beach sand)to migrate into these tiny fractures and lets the gas bubbles in this rock travel to the well area (the end of the casing) . by doing this in one well near pinegrove subdivision they gained about 30 years of life out of the well !
if they do it at a well with old rotted casing (some drilling companies use recovered casing,and some wells are very old ) then the casing will not stand up to the pressure caused by the chemical reaction,and will leak gas out into the more porous water bearing rock !
that is why they get gas out of the water taps.
it has happened up near tilbury by private well owners (small gas suppliers,who buy worked out wells,that they don't get the casings checked on!). some of these owners just want free gas for greenhouse heating,home heating,auto fuel (converted cars and trucks) and other things, and a lot sell it to people to use and hook up to other peoples gas lines (union gas etc.)
when i did this it was for haliburton and the supervisor i dealt with was very demanding about having the casings checked prior to fracking !
but he told me about others that weren't as picky !
and locally wells have a percentage of water in them already and that is what they take out when "cleaning"the wells. but the water they take out locally is not normally "toxic", and some is now used as "pickle juice" on the roads to control "icing" in the winter, and is used to control dust on driveways etc.

the wells where it is toxic are usuall in harder rock, and hasn't enough pressure to come to the surface (the gas won't come up by itself)so to get the gas up they pump water into the rock that was fracked (fracked at about 10 times the pressure)so as to push the gas up to the top of the ground,and while there the water disolves a lot of chemicals that are trapped in the rock(natural chemicals in the rock,like cyanide etc. the really nice stuff !) and it comes up the pipe with the gas and is seperated out of it, but its so acidy that they can't pump it back down as it will disolve the iron in the casing !
thats the wells that spoil a lakes worth of water !
so the way they do it around here isn't to bad "normally" but could be bad if done by the quick buck artists!
but if we lived where they have a harder type of bedrock, we would be in big trouble !

[Slowfood]

I stand corrected.
But remember, we with our RRSP's and retirement pension plans and our own portfolios want share value to increase. The companies respond in kind.
Greed drives behavior that rides roughshod over the rights of many.
This, unfortunately,in so many places is business as usual.
To wit a few examples: mining companies in Appalachia, Trans national Agri Food Conglomerates raping the whole planet, Western New York Chemical and Metal companies poisoning thousands of workers and many more citizens during WW2 and since,all in the name of making a profit.
Chances are many of us have investments in at least one and most likely many more of these blue chip companies. So... do we share the guilt?
It's like owning a lot of George Weston stock and then complaining about the prices at the Superstore.

[growler]

i thought it was more like owning kellogs(?) or kraft foods(?) and complaining about rjr being in the tobacco industry ?

[Spidubic]

Chances are many of us have investments in at least one and most likely many more of these blue chip companies. So... do we share the guilt?

Are investors asked about what the company is doing and if they want it to continue? If investors are not asked then do they share the responsibility? To me the bottom line is gas companies know they have a finite amount of years left to reap in as much money as possible. Gas will run out it is only a matter of time. Once it is gone what happens to all the gas companies? They toss morals and conscience aside to maximize profit. Mind you politicians do the same thing. Morals go out the window. It seems to me more and more humans disregard what is right over what benefits them the most. Even if it hurts others or the environment. A sad state of affairs.

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