Ohio Tries to Escape Fate as a Dumping Ground for Fracking Fluid

Bloomberg Businessweek
Feb 01, 2012

By Mark Niquette

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The millions of gallons of chemical- laced wastewater that fracking produces must flow somewhere, and Ohio is trying not to be that place.

The oil and natural-gas drilling boom spurred more permits for disposal wells there during the past two years than during the previous decade combined. The volume injected into them was on a near-record pace last year, according to the Department of Natural Resources, and more than half was from out of state. That included 92.6 percent of the water sent to a Youngstown well closed last year after 11 nearby earthquakes.

“We have become in Ohio the dumping ground for contaminated brine,”

state Representative Armond Budish, the House Democratic leader, said at a Jan. 26 forum in Columbus. “We didn’t prepare adequately for the potential for earthquakes and other environmental problems.”

Now, Ohio is considering tightening regulations governing wells in response to the temblors and seeking to stem out-of- state fluid shipments. It’s an example of the challenges U.S. states face as they try to enjoy hydraulic fracturing’s economic boost while avoiding its side effects.

Ohio’s situation highlights the tradeoff that may come with the technique of using chemical-laced water to bring forth natural gas and oil, said Glen Andersen, energy program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver. While states benefit from investment by companies including Chesapeake Energy Corp., Halliburton Co. and Vallourec SA, they also may contend with roads damaged by heavy equipment and concerns about polluted drinking water, he said.

Negotiating the Constitution

“It doesn’t necessarily mean there needs to be this tradeoff with environment versus energy extraction,”

Andersen said in a telephone interview. “It really comes down to the degree to which it’s regulated and whether those regulations are enforced.”

In Ohio, companies pay to operate disposal wells after they have been approved by the state, and brine haulers hired by drillers pay the companies to inject the fluid. The well owners pay a disposal fee to the state of 5 cents per barrel for brine originating in the state and 20 cents for out-of-state wastewater, according to the Ohio Natural Resources Department.

Republican Governor John Kasich said that while he’s not happy about the increasing volume of wastewater from neighboring states, the U.S. Constitution prohibits interference with shipments. He declined to speculate about what might be done.

Soaking It Up

“When people are using our things, and they could disrupt our ability to have progress here, we have to be concerned about it,” Kasich said in an interview in Columbus on Jan. 26. “We’re thinking about what we can do and not violate the interstate commerce clause.”

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Shale Gas Boom Creates Market Opportunity To Clean Fracking Water

Source: FORBES

Erica Gies, Contributor

Independent environment reporter, founder of ThisWeekInEarth.com

 

As U.S. shale gas resources and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have entered the national consciousness, protests from nearby residents, then regulation, have followed. Yet rather than being bad for business, this regulation is actually spurring a new market in water technologies, according to a comprehensive report by the Artemis Project, a specialist consulting practice.

In particular, author Purabi Thakre and editor Laura Shenkar believe the rich Marcellus “play” — the gas industry term for large deposits — and its location under heavily populated New York and Pennsylvania are creating a vast market opportunity. “The Marcellus Effect: Building Momentum for Advanced Water Technology Solutions” says, “Experts estimate that shale gas drilling will grow sevenfold over the next 10 years in the Marcellus Shale…. The resulting market for wastewater disposal and treatment in this region alone will exceed $3 billion per year, according to the Global Water Intelligence report published in March 2011.” In addition, Shenkar expects that water technology innovations created for shale plays will find markets in other industries.

An expert on corporate water strategy and water technologies, Shenkar founded the Artemis Project, a consulting firm that advises corporations on water strategy and supports technological innovation in water management. Each year the Artemis Project sponsors the Top 50 Water Companies Competition to identify emerging technologies and investment opportunities in the water sector. This year, 10 of the 50 companies were innovating new technologies to clean up fracking wastewater.

Fracking has been around for decades, but new technology innovations and a higher price for natural gas have recently made it economic to employ it more widely. But Congress, pushed by Vice President Dick Cheney, exempted gas drilling from EPA Clean Water Act regulations in 2005. So as fracking has ramped up, particularly close to where people live, environmental concerns about water quality have emerged. Perhaps the image that best captures people’s concerns is video footage of a man setting his tap water on fire in the documentary film Gasland.

Since that film debuted last year, a scientific report has linked fracking to methane contamination in nearby aquifers. Pennsylvania officials fined Chesapeake Energy more than $1 million for contaminating the water supply in Bradford County. New York recommended a ban on drilling in the watersheds for New York City and Syracuse. In June Texas became the first state to require disclosure of fracking chemicals, which were previously considered to be intellectual property. Just this month, a federal panel recommended greater disclosure and monitoring of fracking’s environmental effects.

Fracking is a water-intensive process. According to “The Marcellus Effect,” a typical frack well uses about 4 million gallons of fresh water over its lifetime. The fracking process dirties the water both with the proprietary chemicals used and by its exposure to elements deep in the earth that are not found in surface waters. The industry calls its wastewater “produced water.”

According to the report:

“Produced water is often high in naturally occurring total dissolved solids, chloride, sulfate, and metals (such as iron)…. Produced water may also contain naturally occurring radioactive material or petroleum compounds (such as benzene, toluene, and xylene). The produced water might also contain remnants of the fracturing fluids [which contain secret recipes of chemicals]…. An individual well in the Marcellus Shale is estimated to create approximately 15,000 gallons of produced water per year.”

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