Clefts left after the earth is cracked open to frack for oil and gas also can connect abandoned wells and waste injection zones. How far these man-made fissures go is still the subject of research and debate, but in some cases they have reached as much as a half-mile, even intersecting fractures from neighboring wells.
When injection wells intersect with fracked wells and abandoned wells, the combined effect is that many of the natural protections assumed to be provided by deep underground geology no longer exist.
"It's a natural system and if you go in and start punching holes through it and changing pressure systems around, it's no longer natural," said Nathan Wiser, an underground injection expert working for the EPA in its Rocky Mountain region, in a 2010 interview. "It's difficult to know how it would behave in those circumstances."
EPA data provides a window into some injection well problems, but not all. There is no way to know how many wells have undetected leaks or to measure the amount of waste escaping from them.
In at least some cases, records obtained by ProPublica show, well failures may have contaminated sources of drinking water. Between 2008 and 2011, state regulators reported 150 instances of what the EPA calls "cases of alleged contamination," in which waste from injection wells purportedly reached aquifers. In 25 instances, the waste came from Class 2 wells. The EPA did not respond to requests for the results of investigations into those incidents or to clarify the standard for reporting a case.
The data probably understates the true extent of such incidents, however.
Leaking wells can simply go undetected. One Texas study looking for the cause of high salinity in soil found that at least 29 brine injection wells in its study area were likely sending a plume of salt water up into the ground unnoticed. Even when a problem is reported, as in Chico, regulators don't always do the expensive and time-consuming work necessary to investigate its cause.
"The absence of episodes of pollution can mean that there are none, or that no one is looking," said Salazar, the EPA's former injection expert. "I would tend to believe it is the latter."
***
The practice of injecting waste underground arose as a solution to an environmental crisis.
In the first half of the 20th century, toxic waste collected in cesspools, or was dumped in rivers or poured onto fields. As the consequences of unbridled pollution became unacceptable, the country turned to an out-of-sight alternative. Drawing on techniques developed by the oil and gas industry, companies started pumping waste back into wells drilled for resources. Toxic waste became all but invisible. Air and water began to get cleaner.
Then a host of unanticipated problems began to arise.
In April, 1967 pesticide waste injected by a chemical plant at Denver's Rocky Mountain Arsenal destabilized a seismic fault, causing a magnitude 5.0 earthquake -- strong enough to shatter windows and close schools -- and jolting scientists with newfound risks of injection, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A year later, a corroded hazardous waste well for pulping liquor at the Hammermill Paper Co., in Erie, Pa., ruptured. Five miles away, according to an EPA report, "a noxious black liquid seeped from an abandoned gas well" in Presque Isle State Park.
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25 Comments
Add CommentFossil fuel companies: "We're going to squeeze every last drop of oil out of this continent, even if it takes the life of every man, woman & child."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy don't they just set off a nuke in Yellowstone and get it over with? The Indians should have kicked the Spanish and other Europeans back to the old world. Hard.
Maybe this is the answer.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"The cavitation hydrovibrator is a proprietary green technology that operates using pure water, without the use of any of the 200 chemicals traditionally used in fracking that damage the environment and contaminate water tables. The cavitation hydrovibrator is mounted in a drilling line and inserted into a vertical or horizontal borehole at the appropriate stratum level. Pressured water is fed to the cavitation hydrovibrator inlet through the drilling line using a drill pump. "
http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2009/12/a-green-alternative-to-chemicalbased-hydraulic-fracturing-or-fracking-for-shale-gas-drillingcavitati.html
This is the kind of misquoted OPINION article that create a major division about what is really occurring - There are few if any evidence where a fraking well fluids contaminated existing water wells. There have been chemical spills and they were cleaned up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe author says there are 680,000 underground waste and injection wells. There are not 680,000 wells from fraking he is mixing cherries and watermelons.
The underground waters of the geysers in the National parks are much more toxic than any industrial or fraking liquid. They boil up from the depths of earth in molten rocks carrying acids, metals, and are high in mineral content. yes, Mother nature makes some toxic teas all on her own.
The problem with your comment, Profitsup... is that it lacks common sense, because people do not live near geysers, and other natural toxic areas.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd the proof of water contamination is showing up all over the US and other parts of the world.
People are not stupid. Shame on you, making money by poising people.
Sorry, poisoning... spelled wrong.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are just too many reck-less, greedy, con-artist standing in the way of a better life for everyone.
There's cleaner ways to do almost everything.
Well as long as "Profitsup" nothing will be done about this travesty. As we have recently learned, corporations are "people" but are MANDATED to have NO Heart! They are actually expected to BREAK THE LAW if it's cheaper than complying and it increases their profit. By law they must do whatever they can to make a profit for their "investors". Sick,Sick ,Sick!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thispriddseren (comment above) states the problem sarcastically but correctly; CEOs certainly will not be around to have to deal with this time-bomb and and their very rich descendants will rule over the mutant public from their sterilized under-ground nuclear bunkers.
The article carefully leaves one issue unaddressed, that is that the fracking protocols that were used on these older wells are several generations old. New technology is already addressing many of these concerns. Soon the type of technology cited by bernardpalmer above will be replacing the chemical mix in current use. Why the change? because it is economically more efficient to do so.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisProfitsup wrote, "The author says there are 680,000 underground waste and injection wells. There are not 680,000 wells from fraking he is mixing cherries and watermelons."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe author, Abrahm Lustgarten, wrote, "There are more than 680,000 underground waste and injection wells nationwide, more than 150,000 of which shoot industrial fluids thousands of feet below the surface."
Lustgarten NEVER claimed that 680,000 wells were from fracking. He said there were over 150,000 wells used for "industrial fluids." These are Class 1 and Class 2 wells (mostly Class 2 wells). Fracking waste water is pumped into Class 2 wells.
Profitsup, do you know the number of wells used for fracking waste water injection? If so, please provide your number and source.
Maybe the article should have been better titled. Very little was mentioned about fracking through the entire article. The article primarily addressed the injection of all industrial waste water (Class 1 and 2 wells). But, does it really matter? The concern is with the integrity of injection wells which is an issue with fracking and the disposal of waste water from fracking (which the contaminants -- benzene, etc, -- are considered proprietary).
As the author of this article, I just want to clarify: Nowhere does this article discuss fracking wells or say that there are 680,000 fracked wells (there are actually many more) but if you read what I have published today it is about a different topic really -- waste across all industries that is handled under a separate, federally regulated program. Geologists are concerned that the fractures underground are increasing permeability for all underground fluids. I appreciate your interest and taking the time to comment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks, it was a fine article. Clearly it isn't easy to even do a good piece on something about which there are so many unknowns. At least it is certainly hard to come to definitive conclusions. I think you successfully communicated the primary message, that there's a lot of optimistic thinking and severe pressure to just declare it all 'not a problem' when indeed it could be anything from a localized problem in a few areas all the way up to a vast ecological catastrophe in the making.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI must say, I'm not optimistic. We're far too cavalier about dumping waste about (and many other things), but I guess we'll see...
The problem with wellbores in gas fields is that, as they age, the wellbore becomes a pathway for gas to rise into groundwater. This can occur outside the outer cement casing, since the cement does not adhere to the surrounding rock, and, over time, it shrinks and cracks, enabling gas to vent up the wellbore. This is a common problem in fields where wellbores go through multiple shallow gas bearing formations that are above shale gas targets - such as the Marcellus in NE Pa. The wellbore does not have to be a gas well. An injection well will suffice.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo then the title was meant to grab people's attention with a loaded word but not meant to convey the subject matter?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOr it could be that the title of the article was chosen correctly, but the introductory and concluding paragraphs were poorly written by not conveying a message of where the greatest risks exist: disposing of proprietary (i.e. secret) fracking fluids.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere's an EPA study that includes info on fracking waste:
http://www.epa.gov/hfstudy/HF_Study__Plan_110211_FINAL_508.pdf
An individual who puts poison in water supplies is termed a terrorist and is sent to prison. The same justice should be applied to frackers...Or is it a case that the rich escape justice?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe title of Lustgarten's excellent article is so extremely reserved that it borders on tongue-in-cheek. This would more accurately be titled "Fracking Wastewater Wells ARE Poisoning Aquifers and Drinking Water".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBribery of public officials is routine business in the USA, hence the missing EPA data and an agency that destroys evidence for the sake of the oil, chemical, and waste disposal companies. Pass a bribe to your congress person to get them to lean on the agency that collects evidence of malfeasance and harm done to the public. This is the usual method to avoid being prosecuted for crimes done by those that have the means.
In view of the spotty integrity on the part of government agencies, any reasonable person will anticipate that geologists hired by oil companies and others selling wastewater fracking are screened to ensure compliance and spinelessness in the service of corporate dishonesty. In my view, their reassuring lies about the possibility of their poison flowing into our aquifers are worth no more than the waste itself.
These corporations must be dissolved as a public menace so that the individuals that have poisoned our water for their personal enrichment are held personally accountable for every man, woman, and child that they have sickened and murdered as well as property damages ensuing from aquifer contamination.
MAY pose a risk? I guess it wasn't IMPORTANT until people in L.A. realized their water was being poisoned?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAsk the thousands of people in Pennsylvania whose water that they depend on for drinking, preparinbg meals and washing their children what to do, now that their water is FLAMMABLE.
This is another of those environmental stories where the interested parties all take their perfunctory places in the debate. The oilies claim vast knowledge and technical capability, the enviros scream, emotion and passion and the regulators play catch-up. Why can't there be another approach, where everyone gives up their role in favor of having EPA name a technical review panel that makes regulatory recommendations that everyone understands. Such a panel might begin with a clear description of what is known and what is unknown, make a list of priority data collections and analysis needed to resolve a priority listing of the unknowns and then everyone would at least be on the same page.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's just too boring, not to mention expensive, to wait for everyone to repeat the same boring script before buckling down to the science.
GasFrac has a process that does not use water, therefore no waste water to be concerned about. check at gasfrac.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYup, tharter, I'm not optimistic either. But, as they say, "money talks, bs walks," and that has produced the dangerous world we're busily creating. It's our kids & grand kids who will be paying the price, though. Anyone see the movie "Idiotcracy"? A very relevant flick that was almost still-born. It came out in 2006, but for I-can't-remember-what reason, never made it to the theaters. I did find a DVD of it at Barnes & Noble, though.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHelp us keep Ireland Frack Free. Anyone can sign this. Thanks http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/northern-ireland-no-fracking-required-here.html
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttps://dontfractureillinois.org/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy friends and I have been very busy shining the light on the problems this practice creates. We're attempting to keep frackers from creating wastewater wells in the sandstone near the New Madrid and Walbash faults located between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers in Southern Illinois. I'm very excited about what your research shows.
Ooops. Wabash
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Fracking shale moves water that could meet up with naturally occurring fractures in sandstone and result in faster movement to the surface [aquifers]," Myers said.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://truth-out.org/news/item/9076-the-potential-for-fracking-fluids-to-reach-freshwater-aquifers
EnergyPoint Research wrote a piece about risks associated with the handling of water a couple months back. Rather than recount it's points in this forum, here's the link...http://energypointresearch.com/oilfield-insights/archives/705
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreat article!
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