News Coverage
To Drink or Drill?
Proposed natural gas drilling could taint water supply
Published September 12, 2008
NEW YORK—Trying to meet the growing demand for energy, gas companies are eyeing the natural gas trapped in the shale thousands of feet beneath the Northeast—a plan that environmentalists say could have serious consequences for our water supply.
To reach rock-encased gas reserves, which would yield an estimated two years' worth of natural gas for the entire nation, drilling companies will have to employ methods called “horizontal drilling” in conjunction with “hydraulic fracturing,” both brainchildren of energy giant Halliburton.
The method involves drilling down and then horizontally into the ground, and then injecting high-pressure viscous fluids into the rock, creating cracks in it to seek out the pockets of gas.
The rock formation in question is the Marcellus Shale, which stretches over 600 miles from New York to Ohio. It runs somewhere between one mile to more than 9,000 feet underground.
Environmentalists are anxious about the idea of drilling in the New York City Water Supply watershed for two reasons—because they are unsure how the chemicals used could effect the human body should they enter the water, and because the gas-extraction method requires millions of gallons of water—water that could become scarce as a result of the changing climate.
The method has been employed in the West since the 1980’s but is just starting to get airtime in New York—partly because now, with dwindling availability, natural gas resources are worth more. “Hydraulic fracturing is a suspect in impaired or polluted drinking water in Alabama, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, where residents have reported changes in water quality or quantity following fracturing operations of gas wells,” reads a 2007 Natural Resources Defense Council report on oil and gas production in the West.
Water, Our Lifeblood
A watershed, or a drainage basin, is the land area that encompasses the natural water system of a region—its rivers, lakes and aquifers. Rainclouds condense above it; groundwater sits in its soil.
The particular watershed that New York belongs to serves more than 14 million people in New York State, Philadelphia and New Jersey. Within it, the Catskill/Delaware river system provides 90 percent of New York City's water.
Currently the New York City Water Supply reservoirs hold close to 44 trillion gallons of water, according to data on the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) web site. If the natural gas companies succeed in gaining rights to drill within the watershed—and installing as many as ten thousand new wells—their hydraulic fracturing operations would require as many as three to five million gallons of potable water. Over 95% of the fracturing fluid is water, according to associations representing oil and gas producers.
Five million gallons seem like a drop in the ocean when compared to the total size of the water supply, but that may be beside the point. A watershed is particularly susceptible to groundwater pollution. If toxins leach into the soil, they are likely to drip into the fissures in aging water supply mains—and the fluids used in hydraulic fracturing are known to contain toxins.
“A recent Environmental Working Group analysis of oil and gas drilling in Colorado found that these operations use at least 65 chemicals listed or regulated as hazardous compounds under federal environmental laws,” said EWG's senior analyst Dusty Horwitz in a testimony at an oversight hearing by NYC's Committee on Environmental Protection on Wed., Sept. 10.
Because most of New York State's oil and gas bearing rocks are very impermeable, they must be “stimulated,” via acidizing or hydraulic fracturing according to the DEP's 1992 report, Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program.
“Wells in New York State are usually stimulated in one or two stages,” reads the report. “The first stage involves pumping seven to 15 percent inhibited hydrochloric acid into the producing formation. The acid will dissolve and enlarge the pore spaces in carbonate bearing rocks and increase the rocks' permeability.”
Hydrochloric acid, the main component of stomach acid, is highly corrosive to human tissue if concentrated. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deems it a toxic substance.
The acid is shut in the rock for one to two hours. “After being spent, the 250 to 500 gallons of acid that were injected at the perforations are returned to the surface with the other waste fluids when the fracturing job is completed,” reads the DEP report. This is called “flowback.”
Three flowback methods are used: A pipe is opened, allowing pressurized fluids to spray into a waste pit. Sometimes this method provides insufficient control, resulting in a large volume of the pressurized stimulation fluid missing the pit and spraying into the surrounding areas, according to the DEP report. The second method uses a choke on the wellhead that directs fluids to the pit, and the third returns the fluid to a tank. The last method allows the operators to know how much fluid has been reclaimed, and keeps the most amount of fluid contained, though disposal of the tank remains an issue.
Other toxins found in fracturing fluid include benzene (a carcinogen and cause of female infertility and birth defects), fluorenes, ethylene glycol (an ingredient in anti-freeze), and methanol. Should these and other fracturing fluid toxins enter the water supply, they could cause skin irritation, dizziness, liver damage, and respiratory problems.
The drilling companies are not required by Federal or State laws to disclose the types of chemicals used.
Gas' Profit Lifeline
The American Petroleum Institute and the Independent Petroleum Association of America issued this statement to New York City's Wednesday hearing on drilling in the watershed: “The Associations believe that development of natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale will not pose any significant risk to the drinking water supplies of New York City.”
With global oil and gas consumption rapidly depleting non-renewable resources from the earth, what remains in the Marcellus Shale is a sort of lifeline for drilling companies. “The National Petroleum Council has estimated that 60 to 80 percent of all wells drilled in the United States in the next ten years will require fracturing in order to remain profitable,” read the Associations' statement.
The Associations cite a 2004 EPA report that finds that hydraulic fracturing poses little to no threat to drinking water supplies. However, an Agency whistleblower found an earlier draft of that report that reveals contradictory information was removed for the final released version.
New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation holds primary authority over mining in the State. However, its Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) regarding drilling does not include policy about the protection of public health. In July, Governor David Paterson directed that the 16-year-old GEIS be updated to include such provisions.
