Rachel, My understanding is that the water is being recycled at the drilling site. In August at a briefing by staff of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) they noted that the actual water usage for fracking in Pennsylvania appears to be substantially lower than that in the Barnett formation in Texas, and that there is more recycling of water happening. The SRBC regulates any consumption of surface or ground water in excess of 20,000 gallons per day within the Susquehanna River basin. They are thus the primary monitoring agency for water usage. The agency'sSRBC's jurisdiction covers parts of New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland and supersedes that of the individual states. The SRBC staff speculated that the Marcellus formation has a higher salt content and in order to control the leaching of salt from within the wells the drilling companies are utilizing the brinier flowback waters from the first round of fracking in subsequent rounds. I think that Joel's estimate of reduced water need by 40 percent is close to the actual reality. One drilling company is also experimenting with using acid mine drainage (AMD), which is readily available from nearby abandoned strip mine areas. Wastewater treatment plant effluent is also being investigated. In both cases the SRBC will still have permitting authority as use of AMD and wastewater effluent would qualify as consumption. Last year a couple of drilling companies that forgot they were not in the land of George W. Bush or Dick Cheney shelled out over $2.6 million in fines to the SRBC for unauthorized water withdrawals. George Frantz
--- On Fri, 10/9/09, Rachel Treichler <[email protected]> wrote: From: Rachel Treichler <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Fw: Story from Daily Review: Citizens can use technology to monitor contamination from Marcellus shale activity To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv" <[email protected]> Date: Friday, October 9, 2009, 3:53 PM Do you have more information on where and how Fortuna recyles its recovered fracking fluid? Rachel Treichler Joel and Sarah Gagnon wrote: > Besides the suggestion of using total dissolved solids as an indicator for > the presence of fracking fluid contamination, the article is interesting in > its mentioning that Fortuna now recycles its recovered fracking fluids for > subsequent frackings. If that were to be the norm, it would go a long way > toward addressing the issue of water use (it would reduce the water needs by > 40%) and disposal of used fluid. > > Joel > > At 09:40 AM 10/8/09 -0700, you wrote: > >> The following link to an article on natural gas drilling from the Townada >> (PA) Daily Review may be of interest. >> >> George Frantz >> >> >> Subject: Story from Daily Review: Citizens can use technology to monitor >> contamination from Marcellus shale activity >> Date: Thursday, October 8, 2009, 12:37 PM >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> geoplan57 has shared the following with you: >> Citizens can use technology to monitor contamination from Marcellus shale >> activity >> >> >> Message: >> Daily Review >> Read the full article >> >> >> Click below or copy and paste this link into a new browser window if you can >> not see this message >> http://apps.grouptivity.com/socialmail/main.do?uId=328218&tId=293809&pk=108487588753&acn=zj!d9&pId=FCQD8uVADVY=&acn=zj!d9 >> >> Share, Save, Be Social: Try >> >> NOTE: By clicking the "Read the full article" link you agree to the Terms of >> Service of Grouptivity. >> To protect your privacy do not forward this message. >> Add [email protected] to your address book to ensure that you >> receive all email messages in your Inbox. >> >> Unsubscribe here if you do not wish to receive future messages from this >> sender >> Copyright © 2006-2008 appMail LLC DBA Grouptivity, 530 University Ave, ste >> 100, Palo Alto, CA 94301. All rights reserved >> Privacy Policy | Suggestions >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, >> please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ >> >> RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: >> [email protected] >> http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins >> Questions about the list? ask [email protected] >> free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please > visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > Questions about the list? ask [email protected] > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
