Karen, My understanding is that the expectation that 10 percent of the fracking fluid would be recycled was based on the experience of the industry in Texas and Wyoming. The rate of water usage in the Barnett Shale formation in Texas was also the basis of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission estimates of how much water would be consumed by the industry.
The reality has been that fracking in the wells in Pennsylvania is taking much less water than expected. It's being attributed to the apparent need for higher salinity in their fracking fluids, and that as a result the drillers in Pennsylvania are recycling much more water than they are in Texas. Given the apparent 2nd- or 3rd-World level character of environmental regulations in those states, and their respective rural road systems, the spreading of used fracking fluids on dirt roads may well be legal in Wyoming or Texas. The practice would certainly explain for me the extent of the groundwater pollution and private water well contamination in Wyoming. It may also be one of those practices that are exempt from the Federal Clean Waters Act. Pennsylvania however has very few dirt roads left and moreover has its own version of the Clean Waters Act that the natural gas drilling industry is not exempt from. As a result, unlike perhaps in Texas and Wyoming, the disposal of the used water coming back out of the wells is tightly regulated in Pennsylvania. I'm thus pretty certain that in Pennsylvania (and hopefully in New York) the practice of spreading used fracking fluids on roads is not legal.. I will however confirm this and report back if I am wrong. George Frantz --- On Sun, 10/11/09, Karen Edelstein <[email protected]> wrote: From: Karen Edelstein <[email protected]> Subject: [SustainableTompkins] reuse of fracking fluid To: [email protected] Date: Sunday, October 11, 2009, 2:32 AM At the Schlumberger Open House last month in Horseheads, I spent about 90 minutes in a 1-on-1 conversation with the man who heads up the whole operation there. It was his contention that they would be recovering and recycling approximately 10% of the fracking fluid, and the other 90% would either come up gradually over time in the produced water, or be lost into the system, and never recovered. I did not find this information at all comforting, especially in light of the fact that produced water is far less tightly-regulated, and may even be spread legally on roads, as I understand things currently. _______________________________________________ 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
