EPA fracking investigation in Wyoming revisited after objections. In December of last year, Ars reported on a major EPA study in Pavillion, Wyoming that concluded hydraulic fracking operations there had contaminated the groundwater aquifer.
While there wasn’t a clear link to contamination detected in some shallow private water wells, EPA believed the deeper contamination was very likely related to fracking. This determination came primarily from two deep monitoring wells that EPA had installed for the investigation. Encana, the gas exploration company that owned the natural gas wells, disagreed vehemently. Fracking Lawsuit In New York Dismissed By US Judge. By Jessica Dye NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Brooklyn dismissed a lawsuit on Monday brought by New York state and environmental groups challenging proposed natural gas drilling in the Delaware River basin.
U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis threw out the action on procedural grounds, saying there was no basis for the lawsuit since the regulations it sought to halt had not yet been finalized. "The court concludes that this dispute is not currently fit for judicial review," Garaufis wrote. "The harms that plaintiffs ultimately are concerned about are speculative, and rely on a chain of inferences that may never come to pass. " New York and several environmental groups sued the U.S. government and Delaware River Basin Commission in 2011, asking for environmental studies to determine the effect of gas drilling on the basin, which supplies water to about 15 million people, including some New York City residents.
Global Fracking Protests Planned Around The World By GlobalFrackdown Campaign. PHILADELPHIA -- Demonstrators in the United States and other countries protested Saturday against the natural gas drilling process known as fracking that they say threatens public health and the environment.
Participants in the "Global Frackdown" campaign posted photos on social media websites showing mostly small groups. Brendan DeMelle: Deepening Doubts About Fracked Shale Gas Wells' Long Term Prospects. This month, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection released its bi-annual report on how much natural gas has been produced in the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation which stretches underneath much of Appalachia.
Investors were shocked because the production numbers seemed far lower than expected. Watched closely by market and energy analysts, the report sparked a heated debate about the oil and gas industry's excited rhetoric about fracked shale gas as the cure-all to many of America's energy and jobs needs. But the story quickly got complicated. The report was released despite lacking data from the state’s second largest driller, Chesapeake Energy, and state regulators never flagged the omission. The amount of gas flowing out of Pennsylvania had actually climbed dramatically. Wastewater Injection Wells: The Trillion-Gallon Loophole. From ProPublica's Abrahm Lustgarten: On a cold, overcast afternoon in January 2003, two tanker trucks backed up to an injection well site in a pasture outside Rosharon, Texas.
There, under a steel shed, they began to unload thousands of gallons of wastewater for burial deep beneath the earth. The waste – the byproduct of oil and gas drilling – was described in regulatory documents as a benign mixture of salt and water. Fracking in California takes less water. In Pennsylvania, the controversial practice of fracking can consume 4.5 million gallons of water per well, the liquid pumped deep underground to crack rocks that contain natural gas.
In parts of Texas, fracking a well often takes 6 million gallons. But in California, where fracking is starting to spread, the average amount of water involved is just 164,000 gallons, according to industry data. Hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, has triggered a boom in energy production across the United States and sparked a fierce public debate that revolves around water. Methane Making An Appearance In Pa. Water Supplies. Hide caption Mike and Nancy Leighton live in Leroy Township, Pa., where residents have been dealing with flammable gas puddles and tainted well water.
Becky Lettenberger/NPR Hide caption A local well pad in Bradford County has been leaking gas since mid-May, according to state regulators. Gas has been bubbling into this nearby creek since about the same time. Becky Lettenberger/NPR Hide caption The Morse well pad in Bradford County, which the state believes is responsible for the leaking methane. University of Texas Compounds Conflict Question in Review of Gas Report.
Fact sheet: How much does fracking really affect climate change? Motivated Reasoning Skip to next paragraph Energy Trends Insider Our mission is to provide clear, objective information about the important energy issues facing the world, address and correct misconceptions, and to actively engage readers and exchange ideas.
For more great energy coverage, visit Energy Trends Insider. Recent posts Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS ofThe Christian Science MonitorWeekly Digital Edition. Energy News - Waterless LPG Natural Gas Fracking and Tanzania Uranium. Can fracking contaminate drinking water? - environment - 11 July 2012. The salt of the Earth may hint at trouble for the fracking industry's safety claims, according to a new geological study – although other researchers disagree.
Hydraulic fracturing uses pressurised fluid to crack open deep shale rocks to release the methane trapped within them. Geologists say this potentially harmful fluid is unlikely to percolate up through a few kilometres of rock to reach the shallow aquifers that supply drinking water – but Avner Vengosh of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, thinks the methane itself could do so. The gas would be an explosion risk. Last year his team claimed drinking wells close to fracking sites in Pennsylvania were contaminated with methane – perhaps from fracking – a finding that was met with a storm of criticism. Now Vengosh claims more evidence of possible contamination. Fast-moving gas. Intelligence Squared Fracking Debate Discusses Pros and Cons Of Shale Gas Boom. Tell Your U.S. Legislators: Protect Our Water, Ban Fracking Now! New hazard of gas drilling: flow-back water. New hazard of gas drilling: flow-back water Only six treatment plants in PA.
HBO’s Gasland has it right: Take caution before jumping on the ‘fracking’ wagon. “Whoa, that’s not supposed to happen.” Thus spoke Josh Fox, master of the understatement, after he witnessed a man, whose house neighbors a natural gas well, light his kitchen tap water on fire. Fracking in USA. Fracking. Ohio Fracking: Earthquakes Could Incite Policy Shift. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In Ohio, geographically and politically positioned to become a leading importer of wastewater from gas drilling, environmentalists and lawmakers opposed to the technique known as fracking are seizing on a series of small earthquakes as a signal to proceed with caution. Earthquakes caused by the injection of wastewater that's a byproduct of high-pressure hydraulic fracture drilling, aren't new. Yet earthquakes have a special ability to grab public attention. That's especially true after Saturday's quake near Youngstown, at magnitude 4.0 strong enough to be felt across hundreds of square miles.
Gov. John Kasich, a drilling proponent, has shut down the wastewater well on which the quake has been blamed, along with others in the area, as the seismic activity is reviewed. Chevron might inject steam into Arabian oil field. Chevron Corp. might invest as much as $40 billion to produce an extra 5 billion barrels from an oilfield along the border of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, by injecting steam underground to make it liquid enough to pump. The San Ramon company is pressing ahead with a pilot project at the Wafra field after "very promising" results, said Ahmed al-Omer, managing director of Saudi Arabian Chevron. The venture expects to make a final decision by 2013, al-Omer said. EPA: Natural Gas Fracking Linked to Water Contamination: Scientific American. The EPA’s investigation into water pollution near Pavillion, Wyo., produces landmark findings that could erode arguments used to defend safety of the gas drilling process.
In a first, federal environment officials today scientifically linked underground water pollution with hydraulic fracturing, concluding that contaminants found in central Wyoming were likely caused by the gas drilling process. The findings by the Environmental Protection Agency come partway through a separate national study by the agency to determine whether fracking presents a risk to water resources. Markell: Delaware will vote against controversial drilling in Delaware River watershed. About Natural Shale Gas, Shale Reserves, & Fracking. Here Comes Solar Energy. In Village’s Fight Over Gas Drilling, Civility Is Fading. Oklahoma's 5.6 Earthquake: Is Fracking Responsible?
The good people of Oklahoma were rattled on Nov. 5 when the state was hit by its largest earthquake on record, a 5.6-magnitude temblor that struck 44 miles (71 km) east of Oklahoma City. (The previous biggest quake was a 5.5-magnitude tremor that hit in 1952.)