YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, ROCKED BY 4.0 EARTHQUAKE FROM DEEP WELL INJECTION

Yes, I say "from deep well injection" without hesitation. The company concerned with disposal of tens of millions of gallons of frack chemicals deep underground has now shut down the well. The last earthquake was on Christmas Eve. This is the 11th earthquake in 2011. True to say that horizontal  fracking (hydraulic fracturing of the shale) probably does not cause earthquakes in itself but the disposal of hundreds of millions of gallons of chemical-and-radiation-laced frack waste into deep wells DOES cause earthquakes. The same issues are occurring in Oklahoma, North Texas, Arkansas.. and even the UK (where Cuadrilla Resources actually ADMITTED that deep well injection of frack waste DID cause earthquakes). 

31st Dec 2011 

Northeast Ohio rocked by 11th earthquake linked to Youngstown injection wells

Barbara Forney’s Christmas tree was flattened on Saturday afternoon in her West Akron house.
“It was like someone pushed it down,” the 79-year-old woman said.

It had been standing by the fireplace in her living room until an earthquake tied to injection wells near Youngstown rumbled across Northeast Ohio.

The 4.0-magnitude quake was centered near Youngstown, reported the U.S. Geological Survey and the Ohio Earthquake Information Center.

The earthquake at 3:05 p.m. was felt as far away as Michigan, Ontario, Pennsylvania and New York, reported Michael C. Hansen, state geologist and coordinator of the Ohio Seismic Network, part of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Geological Survey.

The quake was “a pretty good-sized one,” he said.

There were no initial reports of injuries or major damage, he said.

The quake was the 11th over the last eight months in Mahoning County, all within two miles of the injection wells, he said. Saturday’s quake was the largest yet.

A quake on Dec. 24 measured 2.4.

There is “little doubt” that the quake is linked to injection wells that the state and the owner agreed on Friday to shut down, Hansen said.

James Zehringer, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, announced the closing of two injection wells in Youngstown Township owned by Northstar Disposal Services LLC and operated by D&L Energy Inc.

The order to close came despite the fact that the state has been unable to prove that the wells, which are 9,000 feet deep, are the cause of the earthquakes.

The wells were used to dispose of salty brine wastes from gas and oil drilling by pumping them under pressure into rock formations deep underground.

The wells are among 177 in Ohio. Drilling wastes from Ohio and Pennsylvania are being pumped in increasing volumes into the wells for permanent disposal.

Geologists have long suspected that injecting liquids into underground rock formations can trigger earthquakes along fault lines. The liquids allow rocks to flow more easily past each other.

Earthquakes have been linked to injection wells in Arkansas, West Virginia, Colorado and Texas.

The Ohio closing order took effect at 5 p.m. Friday but there would still have been pressure inside the two wells that could have triggered the quake, Hansen said.

The latest quake appears to have been located about two- thirds of a mile from the injection wells and about 1.2 miles below ground, he said.

This quake shows all the similarities of the 10 previous Youngstown quakes in 2011, he said.

Ohio also worked with scientists from Columbia University who had installed four seismographs near the site.
The first two Youngstown earthquakes occurred on March 17 and measured 2.1 and 2.6.

The state became suspicious of the injection wells after the initial quakes, which are unusual events in the Youngstown area, he said.

Earthquakes smaller than 4.0 generally do little damage. A 4.0-magnitude quake would release 40 times the energy of a 2.7 magnitude quake.

Forney rode out the quake sitting on her couch.

She and friends were puzzled by what had happened. “We wanted to know: What is this?” she said. “What’s going on? We didn’t know. We just felt the trembling.”

Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.

PA: BLACK, FOAMY WATER WORRIES NEIGHBOURS

Ya know what, if I discovered I was being poisoned by Benzene, one of the most potent chemical carcinogens around, and arsenic, I think that I would be a little worried too! Those same frackers are already here in Nicholas County, WV and despite only minimal activity to date (you just wait until they've got their well pads up and running in and around Craigsville) I, and others, already possess evidence of their pollution that is already running down mountainsides above Richwood. 

Oh, and did you know that 186,000 acres of gas leases, just north-west of Summersville, adjacent to the town and US 19 have been consolidated by one company? Unregulated drainage of waste and chemicals from spills and frack-ponds will run right into Summersville Lake and of course the Lake will supply the 8 million gallons of fresh water per "frack" that this industry needs. This WILL BE West Virginia's next "Gasland". Is there ANYONE out there who cares?  What about the lives of the unborn? Many pollutants from this industry don't just cause cancer.. they also cause birth defects. Add that on to the effects of Radium 226! Number One.. if you still hold YOUR mineral rights, get informed before you sell them! 

Fracking and horizontal drilling of shales needs to be halted until the EPA finishes its studies in 2012. We do not need this gas right now anyway. The USA has a massive GLUT of natural gas which has forced the price down to around $3.00 per 1000 cf. BUT The industry is desperate to keep the investors happy so the aim is to export this resource as quickly as possible of course. 

India is paying around $18 per 1000 cf for example. THIS LINK is a good example of what happens when you start to export a resource.. yep.. you got it! Prices in the domestic market GO UP! 

"U.S. refineries exported a record amount of refined fuels (mainly gas/petrol and diesel) in 2011 to markets in South America, Central America and Europe. It was one reason why Americans spent a record amount on gasoline this year: SUPPLIES THAT MIGHT HAVE HELPED LOWER PRICES HAD BEEN SHIPPED ABROAD" Makes an entire mockery of the "DRILL BABY DRILL" crap that come from folks who simply don't know better.

Pennsylvania residents blame illness on natural gas extraction 

 Above: Land being excavated to hold waste water from a fracturing operation in Pennsylvania.

There is a lot of construction near Janet McIntyre's home in southwestern Pennsylvania. It's not new houses, but new industry: 10 gas wells, a compressor station and multiple drilling-waste ponds.

The state sits atop the nation’s largest deposit of natural gas known as the Marcellus Shale. What concerns McIntyre and her neighbors is an extraction process called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." It combines deep horizontal and vertical drilling with enormous amounts of water, chemicals and sand.

Water troubles

McIntyre never worried about her water before. When she looks out on the wooded rural landscape from her front porch she talks about her well water liked a cherished lost friend.  “We never ran out of water. We never had a problem with our water. It was cold coming out of the spigot just as if you went to a regular spring and got it. It was gorgeous water.”



Then one night McIntyre got sick. She had a bad headache and vomited. When her husband Fred went for a glass of water and turned on the spigot, it spewed out smelly foam.
“He hollers back, I think I know why we’re sick," she remembers. "There’s something wrong with our water.”

The McIntyres stopped drinking the well water.
Neighbor Kim McEvoy says her water turned black and she got sick too. “My fingernails were growing downward. My hair was falling out. I’d get dizzy.”

McEvoy and McIntyre complained to the gas company and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

The gas company gave them bottled water.

'Unsafe levels'

Initial tests of McIntyre's well water showed unsafe levels of toluene, a volatile and toxic petrochemical that causes nausea and headaches. McEvoy's well water had arsenic. Now, months later, new company tests say the water is safe to drink, although trace chemicals are still present.

Bottled water deliveries end next month.
The two households get their water from private wells, like three million others who live in rural Pennsylvania. The state has no rules on the location, design, testing or treatment of private drinking-water wells. That means contamination could come from other sources like poor well construction or failing septic systems, or gas migrating naturally from adjacent rock or leaking from abandoned mines.
But McEvoy thinks the gas companies are responsible too.

Over the past year she and McIntyre have called on township officials, testified at local hearings, and joined in protests. They want the drilling stopped.

Fracking chemicals in water

Fracking is banned in and around the city of Pittsburgh, and it’s under a moratorium in the nearby states of New York and Maryland until health and environmental risks are assessed.
The battle continues on Capitol Hill. Ohio lawmaker Bob Gibbs, whose state stands to gain jobs and revenue from gas development, backs the industry. In a recent house hearing, Gibbs asked Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection director Michael Krancer about the state’s safety record.

Krancer testified that fracking has never caused a groundwater contamination problem. “Fracking simply doesn’t do that. And there’s still not a documented case,” he said.

Gibbs got the same reply from experts in Ohio and Oklahoma.
But a new draft report released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency disputes those claims. Preliminary results of the three-year federal study in Pavillion, Wyoming, show chemicals associated with hydraulic fracturing gas wells in the area are turning up in the ground water.
The EPA findings add weight to the complaints of Pennsylvania landowners like Kim McEvoy and Janet McIntyre.

Closer look

Steve Hvozdovich, Marcellus Shale Campaign director with the Pennsylvania Chapter of Clean Water Action, advises a closer look at the industry. He says in 2010 alone, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection cited gas drillers 1,200 times for operational violations.

Eyes now are focused on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Beyond its Wyoming report, the EPA is completing a more comprehensive study, requested by Congress in 2010, of the impact hydraulic fracturing might be having on local water supplies. Initial findings are due in 2012.
In the meantime, Janet McIntyre plans to continue her fight to halt the gas drilling. “I want my water back. I want my air back. They took it from me and I want it back.”

US GOVT. OFFERS $35 MILLION FOR POLLUTION SOLUTIONS

.. But, but I thought that it was clean and efficient and that, according to the industry, shale fracturing/horizontal drilling is a safe and non-polluting energy source, and it's only the environutzis who make a song and dance about nothing!  

Well, I say let the gas companies, and NOT the taxpayer, fund research into "pollution solutions"  for the gas drillers and, until those solutions are found, HALT the permitting process in every state.. after all, we already have a massive glut of natural gas through over-production.. but hydro-fracking and horizontal drilling is a Ponzi scheme, as I have pointed out to you before. If new well drilling stops, then the whole house of cards comes tumbling down and the banksters, the bond and stock holders will lose their investments BIG time!

"Fracking fluids are believed to contain benzene, ethylbenzene, formaldehyde, methanol, naphthalene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, toluene, xylene, boric acid, hydrochloric acid, isopropanol, and diesel fuel. Drillers are usually not required to disclose the chemicals they use.

The brine that returns to the surface has been found to contain these chemicals and others, including up to 16,000 picoCuries per liter of radium-226 (pdf). The discharge limit in effluent for Radium 226 is 60 pCi/L, and the EPA’s drinking water standard is 5 pCi/L."

The Department of Energy issued a request for proposals this week offering $35 million for projects that will address environmental impacts of shale-gas development, including contamination of drinking water with fracking chemicals, development of more benign chemicals, and disposal of contaminated wastewater.

DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory also issued a second RFP offering $10 million to projects that will help small oil and gas producers extend the lifetime of existing fields—”a resource of relatively well-known quantity in a known location.”

The U.S. could transform itself from a fossil-fuel importer to a fossil-fuel exporter through the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of deep shale formations to release trapped natural gas, but these rapidly expanding operations have encountered swift opposition from neighbors and environmental groups concerned about the toxins released by such operations.

In hydraulic fracturing operations, drillers force water and a mixture of chemicals into wells to shatter the shale and free natural gas.

Fracking fluids are believed to contain benzene, ethylbenzene, formaldehyde, methanol, naphthalene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, toluene, xylene, boric acid, hydrochloric acid, isopropanol, and diesel fuel. Drillers are usually not required to disclose the chemicals they use.

The brine that returns to the surface has been found to contain these chemicals and others, including up to 16,000 picoCuries per liter of radium-226 (pdf). The discharge limit in effluent for Radium 226 is 60 pCi/L, and the EPA’s drinking water standard is 5 pCi/L.

The RFPs are available through the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America. The fracking proposals are due March 6 for implementation in October. The small producer proposals are due Feb. 17 for implementation in September.

LINK TO ARTICLE

CLASH OF THE TITANS - COAL vs GAS

Pre-amble:

I've been waiting for this to start, particularly in the areas of our country with deep mines such as West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. With the ongoing problems of poorly made or defective vertical well casings and the aquifer contamination issues, you can only imagine what could happen when a well casing that is under extremely high pressure and stress, particularly when a well that is being fracked, develops leaks in a worked coal seam.... 


Karlis Muehlenbachs, a geochemist at the University of Alberta, has stated that "The biggest problem is that half or more the wells drilled leak due to improper cement jobs or industry is not following best practices,"

"They'll frack each well up to 20 times. Each time the pressure will shudder and bang the pipes in the wellbore. The cement is hard and the steel is soft. If you do it all the time you are going to break bonds and cause leaks. It's a real major issue. "


Coal Mining Clashing With Gas Drilling

ALLEDONIA - Natural gas lease holders in some parts of Belmont and Monroe counties may not see any wells drilled for some time, as a dispute has formed between the area's gas drilling and mining companies.

Locally, many of the leases in the southern portion of Belmont County - especially those in York, Washington, Wayne, Goshen and Smith townships - and those in northern Monroe County lie in areas where Murray Energy Corp. has plans to mine for coal.

"Our coal ownership is superior to any oil and gas leases," said Robert Edward Murray, vice president for business development and external affairs for Murray Energy.

"We are indeed concerned about protecting our coal reserves and the jobs we provide from indiscriminate drilling for oil and gas."

Jeff Neu is the public and government affairs advisor for XTO Energy, which is a fully-owned subsidiary of global oil titan Exxon Mobil.

He declined to comment on Murray's statements. Chesapeake Energy spokesman Pete Kenworthy also did not wish to comment, nor did Hess Corp. spokeswoman Maripat Sexton.

Earlier this year, Hess took over leases previously signed with Marquette Exploration, while Chesapeake and XTO have been signing new leases throughout Belmont County for most of this year.

Thomas Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said Murray Energy has a right to protect coal shafts from drilling, but not the coal reserves.

Murray "is trying to block us from drilling where (the company) may decide to mine 20 years from now," said Stewart. "That's not the intent of the law. The law is set up to protect coal miners by preventing a gas rig from drilling into a mine shaft."

Stewart said Ohio law states that in coal-bearing townships, the coal interests can object to the location of a gas well if the well would endanger miner safety.

"This issue has been festering in Ohio for a long time," Stewart added. "It is a critical issue to the economic future of Belmont and Monroe counties."

Ohio's share of the Utica Shale may contain as many as 5.6 billion barrels of oil, said Terry Fleming, executive director of the Ohio Petroleum Council. Stewart believes the oil industry needs to show Ohio legislators and regulators with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources how much oil could mean for the state's future.

Murray "believes (its) mineral interests are superior," said Stewart. "The economic value of the Utica Shale has the potential to surpass the economic value of the coal industry to the state of Ohio many times over."

Noting his company is "spending thousands of hours in working with oil and gas interests in the state of Ohio," Murray said he wants the gas wells near his mining operations located in a manner so that there will be "no loss of oil and gas production."

Stewart said Ohio DNR officials are working to resolve the dispute between the coal and gas industries, but officials at the department could not be reached for comment.

"We do not view the coal industry as our enemy at all," Stewart emphasized. "They are our partners in ensuring the future of strong domestic energy production."

GO TO ARTICLE

GAS PIPELINE WILL RUN FROM NICHOLAS TO BRAXTON COUNTIES

 "A local group called STand Up Now (STUN) takes issue with the horizontal fracturing wells and is holding regular community meetings about the developments. STUN says they initially reported the illegal (Bluescape) flare to the WVDEP"

God Bless the Fracktivists.. and of course  the endangered Indiana Bat :^)

An executive at Bluescape Resources (BRC) confirms that work is under way on a 52-mile pipeline that would transport gas from the Marcellus shale fields of Nicholas County to a connection point near Frametown in Braxton County.

“We have acquired all of the right of way, the permits and the interconnect agreement with the transmission company we plan to connect our pipeline with,” says Tom Grace, Bluescape’s executive vvice president. “We initiated the construction operations earlier this year.”

The pipeline will cost over $100 million and cross the Gauley and Elk rivers on its way to the company’s wells near Richwood, says Grace. He says no specific timeline for completion of the project is set.

“We are in the very early stages of proving the economic viability of this resource. It is a multi-year project, but if successful, this will open up an entire region of the state that before now has little economic development in terms of oil and gas,” he says.

The Dallas-based company currently has at least eight horizontal well permits in Nicholas County, approved by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP). Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. and Triana Engineering are also drilling wells to tap Marcellus shale gas in the county.

Three of Bluescape’s Nicholas County wells have flared illegally since the end of August, from a single flare stack. The DEP issued a notice of violation in late October to the company for not obtaining a permit. Law states that temporary flares can only burn for 30 days per year.

A response to the WVDEP’s notice of violation says that Bluescape has no choice but to burn the gas, since “to date no natural gas pipelines have been installed on or in the vicinity of the site.” The letter also states that two WVDEP officials told the company no permits were needed for the flare.

Grace says Bluescape’s plans for drilling further in Nicholas County are still unknown.

“We’ve drilled a handful and hope to test more next year. If things are positive, we will continue to drill next year in hopes of initiating commercial production in the coming years,” he says.

Bluescape has taken a risky position by initiating the pipeline before the economic viability of the Nicholas County shale fields is proven, says Grace.

“Building a pipeline for 52 miles across the state of West Virginia requires massive amounts of resources, both across construction and engineering and regulatory aspects. We felt it in our and the state’s best interests to initiate those operations sooner rather than later, at our risk, versus the alternative, which is to prove the economic viability and then wait for several years for the pipeline to be built,” he says.

“It is a risk, but we are confident that this project will work after we have sufficient data to prove the economic viability of well performance. ... Early returns are positive but inconclusive at this point.”

Grace says the drilling would create jobs for skilled and semi-skilled workers, and have trickle-down effects in the local economy.

“Our drilling operations will lead to several hundreds of millions of dollars in investment over the next few years,” he says. “The secondary effects of that will be expanded economic growth in all sectors of the community. We will be providing an enormous tax base in addition to economic benefits of increased commerce and development in that area.”

The company is building the pipeline to meet the specifications required for transporting gas for multiple companies, says Grace.

A local group called STand Up Now (STUN) takes issue with the horizontal fracturing wells and is holding regular community meetings about the developments. STUN says they initially reported the illegal flare to the WVDEP.

ECCLES, RALEIGH COUNTY, WV - EPLOSION HEARD FOR MILES

ECCLES — A water separator tank exploded at a gas well location off Upper Sandlick Road near Eccles around 1 p.m. Christmas Day, according to the Trap Hill Volunteer Fire Department. Fire Chief Larry Reedy said there was a great deal of force behind the pressure explosion, sending bits of metal flying in all directions. A gas well tender was on site, but wasn’t injured. No other injuries were reported. Reedy said the blast was probably caused by a faulty valve, but the gas company will further investigate the source of the problem. The blast did not involve natural gas from the well. Reedy said the compressor station sustained extensive damage and a phone line on the main road was cut by the explosion. Callers reported the blast was heard as far away as Glen Jean in Fayette County and shook windows in homes in the Beckley and Bradley areas of Raleigh County.

LINK TO ARTICLE

Also from 15th December - the well is not a Marcellus well but a shallow gas site. However, I guess a valve is a valve is a valve.. and, like the above incident, sometimes they fail..

GAS WELL EXPLOSION  IN KANAWHA COUNTY INJURES ONE

Three Cabot Gas workers were attending to a traditional natural gas well on the Samples Creek Mine property in eastern Kanawha County Thursday afternoon when a valve exploded.

Kanawha County Assistant Emergency Services Director C.W. Sigman says one worker was injured by shrapnel from the valve. He says the other two workers were uninjured but complaining of ringing ears.

Sigman says the initial explosion, which happened at around 3:15, was heard on Cabin Creek Road several miles away. He says there was no fireball or significant fire in connection with the incident. He says the gas well was quickly shut off.

Sigman says the crew was working on a water separator that separates the salt brine from the gas. They were working on a leaking valve when it exploded.

"A valve came apart and the shrapnel from that explosion hit a salt brine tank," Sigman said. "We lost some salt brine."

There were no burn injuries reported. The injured worker was taken by ambulance to CAMC General. He sustained minor injuries, officials said.

The Cabot Gas well is located on the backside of the Samples Mine property, which is owned by Patriot Coal.

GAS WELL EXPLOSION INJURES ONE IN KANAWHA COUNTY WV

FRACKING CONTAMINATION "WILL GET WORSE" SAYS ALBERTAN EXPERT

"They'll frack each well up to 20 times. Each time the pressure will shudder and bang the pipes in the wellbore. The cement is hard and the steel is soft. If you do it all the time you are going to break bonds and cause leaks. It's a real major issue. "
Industry spokesmen typically argue that if the drilling hole is properly cased with steel and cemented "the risk of any interaction between drinking water and fracturing fluid is significantly diminished."
But Muehlenbachs replies with another question: "Yes, but what happens if the job is not done right and how frequent are problems encountered?"

 LINK TO ARTICLE