Public voices drilling concerns
Experts say area to see economic boom CARMICHAELS – Two Penn State Cooperative Extension officials managed to complete most of their presentations on the impact of Marcellus shale gas drilling between choruses of residents venting complaints about drilling operations.
Jon Laughner, a Penn State Extension educator, said the drilling rigs and wells he saw during his drive on Route 21 to the Carmichaels-Cumberland Township Volunteer Fire Department for Thursday’s night’s meeting were obvious signs of the gas boom in Greene County.
Residents said gas companies and some landowners are profiting from the boom, but drilling operations are drying up their water wells.
Laughner, who talked about the community and economic impacts of the gas drilling, said there is $1.2 trillion worth of recoverable gas in the state and the number of jobs in the industry could reach 110,000 next year.
Well production peaks in the first couple years of operation, but wells can continue to produce for 25 years, he said.
About a dozen people work at a drilling site and every 100 operating wells generates about 17 full-time jobs, he said.
Between January and May, the state issued permits for 54 wells in Greene County and 37 were drilled. In Fayette County, 30 wells were permitted and nine were drilled, Laughner said.
Maps showing permitted wells and other information about Marcellus gas is available from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which issues permits and regulates the industry, and Penn State Cooperative Extension websites.
He said every dollar gas companies spend locally has a ripple effect through the local economy, and young people should seek industry jobs that should last long enough for them to retire from.
“It will be here that long,” Laughner said.
Several township residents said most of the license plates on workers’ vehicles at well sites are from Texas, Oregon, Montana and other states, and most jobs available to local people are driving the trucks that carry water to and from wells.
Out-of-state workers are unlikely to remain away from their homes and families for more than a year and local residents will be needed to fill jobs, Laughner said, adding that schools should develop curriculum to train students for those jobs.
The Marcellus shale rock layer containing the gas is 5,000 to 9,000 feet below the ground surface, but there are deeper rock layers also containing gas, he said.
‘Who’s protecting us?’
The existence of Marcellus gas has been known for many years, but no one knew how to extract it until hydrofracturing, also known as fracing, was invented in Texas in the 1940s, Laughner said. The process uses water, sand and chemicals under high pressure to fracture the underground shale formations and release the gas.
“How do we manage the boom without having a bust?” Laughner asked rhetorically.
William Groves, chairman of the Cumberland Township Board of Supervisors, said the state Oil and Gas Act, which was enacted in 1984 and amended in 1992, supersedes the township’s zoning ordinance giving gas companies “carte blanche” authority to drill.
“I don’t want to control anyone’s wells. I want to help my people. I keep saying my hands are tied,” Groves said.
Township resident Emmett McKenzie said his water well dried up because of gas drilling near his home. He said he wants people to make money and have jobs in the industry, but gas companies show little regard for property owners.
“Who’s protecting us?” McKenzie asked. “God bless them. Let them drill as many wells as the want, but be good corporate neighbors.”
“You’re living some of the challenges that go with it,” Laughner said. “There are as many challenges as there are opportunities.”
George and Annie Lewis, who live near McKenzie, said they believe gas drilling and seismographic testing for underground gas deposits caused most of the springs that fed their pond to dry up.
Bryan Swistock, a water resources associate for the cooperative extension, said 3 to 5 million gallons of water are used to fracture Marcellus gas wells and 1 million gallons flow back to the surface during the drilling process.
The Oil and Gas Act allows drilling 100 feet from a stream, but that distance should be increased, Swistock said.
The DEP issues permits for drillers to pump water from streams and rivers and signs are supposed to be posted at withdrawal sites, he said.
Hoses that allow fish and other aquatic life to get drawn are not supposed to be used, Swistock said.
The DEP has shut down drilling operations because of violations of the state Clean Streams Law, he said.
There are incentives for drillers to use water from underground mine pools for fracturing and companies are increasingly filtering used water and reusing it, Swistock said.
Drilling sites of five acres or more and those located 100 feet from a stream are require to have erosion controls, and all drill sites have to be at least 200 feet from drinking water sources, he said.
He said people who own the mineral rights to a property have much more control over drilling operations than people who only own the surface rights.
Pennsylvania has no law that regulates how far from homes and water sources that seismographic testing can be performed, he said.
Swistock encouraged residents to pay a professional water-testing laboratory to test the quality of their drinking water wells or springs before seismographic testing or drilling begins and to hire a local water well driller to measure the water flow.
Water-quality tests conducted on samples taken by property owners would be challenged, he said.
The DEP will test water samples after a property owner files a complaint, he said.
The Oil and Gas Act requires drillers to post bonds to pay for replacing water source they damage, but the bond is only $2,500, Swistock said.
Drillers are required to provide notice of their plans to drill to property owners and those who have water supplies within 1,000 feet of a drill site through certified mail, he said.
A resident said gas companies do not follow that rule.
“I hear that all the time,” Swistock said.
Tanks are used to collect the used fracturing water and natural fluids that flow back from the shale formation.
Swistock said 95 percent of the flow back is water, less than 1 percent is chemicals and the rest is sand.
Companies use 54 chemicals to remove iron, hard water and bacteria from the well bore and to reduce friction, he said, and sand is used to hold the fractures open.
Drilling fluids, which are produced after the well is in production, contain bits of rock, barium, iron, manganese, benzene, organic carbon, oil, grease and high amounts of total dissolved solids (TDS) and salt.
Oil and grease can come from drilling rigs, benzene is present in underground oil and the salt is the remains of ancient oceans, Swistock said.
Drilling fluid has to be collected in tanks, hauled to a treatment facility or recycled so the water can be reused, he said.
A resident said he saw a water truck driver spraying something from a truck into Whiteley Creek.
Swistock said people should get the license plate numbers of trucks they suspect are being used illegally.
Responding to a question, he said one theory about last year’s massive fish kill in Dunkard Creek is that water trucks from other states transported organisms from waters in those states to the creek, triggering the algae bloom that played a central role in killing the fish.
The absence of regulations for residential water wells in the state is a factor in contaminated wells, Swistock said.
Pennsylvania and Alaska are the only states that don’t regulate water wells and 3 million Pennsylvanians rely on wells and springs for drinking water, he said.
A Penn State study revealed that 45 percent of the water wells in the state are contaminated because of poor construction, he said.
Gas well bores are required to have metal casings secured by cement on the sections that are drilled through the ground water level to prevent gas from migrating into the groundwater, he said.
Gas companies are presumed responsible if drinking water within 1,000 feet of a well becomes contaminated, Swistock said.