The Need to Work as a Community - a Shale Gas, Energy and Environmental Perspective

Need to Work as a Community

by Mr. Brian Oram, Professional Geologist
The Water Research Center and B.F. Environmental Consultants Inc.

I am not an insider in the natural gas development process, but I am a citizen and professional geologist from Pennsylvania.  I grew-up  in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in the middle of the largest Anthracite Coal Fields in the World and became exposed to environmental issues while playing and living on abandon coal mine lands and near acid impacted streams.  After attending Wilkes University and Pennsylvania State University, I worked as an environmental consultant and then ran a research laboratory at Wilkes University.   After 23 years of running and conducting research, I decided to concentrate on my private consulting practice and other public education programs through B.F. Environmental Consultants Inc. and the Water Research Center.  For the record, I have no master service agreements with any natural gas company and the views posted here are mine. 

The phrase “Working as a Community” comes out of my talk titled “Getting the Waters Tested- The Marcellus Shale Factor”.  The development of the Marcellus and Utica Shale has brought to the surface a little known fact that up to 50 % of private well owners are drinking water that would not meet one or more drinking water standards and the existing private wells are improperly placed and poorly constructed.   These pre-existing problems include corrosive and aggressive water, iron, manganese, bacteria, arsenic, salt, saline water, barium, strontium, some organic compounds, radon, and yes Methane Gas.   This fact,   in combination, with inadequate baseline testing has resulted in a significant amount of confusion, misinformation, and un-needed delays to meet the needs of a private well owner.  We need to start working together to move forward as a community.  To start working as a community, I am recommending the following path:

1. Join the Pennsylvania Forum for Private Well Owners (It is not about shale or energy-it is about groundwater quality)- Part of the solution – must include fixing private wells.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/244338025659838/

2. If you have baseline testing data, submit the data to the Citizens Groundwater and Surfacewater Database or if you do not know what the data means you can ask for help –Assistance is Free.

http://www.water-research.net/privatewellPA.htm

3. Participate in the Private Well Owner and Watershed Survey for Pennsylvania- (Another Free Program)

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NMG6RQ3

4. Host a local Community Workshop and Education Session for Private Well Owners and for Royalty Owners and Watershed Groups it may be worth helping to Develop a Local Watershed Monitoring Program.

http://www.bfenvironmental.com/natural-gas-exploration.php

5. Get the facts – A well by well review of the data from Dimock, PA – A NO Spin Zone – Fact based Reviews Only.

http://www.water-research.net/dimockwellwater.htm

This is a positive step in the Right Direction.  It is time to start working together.   It is time to get educated, informed, and start working together.  Free information can be found on any of our portals and all of work is funded by us.    For a free booklet on drinking water quality for private well owners – visit our webportal and download a free copy of the 2009 booklet.  We are anticipating a new booklet will be available in a few months.

Thanks for your time,

Brian Oram, PG

Citizen of Pennsylvania

bfenviro@ptd.net

Marcellus Shale - Citizens and Royality Owners Northeastern Pennsylvania Background Water Testing

B.F. Environmental Consultants Inc. provides environmental consulting and education outreach services to landowners and other organizations. The primary focus of our natural gas outreach efforts is to aid in evaluating and documenting baseline environmental conditions and to educate citizens on the natural gas development. These services include assisting in documenting baseline environmental conditions and helping landowners to understand the baseline environmental quality. The primary purpose of this website is to help educate and inform the public, landowners, municipal officials, and other organizations.

B.F. Environmental Consultants Inc. has prepared a summary or a series of background water testing packages to help local citizens, community groups, and royality owners document baseline water quality. In order to maintain chain-of-custody, a professional geologist or other trained professional will collect the water sample, document existing conditions, and if necessary document the static water level in a well or flow in a stream or spring. The samples will be field tested and screened and then submitted to a certified testing laboratory for analysis. The testing packages have been developed based on a review of the available recommendations by Penn State University, Wilkes University, PADEP, other research facilites, and a review of the background quality of the water in the Marcellus Shale and data from frac water collected from a Northeast Pennsylvania Drilling Site.

To obtain more information, please visit:

http://www.bfenvironmental.com/natural-gas-exploration.php

Marcellus Shale and the Potential Solutions for Northeastern Pennsylvania

The Marcellus Shale, also known as the Marcellus Formation, is a Middle Devonian-age black, carbonaceous, i.e., organic rich, shale, that has a low density and underlies large portions of New York , West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania and the Marcellus Shale or similar formations may underlie sections of Kentucky , Maryland, and Virginia.

Natural gas occurs within the Marcellus Shale in three ways:
1) within the pore spaces of the shale;
2) within vertical fractures (joints) that break through the shale; and,
3) adsorbed on mineral grains and organic material. Most of the recoverable gas is contained in the pore spaces. However, the gas has difficulty escaping through the pore spaces because they are very tiny and poorly connected.

In 2002 the United States Geological Survey calculated that the Marcellus Shale contained an estimated undiscovered resource of about 1.9 trillion cubic feet of gas. Because of the large surface acreage and depth of the formation, i.e., over 1 mile below the surface, it was initially not anticipated to be a large producing formation. Recently, geologists have estimate that the entire Marcellus Shale formation contains between 168 trillion to 516 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The Marcellus Shale has been characterized as either the savior or the destroyer of Northeastern Pennsylvania. I am not here to pick sides, but my opinion is that the natural gas companies should work with local governments, citizen groups, local Universities and Colleges, and other interested Organizations to review the real concerns and get out the information about the drilling process and fracturing process. In addition, this group should work together to develop intergrated solutions that address the needs of the natural gas companies, support the royality owners rights, and aids the local communities. With this in mind, I would suggest the following alternatives:

a. Aid local communities in improving and implementing construction standards for private wells and help citizens replace older substandard wells with wells that meet the new standard;

b. Consider solving are stormwater management problems by installing the necessary stormwater infrastructure for the community and then using these storage basins as wet detention basins to obtain some or all of the water needed for fracturing wells;

c. Consider siting one or more frac water treatment plants in the area or vicinity of some of the mine drainage outfalls;

d. Use the need to treat mine drainage as an opportunity to facilitate the development of a temporary source for hydrofracturing water and at same time creating a long-term system of acid mine drainage treatment;

e. where possible, intergrate the use of solar, hydro, and wind technologies to aid in off-siting the installation costs for the AMD and stormwater management; and

f. Evaluate the potential for the use of frac water (blended with treated mine water) as a source for irrigation water to help reclaim abandon mine land.

B.F. Environmental Consultants Inc. provides environmental consulting, expert witness, water quality sampling, and education outreach services to landowners and other organizations. The primary focus of our outreach efforts is to aid in evaluating and documenting baseline environmental conditions, evaluate potential for environmental impact, educate citizens on the natural gas development, and assist municipalities in planning related activities. In addition, the company works with local Universities to conduct research related to the Marcellus Shale.

Information on Stormwater Best Management Practices
http://www.bfenvironmental.com/bmps.php

Post prepared by Mr. Brian Oram, BF. Environmental Consultants Inc.