Sunoco Logistics plans Marcellus, Utica pipeline through Susquehanna Valley
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued two comprehensive reports:Oil and Gas: Information on Shale Resources, Development, and Environmental and Public Health Risks (GAO-12-732); and Unconventional Oil and Gas Development: Key Environmental and Public Health Requirements (GAO-12-874). They total about 300 pages but the reading is well worth it due the thorough analysis and important findings. Among the highlights: uncertainties
- The Clean Water Act requires some oil and gas production sites, close to navigable waters and shorelines, to have an oil spill prevention, control and clean-up plan. EPA officials visited 120 sites in FY 2011 and found 105 were out of compliance: 87.5%. These do not have to be oil production sites. For example, natural gas pads may have an amount of fuel for drill rigs stored on site that would trigger this requirement.
- The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) requires oil and gas producers to compile an annual inventory of hazardous or extremely hazardous chemicals being used or stored on site in amounts over certain thresholds. This inventory, including chemical information, must be submitted to state and local emergency planning authorities and local fire departments. Based on the thresholds, EPA told GAO that this statutory requirement could be triggered at every well site based on the amount of chemicals typically used on site including drilling mud, lubricants, and more. Does your local emergency planning authority and fire department have this for every well site in your community?
- EPA officials do not always have information on the types of activities taking place or equipment being used at well sites, or even where the well sites are--making it difficult for their enforcement staff to know where and when to conduct inspections. EPA often does not have the resources to travel to the many well sites that it can identify. In many cases, the legal burden is on the oil and gas companies to report to EPA when they are subject to certain environmental laws. That does not seem like a recipe for success (see first bullet point).
- Texas does not have any required setbacks from water sources.
- Ohio does not have any pit lining requirements.
- Colorado, Wyoming, Pennsylvania and Texas have no casing and cementing provisions specifically for horizontal wells.
- Regarding shale development, the GAO concluded that the risks cannot be quantified and the magnitude or likelihood of potential adverse effects cannot be determined due to several factors, including insufficient scientific study.
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Source: NRDC Blog Analysis
The Science & Engineering Ambassador Program, a new initiative from the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, was created to build on the respect people hold for scientists and engineers and to address the need for a greater popular understanding of scientific issues. The program will select, prepare, and support a team of science and engineering ambassadors—beginning with the topic of energy—to work in their local communities to improve the public understanding of and engagement with energy-related issues, while also providing opportunities for scientists and engineers to interact with members of their community.
Pittsburgh chosen for pilot science program (Post-Gazette | 5/31/12)
Groups Call for Scientists to Engage the Body Politic (NYTimes | 9/8/11)
Report prepared for the European Commission DG Environment with many references from PA and the Marcellus Shale--
Identification of potential risks for the environment and human health arising from hydrocarbons operations involving hydraulic fracturing in Europe
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/energy/pdf/fracking%20study.pdf
Related Links
Proceedings of the National Academies of Science
One interpretation of this new study is that we may need to update our thinking and mental images of what the ground underneath our feet looks and acts like. The thumbnail graphics below depict a range of ways of representing/framing sub-surface geology -- from impermeable, homogenous rock layers to fractured layers of porous rock with pathways for upward fluid migration via natural and man-made faults. This study suggests that over time interconnections are to be expected and that gasses, brines and fluids under pressure 1-mile down don't necessarily mean "out of sight, out of mind " in the long run.
Related Press Coverage
Fluids from Marcellus Shale Likely Seeping into PA Drinking Water (ProPublica 7/10/12)
Findings mixed in fracking water study (Post-Gazette 7/10/12)
Duke study suggests drilling fluid can seep up into water supplies (Trib-Review 7/10/12)
Penn State's new report traces how water is used and affected during production of natural gas from deep shale formations. Led by Dr. Charles Abdalla, Professor of Agricultural and Environmental Economics, the report Water's Journey Through the Shale Gas Drilling and Production Processes in the Mid-Atlantic Region illustrates various lifecycle pathways for a water droplet used by the Marcellus Shale natural-gas industry in the mid-Atlantic region.
The National Academies Institute of Health held a two-day workshop on the potential health impacts of shale gas extraction and emerging energy technologies and ways to identify and mitigate potential health impacts.
This workshop is sponsored by the Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine with the intent that Roundtable members, scientists, decision makers, and other participants will become better informed on the potential health impacts of hydrofracking, be updated on the learn lessons from ongoing health impacts assessments, and be better positioned to consider safeguards to protect the public's health from emerging energy and other technologies.The purpose is to foster dialogue and is not intended to provide recommendations.
Watch a recorded webcast of workshop talks to learn more about this subject.
Another less biased source for information on best practices is Penn State's Marcellus Electronic Field Guide which provides information on ecological concepts, pre-development issues, invasive plant management, restoration and goals, revegetation, restoring and creating wildlife habitat, sample leases looking at natural resource considerations, and best management practices. There is also an area for people to subscribe to a forum on various issues. A picture gallery is provided to demonstrate what different elements of drilling infrastructure and landscape change look like, and users may upload their own photos as well.
http://www.marcellusfieldguide.org/
With regards to Natural Gas Flaring and Venting, the Energy Information Adminstration published best practice guidelines in 2004.
NATURAL GAS FLARING AND VENTING: Opportunities to Improve Data and Reduce Emissions
The line will serve as a gathering system for Marcellus shale wells in Butler, Armstrong, Allegheny, Indiana and Westmoreland counties.
Construction of the pipeline has started in the Alle-Kiski Valley. As just one example, trees were recently cleared in Buffalo Township to make way for the line.
The $150 million pipeline project, formerly known as the Lancer Line, has been dubbed the Big Pine Gathering System.
NiSource plans to replace the dormant 55-mile, 10-inch Buckeye pipeline with a combination 20- or 24-inch high pressure line. The company will lay new pipe to extend the line on both ends of the former Buckeye line.
“(XTO), along with other producers in the area, will now have the capacity and access to markets needed in this burgeoning shale gas development play in Western Pennsylvania by the end of the year,” Jimmy Staton, NiSource executive vice president, said in a written statement.
Since 2008, the state Department of Environmental Protection issued to XTO Energy about 360 well permits in the five counties where the pipeline will be located. An XTO spokesman wouldn’t say how many wells will feed into the gathering line. The company is a subsidiary of ExxonMobil.
The system is expected to provide an initial capacity of about 425 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.
NiSource, which owns Columbia Gas Transmission, parent company of Columbia Gas of Pa., plans to connect the pipeline with its own transmission line as well as Texas Eastern Transmission and Dominion Transmission lines.
Construction likely will begin in mid-summer and the line is expected to be in service by December.
When natural gas is extracted, processed, and transported, methane -- which makes up as much as 90 percent of natural gas -- is often lost to leaks or vented into the atmosphere. Since methane is a global warming pollutant much more potent than carbon dioxide, methane pollution accelerates and magnifies climate change. Capturing currently wasted methane for sale could reduce pollution, enhance air quality, improve human health, conserve energy resources, and bring in more than $2 billion of additional revenue each year.
A new Nation Resource Defense Council (NRDC) report recommends ten (10) technically proven, commercially available, and profitable methane emission control technologies together can capture more than 80 percent of the methane currently going to waste. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), other federal agencies, and the states should require use of these technologies for methane control, and the oil and gas industry should move quickly to adopt these measures.
In the meantime...
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s deadline for issuing New Source Performance Standards to reduce air pollution from oil and gas drilling and production is expected to be extended from a court-ordered Apr. 3 deadline to Apr. 17 2012. EPA said it needed more time to review public comments. On July 28, 2011, EPA proposed the rules, which involve several processes previously not subject to federal regulations, including hydraulic fracturing. The new standards are aimed at reducing emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC).