{"id":2459,"date":"2012-03-13T20:33:54","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T20:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=2459"},"modified":"2012-03-13T20:53:15","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T20:53:15","slug":"root-causes-of-water-pollution-from-oil-and-gas-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/03\/13\/root-causes-of-water-pollution-from-oil-and-gas-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"Root Causes Of Water Pollution From Oil And Gas Operations"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received a flurry of emails this morning congratulating me on comments I made that appeared in a Wall Street Journal article titled, \u201cFaulty Wells, Not Fracking, Blamed for Water Pollution<\/a>.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is a good article. It suggests that even if artificial channels created by hydraulic fracturing have not yet been shown to have caused drinking water pollution, action is required<\/a> to correct pollution problems caused by other aspects of natural gas operations.<\/p>\n

I would add three additional points to the information covered in the article:\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. While faulty well construction is a big problem, surface spills have caused an even higher number of underground water pollution cases attributable to oil and gas development.<\/strong> A recent study<\/a> commissioned by the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) determined that roughly 70% of nearly 400 cases of ground water pollution caused by the oil and gas industry over two decades in Texas and Ohio stemmed from mistakes made at the surface rather than from downhole problems.
    \n\u00a0<\/li>\n
  2. Why is it important that approximately one in 10 cement jobs requires remediation before the well is completed? This statistic doesn\u2019t imply that one in every 10 wells is a pollution hazard.\u00a0 Instead, the high number of cement jobs that need to be repaired in order to keep wells from becoming pollution hazards illustrates that without careful oversight of cementing the frequency of problem wells could increase dramatically<\/strong>. During the years in which GWPC identified some 400 ground water pollution cases in Texas and Ohio, nearly 221,000 wells were drilled in those states. Fortunately, the cement jobs didn\u2019t fail on 10 percent of those wells! But 35 of the 400 pollution cases were due to well construction problems \u2013 cement job failures were involved in many but not all of those 35 instances.
    \n\u00a0<\/li>\n
  3. Although stronger regulatory oversight of well construction is needed, stronger oversight of hydraulic fracturing is also needed.<\/strong> No one should try to suggest that hydraulic fracturing is risk free. It is vital that regulators begin to more closely assess hydraulic fracturing plans and operations \u2013 especially in relatively shallow geologic contexts \u2013 to be sure that fractures will intersect neither drinking water nor transmissive faults or wellbores that in turn intersect drinking water.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    To learn about aspects of oil and gas operations that need close regulatory oversight, see my blog, \u201cIf The Problem Isn\u2019t Hydraulic Fracturing, What Is?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I received a flurry of emails this morning congratulating me on comments I made that appeared in a Wall Street Journal article titled, \u201cFaulty Wells, Not Fracking, Blamed for Water Pollution.\u201d It is a good article. It suggests that even if artificial channels created by hydraulic fracturing have not yet been shown to have caused …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[693],"tags":[17768],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-gas","tag-fracking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRoot Causes Of Water Pollution From Oil And Gas Operations - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/03\/13\/root-causes-of-water-pollution-from-oil-and-gas-operations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Root Causes Of Water Pollution From Oil And Gas Operations - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I received a flurry of emails this morning congratulating me on comments I made that appeared in a Wall Street Journal article titled, \u201cFaulty Wells, Not Fracking, Blamed for Water Pollution.\u201d It is a good article. 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