ccw conference: impacts of natural gas production and transmission

Potential Impacts of Natural Gas Production and

Transmission

James A. SchmidSchmid & Co., Inc., Consulting Ecologists

Media, Pennsylvania

5 June 2013

Gas must be moved by pipeline, not by truck or rail.

Its extraction and transmission threaten waterresources and people. The industry is minimallyregulated. Shale gas poses a much greater threatthan conventional gas production.

(Post-Production)

About 5 acres 10 feet deep---just beneath the DEP permit threshold. Fresh water is one thing,returned frackwater from wells, something else.

Drilling Water Reservoir – Fresh and/or Return WaterDrilling Water Reservoir – Fresh and/or Return Water

Water taken to/from reservoir by pipe or tanker truckWater taken to/from reservoir by pipe or tanker truck

This small frackwater pipeline joint failure caused loss of more than

10,000 gallons of fluid resulting in a fish kill in High Quality Brush Run

watershed, Washington County, 2009. Damage to fish, salamanders,

frogs, and oligochaetes here was recorded by PADEP.

Casing leaks = water pollution

Typical Hydrofracturing Fluid

“Slickwater”

What Comes Out of a Fracked Well in the Return Water?

1. Chemicals put into the ground in the slickwater mix (varies)

2. Chemicals extracted from the ancient ocean-bottom deposits

Example Concentrations (milligrams/Liter = parts per million)

Chemical Drinking Water Typical PA Typical Marcellus Increase Standard, USEPA Groundwater Flowback Over Typical________________________________________________________________Total Dissolved Solids <500 163 67,300 413x

Sodium 7 18,000 2,571x

Chloride <250 5 41,850 8,370x

Bromide 0.016 445 27,813x

Old, abandoned wells may be intercepted and allow escapeof fracking fluid, as inthis geyser (2012).

Well pad fire, Avela PA, February 2011

Bradford County, Pennsylvania

Gathering Line Crossing Wetlands

Compressor stations push gas along the pipes.

Detailed Plans Exist Onlyfor Big Interstate Pipelines

Pipelines Cross Steep Slopes and Cause Erosion

Welding is Critical

for Pipeline Safety

SCRANTONTIMES-TRIBUNE

Few spillsmake news.

Pennsylvania waives regulation of obstructions and encroachments in streams draining fewer than 100 acres.

That’s more than half the land area in the Commonwealth.

952 “serious” violations of PADEP regulations at shale gas

wells by 43 drillers over a 30-month period, 2008-2010.

Shale Gas Development in Pennsylvania

Prepared by Clean Water Action

Smaller diameter,Lower pressurePipes

Retail Gas DistributionMeters

Roadside Retail Distribution Gas Meters, Butler County PA

Fire from the buildup of gas from a distribution line leak in a private home.

In this incident of pipeline failure there was no fire or explosion. The crater was created by the pressure of the gas coming out. A section of pipe was hurled into the right background area of the photograph.

Appomattox, Virginia, Pipeline Fire, 2008

Appomattox, Virginia, 2008

Interstate Transmission Pipe Corrosion, Appomattox VA, 2008

Eight persons dead, 58 injured, 38 homes destroyed, 70 damaged in this incident in San Bruno, California, 10 September 2010. The 30-inch pipe- line was 62 years old and operated at 365 psig pressure (MAOP 400) on the day of rupture. Nearly 48 million cubic feet of gas were released.

Potential Impacts of Natural Gas Production and

Transmission

James A. SchmidSchmid & Co., Inc., Consulting Ecologists

Media, Pennsylvania

5 June 2013

Enbridge Kalamazoo, Michigan, Dilbit Spill, 2010 Cleanup Cost approaching $1 billion