Ohio, Hoist by its own Petard

SMSW

Joined
Sep 4, 2013
Messages
952
Location
Cleveland
Bike
2010 ST1300
Few people would deny the benefits we have reaped from fracking - plentiful natural gas which has led to lower gas prices (for most of us). The few folks who have lost some land and had water wells damaged would certainly debate that statement, but overall, the benefits have outweighed the drawbacks. Lack of regulation of this industry has led to a few problems which might mitigate the benefits. The fracking process drills very deep wells into gas bearing rock and injecting water laced with chemicals and sand under high pressure to fracture the rock to release the gas. Some of that water comes back up and the drilling company then has to dispose of it. Until now the best process has been to inject the waste water into old wells deep into the ground.

According to a recent article (see link below) Pennsylvania has 19 of these wells and the injection process and number of wells is federally supervised. Ohio received permission to regulate its own wells and has 240 of them. Presumably Ohio has so many wells because the drilling companies pay dearly to inject the waste underground. The industry says that this process is safe when properly done. However, waste water has bubbled up out of the ground in Oklahoma and Texas, and now Ohio is seeing a problem. Washington County (Marietta, OH) has 19 such wells - the same number as the whole state of Pennsylvania.

The used fracking water is laden with chemicals, heavy metals, salt, benzene, and some of it is radioactive. When injected into deep wells under high pressure, the water may migrate through cracks and fissures in the rock and even find old well bores drilled for oil. Ohio has 66,000 of these abandoned wells. A Mr. Wilson, in Marietta, has seen briney water coming out of some of his oil wells at a pressure of 335 psi. The worry is that if this hits the aquifer supplying the city with potable water, there will be no way to separate the contaminants from the drinking water.

Today, a number of ST members attended the Marietta Boathouse BBQ. Since most of us eschew water in favor of stronger drinks, not many of us will glow in the dark.

You can read more at this website:
It is my understanding that anyone can open a free account and read up to 10 articles each month at no cost. You simply provide your email address. If anyone has difficulty, PM me and I can send you a link to a free read of the article - and I think, but do not know, that using this free link does not require you to give up your email address (even though we all know email addresses seem to be public knowledge).
 
dwalby said:
I feel sorry for the people in the area.
Click to expand...
Since Ohio has more than 200 of these injection wells it is probable that more than just the Marietta area will be affected. It is simply a matter of time.

I worked on two separate jobs where the plumber, while excavating for a gas line happened upon abandoned/capped/whatever old wells*. He covered them up, and continued digging around them. Recently, while discussing this article with some friends who had wells, I asked how the driller could drill the well and pull his drill bit up out of the hole, since the casing had to be smaller than the drill bit. I was told that for water wells they simply hammer the casing into the dirt until it hits bedrock, then they drop the drill bit into the casing and continue drilling. The casing stops at the rock. I'd imagine that after 20 or 30 years a good bit of the casing has to have rusted away.

*We had no idea if they were for oil, gas, or water, and the GC did not want to know... This was in the greater Cleveland area (and predated most of the fracking).
 
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